Focus on Africa

Like our client work, our pro bono programme often takes us beyond the jurisdictions in which we operate, although our community investment activities tend to be concentrated on the communities local to our offices.

We believe this is intrinsic to our role as an international law firm and to our commitment to be socially and environmentally responsible. It also reflects the commitment by those who join this profession to uphold, protect and develop the rule of law, and to support those who have made the same commitment in other countries.

In 2008 we were involved in a number of projects that support lawyers in African countries.

  • Rachel Musoke, a Ugandan lawyer, worked in our corporate department for three months as part of our involvement in the International Lawyers for Africa programme.
  • Three finance lawyers travelled to Tanzania as part of a legal training programme with the International Lawyers Project.
  • We are exploring ways in which we can work with the Women's Legal Aid Centre in Tanzania through our support of One World Action.
  • We are working with Lawyers without Borders on a Child Inheritance Project in Mozambique.
  • Our donation to WaterAid is focused on the charity's activities in Mozambique, helping to provide some of the poorest communities in the world with a supply of safe water, effective sanitation and hygiene education. Other fundraising activities are planned for the charity and our pro bono legal advice team is exploring opportunities too.
  • We are leading a collaborative project with Africans Unite Against Child Abuse and other firms that looks at the issue of trafficking children for domestic servitude from Africa to the UK.
  • Children in many African countries are benefiting from our pro bono work with the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative in relation to its funding agreements with UNITAID to supply HIV/AIDS treatment.
  • Our head of pro bono worked in Nairobi for a week with the Kenyan Federation of Women Lawyers as part of a programme with Lawyers without Borders; we also provided pro bono advice to the Kenyan Project Partnership.
  • We supported housebuilds and fundraising activities with Habitat for Humanity in South Africa for three years, and are now into our second year of activities in Ghana.