Building bridges

Lawyers don't do it for the money - but overseas development work can offer them great rewards, writes Jeremy Fleming

The recent pronouncement of City lawyer Alexander Lesser, a consultant with London firm Kerman & Co, that war-ravaged Afghanistan holds opportunities for commercial lawyers prepared to take risks, will come as no surprise to many lawyers in development work (see [2002] Gazette, 24 October, 5).

Mr Lesser's own specialism is transactional work and he has worked closely with the US government's Central American Enterprise Fund, which is a purely private investment fund, but which plays a part in economic development.

However, at the same time, institutional development work is gaining ground as countries have to rebuild shattered or discredited systems, not least legal systems.

Michael Anderson, the senior justice adviser at the Department for International Development (DfID) - one of the major gateways for lawyers looking for development work - says he is keen to encourage more solicitors to get involved in the field.

'There is a growing recognition of the importance of law in this area of work,' he says.

Edward Lidderdale, a consultant with the quango Trade Partners UK, says there is a requirement for legal expertise in some of the forthcoming aid projects aimed at establishing working legal institutions in Afghanistan.

He points out that the majority of developing countries need legal and institutional development.

Mr Lidderdale says: 'Without establishing the institutions they find it very difficult to encourage inward investment.'

David Greene, a partner with City firm Edwin Coe, has worked on justice reform and institutional development work in Africa.

In recent years, he has assisted in establishing a commercial court in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, and in law reform initiatives in Uganda and Kenya.

Edwin Coe is currently bidding for a project for law reform in Ethiopia.

Mr Greene says of the work: 'It involves, for example, taking laws - typically insolvency or bankruptcy laws - and modernising them to suit the requirements of the modern state.'

Tim Hughes, London-based marketing director of the International Bar Association (IBA), says you only need to look at Argentina for an explanation of the importance of institutional development.

'Currently the rule of law in Argentina is being overridden, and business is withdrawing.

Without it, ordinary commercial and consumer life is undermined.'

Mr Hughes says that by helping - through its foreign missions and aid projects - to establish the rule of law, the IBA also effects the spin-off of commercial security.

Currently the IBA is focused on assisting the law societies of Zimbabwe and Swaziland.

Fiona Paterson, manager of the IBA's human rights institute, says that two lawyers (one Indian and one American) have recently been in Zimbabwe helping to build a sustainable legal education programme.

And in Swaziland, the IBA has sent a legal specialist to help establish the fledgling law society there.

Ms Paterson says of the skills involved: 'Lawyers who do this kind of work need to understand about legal education and the structures of the local bar association and law societies, but beyond that they need to be capable of being thrown in at the deep end and to work with enthusiasm.'

Much work done reforming legal and government institutions in the developing world naturally involves the input of academics.

Former Tory MP Hartley Booth, a barrister and consultant at City firm Fenners, and chairman of the Uzbekistan/British Trade & Industry Council (UPTIC), says some academic basis in international law is a feather in the cap of lawyers who want to engage in development projects.

The UPTIC monitors developments in Uzbekistan, and as opportunities for projects arrive, Mr Booth advises lawyers and other businessmen who wish to become involved.

He says: 'It's very useful to have international academic qualifications [he himself holds a doctorate in international law] because so much of the funding - whether from the World Bank, the European Union or the United Nations - involves banking documentation from non-UK jurisdictions.'

Mr Anderson confirms the importance of qualifications for lawyers working in this area.

He says: 'Ideally lawyers should have an LLM or a Masters degree relating to some aspect of international law.'

Mr Anderson is himself highly qualified, as director of studies of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, and visiting fellow of law at the London School of Economics.

Notwithstanding the need for qualifications, Mr Anderson is enthusiastic about the role lawyers play in development: '[Secretary of State for International Development] Clare Short attaches very great importance to justice issues,' he says, 'An influential recent World Bank study found that justice comes high up on the wish list of the global poor.'

He says that donor countries are increasingly realising the importance of justice issues and that there is a high demand for legal input to assist in redrafting electoral laws, and advising on constitutional issues.

Mr Anderson says there are specific qualities sought by DfID in lawyers applying for development work: 'They must appreciate that the legal skills by themselves are not adequate; another set of skills is required.'

The first of these is change management, he says, or managing a situation in which sudden and fundamental change is affecting a society; and secondly the 'challenge of avoiding transplantation'.

As an example of this second skill Mr Anderson describes a law firm that assisted a developing country in re-writing a law.

'They used junior lawyers and simply photocopied the UK legislation and then this was adopted by the country - notwithstanding the fact that it has a constitution and the UK law was completely inappropriate.

And they charged a lot for it too.'

As another example of the problems encountered by lawyers in development work, Mr Anderson describes a developing country where the police routinely use torture to extract confessions.

He says: 'We have turned to lawyers many times in trying to assist with this situation, and they provide analyses of where the police behaviour is in breach of human rights.

But what is required goes further than a textual analysis of the situation, or even training the police.

It requires thorough structural investigation of how the police are paid, how isolated they may be from political influence, and so on.'

Such projects can be funded from a wide variety of organisations apart from DfID, but the World Bank and United Nations are also prolific in their development programmes.

Mr Greene explains that the work is often done at a low charge-out rate.

He says: 'The UN believes that it is a privilege for companies to work for it, and it therefore does not pay well.'

But there are many benefits.

Apart from being 'fascinating and very fulfilling', it also 'helps you to build up a network and enables you to become expert in a foreign jurisdiction.'

Mr Hughes speaks of Robin Neilson, a US attorney recently returned from an IBA mission in Zimbabwe.

'She found that - having been working in Microsoft - her work in Zimbabwe reminded her of the reasons why she went into law in the first place and rejuvenated her.'

Mr Lesser adds: 'The big advantage is that the same skills resurface.

The reconstruction of the former Soviet states is now very similar to the situation in Afghanistan.

You need to print a currency, create passports, build institutions.

It's basically nation building.'

Mr Booth also acknowledges that this is not necessarily a job to do solely for the pay.

He says: 'People feel very challenged and excited about this kind of work.

It's one of the few jobs where the excitement makes up for the lower pay.'

And it is not all negative on the pay side, he adds: 'One thing can lead to another.

Firms will contact you if they think your firm has expertise in that jurisdiction - and at least the big funding institutions pay on time.'