City firms to attend Arab Lawyers Union convention in Algiers despite conflict

An Algerian programme organised jointly between the Law Society and the Arab Lawyers Union will go ahead as planned with a four-day convention in Algiers later this month in spite of the current war in Afghanistan.After liaising with the deputy head of the mission at the British embassy in Algiers, the Society has written to the English lawyers scheduled to go to the convention explaining the situation.The letter says that the Algerian government is 'on-side' with the international coalition against Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda movement, that there has been no anti-Western public feeling and Algiers is 'very calm', that security risks in the country are manageable, and that this position is endorsed by the Foreign Office.The opening of the training programme will be attended by British ambassador Richard Edis, who has invited all of the delegates to drinks at his residence in Algiers afterwards.Representatives from City firms Freshfields, Denton Wilde Sapte, Trowers & Hamlins, Watson Farley & Williams, Lovells, and Birmingham-based Wragge & Co are scheduled to give presentations during the programme.The programme is the third in a series organised in conjunction with the Union of Arab lawyers, which aims to promote competition among Arab lawyers.The last programme took place in Tunisia at the end of last month and was attended by more than a hundred English and Tunisian lawyers, including Maitre Alya Chammari and Maitre Radhia Nasraoui - lawyers whose husbands are dissidents from the Tunisian regime.Maitre Nasraoui told Roger Ede, the Law Society's international projects group leader, that the programme was 'very important in trying to bring about change in Tunisia and that she had jumped at the chance to attend and speak her mind about the poor situation in the country.'The Law Society intended to continue with a programme in Syria, but as a result of the conflict it now intends to reorganise with sessions in Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan during 2002 and 2003.Jeremy Fleming