LEX Africa was the main sponsor of the Biennial International Bar Association (IBA) African Regional Forum Young Lawyers Symposium which was held in Kigali, Rwanda on 13 September 2023. The Symposium connected young lawyers from different practices all over Africa to share best practices and discuss the different laws in their jurisdictions. It also gave young lawyers the opportunity to network with more senior lawyers.
Pieter Steyn, chairperson of LEX Africa said “LEX Africa recognises the importance of supporting and promoting young lawyers as the future leaders of the Alliance. We were accordingly delighted to sponsor the Symposium”.
Denise Isimbi, junior associate lawyer at Certa Law, LEX Africa member for Rwanda, said “We discussed emerging areas of law and practice such as music, entertainment and the film industry that are not saturated yet. There were a lot of dynamic discussions around such opportunities, which were very fruitful.”
Deogratias Nteziryayo, an associate lawyer at Certa Law says one of the highlights for him was the discussion about ensuring young lawyers get good training on the use of evolving technologies that are emerging and how these can benefit legal practices.
“For example, using AI to enhance and review documents, to understand and solve problems and to develop new ways of doing things”, says Isimbi. “We had a very long discussion about it. There could be other technologies that emerge in the near future and we discussed how we could use these technologies to advance our careers instead of them being used against us. For example, if AI can do our work better than we can, then we might need to revise our role as lawyers. The traditional role of a lawyer has been distorted by AI and as young lawyers, we have to adapt and be as dynamic and up to date with emerging technologies.”
“Young lawyers are keenly aware of these emerging technologies and are exploring how to leverage them to improve their work,” says Nteziryayo. “The more effectively we use these technologies, the more we can improve our productivity and benefit our clients.”
