2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the Women Legal Practice Act which allowed women to be admitted as legal practitioners in South Africa. Women however continue to face challenges in the legal and other professions.
Amina Larbi, founding partner at LEX Africa member, Medlar Lawyers & Legal Advisors in Tunisia, says she was lucky to work in a very helpful and friendly environment when she started her career, “and the mentors helping me to launch my career trusted my capacities, they gave me opportunities, and they treated me in a very professional manner.”
However, she thinks this was exceptional, because when she was more senior, she heard testimonies from female colleagues who had started their legal careers at a similar time but with less success than her and had challenges with the profession being dominated by men.
Enter the profession with confidence
She says she has always trusted her professional and personal skills, and this has worked well for her. “When you enter the profession with a high level of confidence in your talents, and you use those talents in the service of clients, you will not be judged on the basis of being female or male, but as a successful lawyer.” She says this was her experience with all the law firms she worked for.
Larbi started her career with Gide Loyrette Nouel in France and then joined a UK firm, Watson Farley & Williams in Paris, before moving back to Gide to open their office in Tunisia, her home country. She then joined a local firm as partner in 2015 before setting up her own firm in 2022 with a female partner she had worked with at Gide. “Now we have a team of four lawyers, and three of them are female,” she says.
Among the lessons Ghiyta Iraqi, Managing Partner at I&I Law firm, the LEX Africa member in Morocco, would like to share with any young woman entering the legal profession is the importance of trusting herself, trusting her capacities, and using her talents to service clients. “Another recommendation is to use their soft skills, including those acquired from bringing up a family, without considering that they are in a lesser position than men.”
Everlasting challenge to negotiate their position
Some firms are very conservative and may always look at women as having a lesser value than men, for example in relation to the financial package they would offer a woman compared with a man who has the same skills set. Or they might be more inclined to consider men more readily when selecting new partners, says Larbi. “It will remain an everlasting challenge for women to keep working and progressing and not hesitating to negotiate their position.”
“It is also important to keep learning, to train whenever you can and not hesitate to put yourself in a position where people listen to you. And don’t be a lawyer if you have no passion for the profession because it’s very consuming in terms of time and energy,” says Larbi.
Moroccan courts still male dominated
Iraqi says, “In Morocco, if you are a barrister and you go to the court, it is still a male dominated environment. But if you are a lawyer focusing on giving legal advice in relation to an M&A transaction or arbitration, drafting of contracts and so on, and never go to court, it is no longer a man’s world.”
She says after she completed her education in France, she was a barrister in France and never felt that the courts were male dominated. But when she decided – being half French and half Moroccan – to come back to Morocco, she very quickly understood that it is a different reality there and the courts are still dominated by men. “So, I decided not to do court work. Also, judges in Morocco are mostly men, and we have to change that.”
At an individual level, the legal profession is not an easy one. “So, you have to be passionate about it. When I am mentoring students, I always say to them, if you are not passionate about law, choose another profession.” Her final advice to aspiring women lawyers is never to stop learning. “For me, learning about law is endless, so, you can never be bored in this profession.”
Alice Blazevic Namuli, partner at Katende, Ssempebwa & Company Advocates, the LEX Africa member in Uganda, says she realised that many of her views on the challenges women face in the legal profession came from her unconscious bias of knowing that the odds were not in her favour as a woman.
But as she got older, she realised that women do have equal opportunities and that different reasons prevent them from excelling in the legal profession. For example, when she had children she had to be there for them as the primary care-giver.
She also found she was more inclined towards representing clients that have an impact on society or on the environment. The challenges she felt when she was younger were related to the stereotypes of what a woman can and can’t do. “Sometimes due to unconscious bias you present yourself as ‘I know these men are thinking I’m not able to do this.’”
Build a strong network beyond the legal profession
The lessons she would like to share with aspiring young women lawyers include the importance of building a strong network that includes people inside and outside the legal profession. “Having a network outside the profession helped me a lot. I joined Rotary, and I volunteered for leadership roles that exposed me to different platforms where I was able to meet new clients and be mentored by people from different networks outside of the legal profession. This helped me to grow capabilities, which I didn’t know I had. I also learned that building a personal brand beyond the work that you do helps you to relate and exposes you to different spaces that nurture you in different ways and bring out so much more of you. So if I left the law firm right now, I will still be Alice Namuli who is able to do so many other things.”
In Angola, after independence, a lot of women were in jobs that in principle should be done by men, says Paulette Lopes, senior partner at FBL Advogados, the LEX Africa member in Angola. “We have a lot of women judges and in other top positions. Due to that fact today we have a lot of women in key positions in the government: The vice president of Angola is a woman and the president of the parliament is a woman. The constitutional court president is a woman and the late president of the audit tribunal was a woman.”
“The social laws of Angola are challenging for women, and society expects much more from women than from men, in terms of knowledge, and social behaviour”, says Lopes. She says it is socially acceptable for a man to have two or three wives, although that is not in accordance with the Family Code. “Our argument is that under the Angola constitution women are equal to men, and therefore, if you want to have polygamy, you must be prepared to recognise that women can also have more than one husband.”
Another issue is that high positions can be attained from belonging to the ruling party. There are a lot of women in government that are there, not because they are good professionals, but because they belong to the ruling party. “What is difficult is to be an independent lawyer – in other words, not in the ruling party,” she says.
When asked how her firm copes with this situation, she says, “By working harder and taking care of our clients, establishing a good reputation as a law firm and try being much better than our competitors.”
Plenty of options for aspiring young women lawyers
When aspiring young women lawyers enter the legal profession, they have a lot of options, she says. “You can be an in-house lawyer, especially in the very dominant oil industry, in a bank or a company, or a diplomat, or in several public institutions, or you can work for a law firm.”
She says, when she started her career she chose to be a diplomat, which is a very difficult job especially for a young woman. Lopes says FBL Advogados has a very informal way of working, and the lawyer headcount of the firm is made up of 12 women and 10 men. She says, “education in Angola is not as good as it used to be, so aspiring young women lawyers need to study much more and continue learning to make up for it.
One of the drawbacks aspiring young women lawyers often have is lack of confidence, says Lopes. “I always tell my young women lawyers, if you have a good argument don’t hesitate to challenge me. Don’t be afraid to come and discuss your ideas with me. And never be afraid to say you don’t know something.”
Says LEX Africa chairperson, Pieter Steyn “LEX Africa is proud of its women lawyers and fully supports their promotion and development”.
