Legal eagle flies in to aid law students

A CITY-based lawyer has helped dozens of African law students to graduate by travelling thousands of miles to deliver lessons at their school.

Joanne Glover, 27, was one of 23 lawyers from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, to travel to Tanzania to provide training in legal drafting at the Law School of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam.

More than 190 African law students, who received training from the international team of specialist lawyers over a two-week period, are now poised to begin their traineeships with DLA Piper in Tanzania.

Miss Glover, a solicitor in finance and projects practice at DLA Piper's Edinburgh office, was the only Scottish lawyer to take part in the project.

She said: "It is tremendous to see the progress the students have made.

"Being part of a team that has helped bright and ambitious young people fulfil their career goals has been really rewarding.

"The programme allowed us to share the training methods we use in the West to engage and interact with the students, helping them to build their confidence and accelerate their development.

"In Tanzania, the teaching methods are delivering lectures to around 200 people at once, whereas we broke the students down into little groups and engaged with them on small projects and module exercises."

The training module for the law students, who ranged in age from mid-20s to 70s, covered all aspects of legal drafting, including joint ventures, shareholders' agreements, loan agreements and trade finance.

The project was provided under the auspices of the International Lawyers' Project, a charitable initiative that allows leading lawyers to share their expertise free of charge by participating in pro bono projects around the world.

Miss Glover, who lives in Stockbridge, did voluntary work in Senegal, West Africa, on three occasions prior to the Tanzania trip in June, and hopes to return to Tanzania to provide further teaching at the Law School.

She said: "It was a great experience. Although it was quite challenging, it was a great opportunity and something that I would very much like to do again.

"We really did notice an improvement in the students. They are so used to just being talked at for a few hours, so for them to have the chance to practise carrying out little activities and so on over the week, we really saw their confidence grow."

Miss Glover added: "Tanzania is a developing country where there is a mix of people who are doing well and also many people, particularly in rural areas, who are living below the poverty line."