Clinique ToGo: Changing Legal Practice in One African Nation in Six Days

Abstract

With honour and humility I accepted an invitation from the U.S. State Department to participate as a technical advisor in a weeklong rule of law2 seminar in Togo, with attorneys, judges, law professors and students. My mission was to explain various models for delivery of free legal services and assist in developing proposals for establishing a bar association pro bono3 programme in conjunction with the nation’s principal law school.

When the State Department first invited me to participate in its speaker specialist programme, I admit that for me it was all about having a glimpse of an otherwise inaccessible part of the world and the attendant cultural, professional and intellectual exchange. Only after my initial programme visit did I become familiar with the concept of “rule of law” (l’état de droit), as well as the related concepts of access to justice and the law and development movement. This was to be the focus of my journey to Togo.