African Legal Fellows

Former New York City Bar President Evan Davis visited South Africa in 2002 to explore how, eight years after the end of apartheid, lawyers of color had fared in the commercial legal profession. He learned that, although people of color had advanced into some sectors of South African society, the legal profession continued to reflect the legacy of apartheid. In particular, lawyers of color and law firms led by lawyers of color struggled to build significant institutional client bases or develop portfolios of major commercial work.
Mr. Davis, an emeritus member of the Vance Center Committee and Cleary Gottlieb’s Senior Counsel, recognized that the full participation of lawyers of color in the legal profession was essential for South Africa to become a successful multiracial democracy. With support from his predecessor as City Bar president, Late Michael Cooper of Sullivan & Cromwell, and former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, then a member of the City Bar’s Executive Committee, he launched the South African Legal Fellows Program to provide lawyers of color with the robust commercial and international experience they had been unable to obtain in South Africa.

The Vance Center selects the African Legal Fellows through a rigorous process varying by country. South African lawyers apply to the South African Legal Fellows Network, which recommends candidates to the Vance Center. For other countries, the Vance Center asks selected law firms to nominate their lawyers. After initial screening, a panel of Vance Center Committee members and staff, as well as other law firm representatives, interview finalists. The Vance Center consults with the law firms and legal departments in assigning successful candidates.

The Legal Fellows Program offers law firm and corporate hosts a number of benefits, including the skills and commitment of highly motivated lawyers who fit into the host’s existing international lawyers programs. The Fellows also complement existing diversity and inclusion initiatives and enrich the workplace with the life and culture of various African countries. While In New York, they may introduce New York colleagues to African contacts with new business. Most significantly, by hosting Vance Fellows, New York City law firms and legal departments strengthen the African legal profession, public service, the rule of law, and democracy in Africa.

The alumni in South Africa have formed an association, the South African Legal Fellows Network, to share the benefits of the program with others. They mentor high school, law school students, and junior lawyers and help lawyers of color share strategies for professional advancement. They promote pro bono legal service, collaborate with the Vance Center on projects, and support the Vance Center in administering the Fellows Program.

The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t stop the program objectives. The Vance Center organized a bi-monthly African Legal Fellows webinar series with African Legal Fellows’ alumnae/i to provide information about the program and discuss topical issues in Africa.

It ran on the same model as the African Legal Fellows Program. It focused on highly-qualified African energy lawyers who spent a year at U.S. law firms to develop world-class skills and experience in energy transactions to transfer back to the Fellows’ home law firms and colleagues. In addition, the Power Africa program allowed the fellows and their law firms, with support from Vance Center’s Committee law firms in the U.S., to develop and offer professional development workshops for government lawyers in the energy sector. For example, it developed a series of webinars for government lawyers in Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Kenya and delivered them in partnership with the East Africa Energy Program in Kenya and Ethiopia and the Nigeria Power Sector Program for Nigeria. Four international law firms and 15 law firms from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nigeria participated in the workshops.