eNotes  -  August 2006

South African Visiting Lawyer Program Enters its Fifth Year

For Zintle Mjali, the law has always been a bit personal. A young commercial lawyer in Johannesburg, Ms. Mjali first became interested in the law as a girl when her uncle was murdered and the culprits were never brought to trial. Ms. Mjali decided then that she wanted to attend law school and make a difference in South Africa's legal system.

"When I walked into my first [law] lecture, I knew I had made the right decision and have never looked back since," Ms. Mjali said.

This September, Ms. Mjali will join five other talented black commercial lawyers in New York as part of the fifth class of the Vance Center's South African Visiting Lawyer Program (SAVLP). The six fellows — Ms. Mjali, Yolande Kleinhans, Velile Memela, Trudy Moshodi, Monwabisi Zukani and Sibusiso Zungu — will spend the next year at major law firms and corporate legal departments in New York, sharpening their legal skills and building their resumes before returning to their firms in South Africa. Participating firms and companies include Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton; Kirkland & Ellis; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP; and Merrill Lynch.

While each of the fellows is driven by different interests and experiences, each arrives in New York with a commitment to use his or her training to help other young black lawyers in South Africa advance in the commercial world.

"When one is empowered one is placed in a better position to impart knowledge and empower other black attorneys and motivate them to pursue developing expertise in [commercial practice]," Ms. Moshodi said.

The SAVLP was founded by the Vance Center in 2002 as an intensive one-year program for South African commercial lawyers from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. Though they compose the overwhelming majority of the population, black lawyers only make up about a quarter of the legal profession in South Africa. An even smaller percentage of black South Africans go into commercial practice, and most corporate firms continue to be white-led and white-owned.

The SAVLP aims to help rectify these disparities by giving emerging black commercial lawyers the opportunity to learn from the best legal practitioners in New York. Nineteen lawyers have participated in the SAVLP, and the benefits of the program are already visible, according to Loretta Lynch, a partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP and a Vance Center committee member.

Two past fellows have already made partner at their firms while others have gone into jobs in public policy or business, Ms. Lynch said. Former fellows have also begun to develop an SAVLP alumni network in South Africa to reach out to new fellows returning from the United States.

"The first impact of the program comes with providing training to the fellows, but the larger impact of this program is to open up South African firms to the best New York firms so that they can really work on an international level and be competitive," Ms. Lynch said. "Ten to twenty years from now, when these fellows are major policy makers, they will remember having benefited from this program."

As the Vance Center welcomes the incoming fellows, it is preparing to say goodbye to its current SAVLP class. The 2005-2006 fellows include Nontuthuzelo Made at O'Melveny & Myers LLP; Meluleki Nzimande at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; Nzame-Bulungisa Ntembeko Qokweni at Shearman & Sterling LLP and Morgan Stanley; and Ntombizodwa Zenzile at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.

"The SAVLP provided me with exposure I wouldn't otherwise have," Ms. Made said. "You get to make connections with lawyers from around the world and you develop a network of potential clients as well as lawyers you can someday call on for help. It's a program that really will broaden you."

To read more about the 2006-2007 SAVLP fellows, click here.

For more information on the SAVLP, including how to get involved, click here or email Alyson Zureick.

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