On Thursday, November 13, 2008, I attended the Law and Economic Development Conference hosted by DLA Piper (a huge international law firm) and Addis Ababa University Faculty of Law. The conference touched on a number of important topics including forms of dispute resolution in the promotion of economic development, microfinance: finance for entrepreneurs and supporting local development initiatives through these new institutions of economic support, and legal infrastructure for development. The conference brought together leading academics in Ethiopia, international lawyers and microfinance experts! You see, I am typically scared by any economic-type conference because the topics usually fly way over my head. However, this conference was very interesting and really tied together the role of economic development with empowering marginalized groups, promoting robust justice frameworks, and engendering a culture of respect for human rights.
DLA Piper and Addis Ababa Law School have entered into a very interesting and nuanced partnership relationship under DLA Piper’s Pro-Bono and International Development Department called New Perimeter which sees the law firm providing the law school with international instructors, valuable resource materials for the library, and programmatic and institutional support. The website for this partnership program can be found at http://www.newperimeter.com.
As an added bonus, this conference was at the beautiful Sheraton Addis and there was a full meal service at lunch, ample coffee breaks and treats and extremely opulent surroundings.
Confession time: I have been traveling to the Sheraton most Fridays at lunch. I eat my packed lunch at the office and then take a novel/book to the Sheraton to either read in the gardens or to read on one of the comfy couches/chairs in one of the many fancy lobbies. So, at this conference, it was finally nice to actually have a legitimate reason to visit the Sheraton.
Confession time (part deux): I ate 3 danishes at the morning coffee break and enjoyed multiple glasses of juice. I also made sure to have multiple samosas at the closing reception. I felt like I was back in law school, where as students, we would always attend the various receptions and enjoy the food and drink so that we did not have to worry about cooking dinner when we got home (Shout out especially to the grilled vegetables and the basil pesto with bread). Let’s just say that I employed a similar strategy at this conference in that I ate enough to last me for at least a day after the conference concluded.
