Diversity Initiatives of Dewey & LeBoeuf's Johannesburg office PDF Print E-mail
Last year, Greg Nott, a partner in our Johannesburg received the following email:

My name is Vuyolwethu Goni. I am an intermediate law student at the University of Cape Town Law School. I was one of the SAWIPers who was at the graduation dinner at Jonkershuis in Groot Constantia. I would like, once again, to thank you for your inspiring speech that you gave at the event. It reaffirmed our faith in the prospect of South Africa, as well as reassured our willingness to play our part in South Africa and Africaʼs future development. As one of South Africaʼs youth I hope to have joined those who have acknowledged South Africa and Africa's challenges and want to respond accordingly. I do recall you mentioned a bit about your firm, and would like an opportunity to learn more about it and hopefully build a relationship with the firm. I am open to anything that would allow me to grow in my legal education and training.

Vuyo did indeed intern at DL Johannesburg, staying for six weeks over the Christmas period at the end of 2008 (see photograph of Christmas time in the Johannesburg office with Vuyo holding her bonus!)

What is SAWIP? SAWIP is the South Africa Washington Internship Program that is based on the Washington Ireland Programme (WIP) for service and leadership. SAWIP has a vision of a South Africa with strong leaders who have a global perspective and who serve others with humility and integrity and in doing so inspire future generations to do the same. Graduates of SAWIP are enthused rather than intimidated by their diversity of culture, race and creed. SAWIPʼs mission is to prepare, inspire and support diverse new generations of leaders in South Africa to:
  • successfully address transformation challenges in South Africaʼs post-conflict society in order to strengthen a sustainable, efficient democracy with active citizens;
  • gain a deeper understanding of global leadership challenges while developing mutually beneficial relationships with young leaders in both the United States and Ireland;
  • build leadership capacity with a global perspective and a commitment to ethical service in all spheres of public and private life.
South Africa, or The Rainbow Nation, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, likes to call it, has over the past 15 years experienced massive socio-economic changes. From the dark days of Apartheid, South Africa has, as a nation, collectively gone through a transformation process, a process in which the legal profession is challenged to take a leading role.

Whilst there has been a plethora of legislation since 1994 overturning laws that created institutionalized injustice and inequality, many women and black legal professionals continue to face prejudice and marginalization in the workplace. The legacy of racial inequality is potentially capable of seriously impairing the fulfillment of our vision to build a single united South Africa which is morally just, politically stable and economically vigorous. It is a legacy which therefore needs urgently to be addressed and reversed.

The challenge is such that it goes beyond rendering the minimum of pro bono hours. The charter of transformation speaks to the process of seeking consensus on the transformation of the entire legal services sector. The Legal Services Charter speaks to the need to focus on historically disadvantaged individuals and previously marginalized groups and communities in order to free their potential so that they can participate and contribute to the building of a nation on the move to prosperity.

Dewey & LeBoeuf has taken up the challenge in South Africa. As an international law firm it has recognized the sweeping socioeconomic transformation and has stepped forward to create its own mechanisms to deal with the challenges.