The legal fraternity in Uganda have been urged to expand their services beyond the borders of Uganda because that is no longer enough for them to only understand the laws of this country since the clients will be coming from different parts of the world due to globalisation.
The remarks were made by the Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka while speaking as Chief Guest at the 24th annual law conference held by Uganda Law Society (ULS) under the theme “Positioning the Uganda legal profession for regional and international trade.
“We need to have a global perspective of how we do our things. Globalization has changed the way we should look at things, ” he said.
Kiwanuka explained that the stage is now set for the East African Community to benefit from the integrated market.
Dr. Elly Karuhanga, the chairman Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSU) urged lawyers to ready themselves to serve new markets created by African Continental Free Trade Area and prepare to tap into the oil sector.
“Widen your scope in the region, country and internationally. Help traders, be innovative and acquire fresh knowledge. The legal profession has a whole arm of government ring-fenced for it (the Judiciary). What a privilege it is to be advocates! ” said Karuhanga
Hatwib Mugasa the Executive Director of NITA (U) while making a presentation on ICT said that it is a lawyer’s tool to harness opportunities in the regional and global market.
“Lawyers can adopt case management systems to automate many of the processes associated with case management, including scheduling dates, managing documents, and entering data for billing,” said Mugasa.
He noted that the Judiciary is in the process of implementing an electronic court case management system (ECCMS), which will automate the court case life cycle from filling the judgments.
The president of ULS, Pheona Wall said that the conference was meant to enable lawyers to understand the needs of the changing economy especially with globalisation and growth of international trade.