Big Opportunities and Challenges for Big Law in Africa

At the end of June, DLA Piper acquired firms in Senegal and Tunisia, boosting its presence in Africa to 19 countries. It’s a sign, according to Bloomberg Law, that Big Law is starting to see the potential for legal work in the region. Several African countries could use the help. Statistics from the Law Society of South Africa paint a bleak picture, with a per capita population of lawyers of 1 to about 2240 people. The situation is even more dire in Zambia, where a University of Pennsylvania law school study…

Tunisia Takes a Big Step to Protect Women From Abuse

 Tunisia has long been regarded as a pioneer for women’s rights in the Arab world, but the day-to-day life of many Tunisian women is still one of abuse and harassment. So when Parliament passed a measure last week outlawing violence against women, some burst into ululation and passed around bouquets of jasmine. The new law makes it easier to prosecute domestic abuse, and it imposes penalties for sexual harassment in public spaces. It says that citizens are entitled to notify the police if they witness violence against women, and that children…

Tunisia’s Nobel prize-winning union meets Bashar al-Assad

UGTT called for support for the Syrian president in his ‘war against terrorism’ A delegation from the Nobel-prize winning Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) has sparked controversy after a delegation of leaders met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. According to a statement put out by the union, a delegation chaired by general secretary Bouali M’Barki and composed of 21 trade union leaders, met Assad in Damascus on Saturday. It said the visit aimed to show solidarity with the Syrian people in their “war against terrorism”. More than 3,000 Tunisians have reportedly…

Temperature and salinity double in Mediterranean

The Mediterranean is responding very quickly to global warming and the rate of evaporation is higher than precipitation and fluvial supply. Temperatures and salinity is also increasing at two and a half times the rate at the midway point in the twentieth century and higher than that of the oceans, according to research published in Scientific Reports by a team of oceanographers from the marine sciences institute of the Italian national research center (ISMAR-CNR), the National Oceanography Centre di Southampton (UK) and the Institut National des Sciences et Technologies de…