Bowmans’ Fatima Laher

BOWMANS’ FATIMA LAHER RECEIVES LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Fatima Laher, Head of Pro Bono at Pan African law firm Bowmans, has been granted a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Pro Bono management. The accolade was granted by the SA Professional Services Awards sponsored by Sanlam and W. Consulting. the management and co-ordination of the firm’s pro bono programme in accordance with the firm policy. Her long career dates back to working for the Legal Resources Centre in 1987 and prior to joining Bowmans she worked at the Department of Justice, Alexandra Legal Aid Centre and the Legal Aid Board. “Fatima’s resume reveals a professional who has made it her life’s work to use the legal profession as an avenue for social good,” the judges remarked. “We admire her professional perspective; ‘to regard your work space as sacred where you come to self-actualize and achieve, working with honesty and integrity always putting the best interest of your company first’”

Through quality of work delivered by Bowmans’ East African offices, the firm won the Lex Mundi Pro Bono award. The firm has consistently delivered over 10,000 hours in pro bono time and in November 2019 won the Pro Bono Award in the Large Law Firm category at the annual ProBono.Org awards. All this was made possible by Fatima Laher’s leadership.

“I think this Award is an important award for the nature of the work that we do,” Fatima said. “There are many of our lawyers who give of their time to assist with pro bono work and to assist in seeking justice for the poor. I am thankful for the firm and in particular the upper management for supporting our work. The way our firm operates is that every lawyer is expected to do pro bono work alongside their billable work across all of our offices in Africa. So I would like to thank all of our lawyers across the continent. I would also like to thank my son for his incredible support of the work I do.”