Recent developments in legal professions across Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa offer useful lessons for Somalia as we continue building our own legal institutions. These countries face different challenges than we do, but many of the questions they are working through, such as how to train lawyers effectively, how to maintain professional standards, how to integrate new technology into practice, are questions we will need to answer as well. Watching what works elsewhere, and what does not, can help us make better choices.

Kenya has been particularly active in experimenting with court technology. Their judiciary has piloted electronic filing systems, AI-assisted transcription, and digital case management tools, with results that suggest these technologies can meaningfully improve efficiency without compromising the integrity of proceedings. At the same time, Kenya’s experience reveals the importance of training: technology deployed without adequate preparation creates confusion rather than improvement. This is a lesson we should learn from observation rather than repeating ourselves.

Professional Standards and Education

Nigeria’s bar association has taken a systematic approach to identifying what training lawyers actually need, surveying thousands of members before designing programs. This sounds obvious, but many training programs are built on assumptions about what lawyers should know rather than evidence about what they lack. The Nigerian survey revealed strong demand for training in digital law, climate law, and arbitration. These are areas that formal legal education does not typically cover in depth but that are increasingly relevant to practice. Ghana’s recent reforms to legal education similarly emerged from broad consultation with students, practitioners, and educators, resulting in changes that have wider support than top-down reforms typically achieve.

South Africa’s legal market continues to grow and professionalize, with sophisticated law firms that compete for international work and a legal technology sector that is expanding at double-digit rates annually. The country shows what a mature African legal market can look like, even if Somalia’s path there will be different and longer. Regional bar associations have started collaborating more actively, recognizing that smaller legal markets can build capacity faster through partnership than through isolation. The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has partnered with the East African Law Society on training initiatives, and similar collaborations are emerging across the continent.

What Somali Lawyers Should Take Away

The common themes across these different countries are worth noting. First, technology is changing legal practice everywhere, and lawyers who understand it will have advantages over those who do not. But technology without training creates problems rather than solving them. Second, continuing legal education is becoming a normal part of professional life across Africa, not something only a few dedicated lawyers pursue. Third, regional cooperation can help smaller legal communities access resources and expertise they could not develop alone. Fourth, reforms and training programs work better when they emerge from genuine consultation rather than being designed by small groups in isolation.

Somalia’s legal profession is at an earlier stage than Kenya’s or South Africa’s, but we face many of the same underlying questions about how to train lawyers, how to maintain standards, and how to integrate technology into practice. We do not have to solve all these problems from first principles. Other countries have been experimenting, and their successes and failures can inform our own choices. Paying attention to what is happening across the region is itself a form of professional development.