Liberia 
In late 2005, the Liberian government approached ISLP for assistance in reviewing, analyzing, and possibly renegotiating long-term concession agreements with corporate giants  Mittal Steel Holdings and Firestone Rubber that had been entered into by the previous transitional government. For the review of the Mittal contract, ISLP put together a truly extraordinary team of volunteers, led by Prof. Robert Hillman of the University of California at Davis 

Law School, and including ISLP Board member Natasha Lisman of the Boston Firm of Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, Partner Joel Herold and associates from New York's Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Harvard Business School Professor Louis Wells.  Review of the agreement began in January 2006 and an extensive renegotiation process was completed on December 28, 2006, when the Government of Liberia and Mittal signed the amended agreement, which was ratified by the Liberian Parliament in May 2007.  The amended agreement called for an investment of $1 billion in Liberia by Mittal; in December 2007 that investment was increased to $1.5 billion. The news service Reuters described the negotiated agreement as a "coup" and one of President Johnson Sirleaf's major achievements of her first year in office. 

Soon afterwards, ISLP Board member Joe Bell, partner in the Washington office of (then) Hogan & Hartson began the review and renegotiation of  a 25-year agreement with Firestone. On February 22, 2008, 16 months after ISLP’s team began its review, the Government of Liberia signed the Amended and Restated Concession Agreement.  Dr. J. Chris Toe, Minister of Agriculture and Liberia’s lead negotiator, referred to the renegotiation of the Firestone concession agreement as “an embodiment of Government’s goals to ensure that all existing agreements equitably protect Liberian interests and are consistent with principles that attract and sustain foreign investment in Liberia.”   He later said in an email to Joe Bell:  "Let me be clear: what we have achieved would have been unthinkable without your advice and mentoring.  I am sure I speak for every one that we appreciated you being part of the team and of the role you played.  We cannot thank you enough, but posterity will.”  

Both renegotiations addressed the most oppressive provisions of the original contracts and provided significantly more favorable fiscal and tax regimes, gave the government more flexibility in its future operations, made Mittal and Firestone subject to Liberian Law, and improved and elaborated a number of social obligations dealing with education, employment, housing and health.  The value of ISLP volunteer services exceeded $1 million for each contract.  

▪▪▪

Recent projects undertaken by partners at Hogan Lovells have included assistance to the Liberian Government by partner Bruce Gilchrist with 3 palm oil agreements, including one with one of the largest palm oil operators in the world.  It that is expected that this project will significantly contribute to the economic development of Liberia's southeastern counties, creating 35,000 jobs, develop infrastructure, train small farmers in sustainable planting and lift the overall standard of living.  

Joe Bell and Lori Sostowski aided the negotiation of a US$3 billion Mineral Development Agreement that the Chairman of the National Investment Committee described as one of the most significant deals signed by the current administration. They also assisted in reviewing bids for the rehabilitation and expansion of an iron ore mine and in preparing and negotiating a US$2.6 billion Mineral Development Agreement with the winning bidder. It is expected that these projects will create 6,000 direct and 12,000 secondary jobs.  Other significant benefits include upfront payments to the Government of Liberia; annual contributions to the Social Development Fund for affected communities; new roads, ports and rails; restored energy infrastructure; and address community needs for housing, healthcare, education, water and other basic services.

Jeff Wood, a retired partner of Debevoise & Plimpton has also contributed greatly to ISLP's work in Liberia. He has lent support to an infrastructure development agreement, a project related to the national port in Monrovia, and helped draft legislation to provide for a National Bureau of Concessions that would serve as a central repository of concessions negotiations skills to assist all Liberian line ministries in the planning and negotiation of agricultural and mining concessions.

McKenna, Long & Aldridge partners Stanley Dees and Sandy Hoe joined Jeff Wood in lending their significant expertise to the amendment of Liberia's Public Procurement and Concessions Act, including two weeks of onsite discussions with the Minister of State for Finance, Economic and Legal Affairs, the members of the Public Procurement Concessions Commission, and other government officials to discuss proposed revisions to the Act.

Other key projects were implemented in 2011 by John Reboul and Andy Owen of Ropes & Gray and other highly skilled ISLP volunteers who worked in the Liberian Ministries of Justice and Finance for periods of 3-6 weeks, helping with various contract and tax policy and administration issues.

ISLP is proud that the tremendous work of ISLP volunteers such as these -and many, many others- iscontributing toward real growth in the Liberian economy and helping to support an emerging democratic African state.

Commercial Law Training Programs

The ISLP Commercial Law Training Program (CLTP) completed its 8th year in South Africa in 2011! The program was also very successfully repeated in Botswana and introduced to an enthusiastic new group of lawyers in Zimbabwe.

In this program ISLP volunteers, all experienced commercial law attorneys from several countries, are paired with African business lawyers to co-teach topics in commercial law to lawyers who have historically been denied the opportunity to participate or grow in this practice area. The South Africa program, created in partnership with the Black Lawyers Association of South Africa and the Senior Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association, has been presented each year since 2004 and to date has enrolled over 500 South African attorneys in Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town. In 2009, for the first time, ISLP offered an advanced level course to the South African participants who completed the first level of the program. And also for the first time, ISLP in 2010 offered a third level course to those who completed the first and second levels of the program.

The success of the South Africa CLTP led to additional partnerships in 2007 with the Tanganika Law Society and the Law Society of Botswana for programs in Tanzania and Botswana, respectively. In 2009 and 2010 ISLP partnered with the Law Society in Namibia to offer the program in Windhoek and with the Law Society in Zambia to initiate the Lusaka program in 2010. A partnership with the  Law Society of Zimbabwe allowed the training program to be implemented in Harare in 2011.

A grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation supported the 2007-2010 programs, as well as a conference held in Johannesburg in March 2008 which examined the barriers to active participation by black lawyers in the commercial law practice in South Africa and an assessment of the impact of  the CLTP on helping to expand commercial law opportunities for black attorneys.



Trade Negotiation Training

Through a generous grant from the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, ISLP has developed trade negotiation training programs in Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The program aims to increase the participants’ substantive understanding of international trade regimes (both multilateral and bilateral); improve the negotiation skills of active and potential trade negotiators; and expand the institutional capacities of African countries in the areas of trade policy development, negotiating team support, coordination with the private sector, and trade agreement implementation.

Weil Gotshal partner Jean Anderson and Stephen Lande of Manchester Trade, Ltd led a successful training in Zambia in 2011.


Natural Resource Management Capacity Building Workshops in Africa

ISLP has responded to requests from the governments of Liberia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Tanzania for capacity building workshops on topics related to the extractive industries.

Through the expertise and leadership of volunteers such as Tanneke Heershe of Fasken Martineau, Quentin Markin and Jean Carrier (Stikeman Elliott), Rebecca Major and James Watson (Herbert Smith), Clement Fondufe and John Smelcer (Latham & Watkins), and Shannon Grewer (Locke Bissel & Liddell) workshops were presented that helped participants with key issues such as:

» understanding the bid tender process and the actual underpinnings of a successful bid process;
» negotiating various important provisions and drafting effective investment contracts;
» preparing for and mitigating risk;
» creating the regulatory framework for successful public-private partnership contracts;
» managing investment contracts, assessing contract performance, and addressing contractual challenges;
» understanding the components of an effective and efficient monitoring and compliance regime.

ISLP welcomes the participation of other firms with expertise in the natural resouce management area to share their knowledge and contribute to vital capacity building within these - and many additional - developing country governments.

Please contact us if you would like to be a part of this ongoing effort.