Expertise / Government Advisory

We have drafted the rules.

Some clients need Somali law explained. Some need it changed. Governments, regulators, multilateral institutions and development organisations come to us for both: legislative drafting and regulatory reform on one side; rigorous, field-based research and compliance advice on the other.

RESPONSIBLE PARTNERS

Hamza I. Abdullahi
Practice lead · former head, MoJ drafting unit

Abdirizak Mustaf Ahmed
Institutional compliance & employment

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THE PEDIGREE — PUBLIC RECORD

Partner pre-firm roles attributed as such throughout

2019

the Anti-Corruption Commission establishment law was enacted — drafted in the unit a partner led

legal orders our research maps together: statute, Shari'ah and customary Xeer

13–4

the ICJ's 2021 maritime ruling, largely in Somalia's favour — a partner advised the Attorney General during the proceedings

1st

Legislative Drafting Manual of the Federal Government — produced by the firm in English and Somali

HOW WE HELP

Legislative drafting is the rarest legal skill in any market and the most consequential in a rebuilding one. Clients work with a team that has written the genre.

The monumental interior staircase of a Somali government ministry building

Legislative & regulatory drafting

From policy paper to bill — drafted, harmonised with the Provisional Constitution, and moved through government.

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Institutional & regulatory reform

Advisory for ministries, agencies and new regulators — mandates, governance, the split between rule-maker and operator.

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Field research & assessments

Access to justice, plural legal systems, sector baselines — run with trained enumerators and multilingual teams, to publishable standards.

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INGO & institutional compliance

International operating models on Somali legal rails — employment, registration, operations, delivered in the organisation's own language.

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Training & capacity building

Judges, prosecutors and institutional lawyers — including mock-trial programmes hosted at the Supreme Court in Nairobi.

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Policy development

National policies drafted and consulted through federal and regional processes — traditional dispute resolution, legal aid, labour.

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GOVERNMENT ADVISORY / LEGISLATIVE DRAFTING

Laws drafted by people who have moved laws.

Bills, regulations and amendments written to pass — constitutionally screened, properly sequenced, defensible in committee.

COVERS

Bills & amending legislation, drafted to standard

Implementing regulations for new statutes

Drafting manuals & unit capacity building

Proof: the CBS Act amendments; the drafting manual.

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GOVERNMENT ADVISORY / REFORM

Reform designed inside the institution's constraints.

Statute reviews, regulatory design and institutional restructuring for public bodies and their partners.

COVERS

Statute review & amendment

Regulatory design & rollout

Institutional restructuring

Rewrote the Central Bank's statute, article by article.

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GOVERNMENT ADVISORY / FIELD RESEARCH

Evidence from the ground, not the desk.

Justice-sector and legal-system research designed and run in Somalia — methodology through to final report.

COVERS

Justice & legal-system studies

Survey design & field teams

Analysis & publication

Three years mapping how justice actually works.

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GOVERNMENT ADVISORY / INSTITUTIONAL COMPLIANCE

International standards on Somali legal rails.

Internal regulations, HR frameworks and codes reviewed against Somali law — concluded with a formal opinion.

COVERS

Internal-regulation reviews

Somali-law gap analysis

Formal legal opinions

Done for a global humanitarian organisation.

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GOVERNMENT ADVISORY / TRAINING

Training that transfers the method, not slides.

Drafting, regulatory and compliance training for institutions — built from work we have actually done.

COVERS

Legislative-drafting training

Regulatory & compliance training

Judicial & institutional programmes

Led by a former head of the MoJ drafting unit.

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GOVERNMENT ADVISORY / POLICY

Policy that survives contact with implementation.

Policy design and legislative planning for ministries and development partners — written to be executable.

COVERS

Policy design & white papers

Legislative planning & sequencing

Development-partner advisory

Built inside the Ministry of Justice's policy unit.

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PROOF — SELECTED WORK

CASE STUDY

Drafting the laws of a rebuilding state

From the Ministry of Justice drafting unit to the federal government's first Legislative Drafting Manual — the practice behind Somali statutes.

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CASE STUDY

Three years mapping how justice actually works

A multi-year research partnership under a USAID-funded access-to-justice program — published studies, field research, a scholars' roundtable in Mogadishu.

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— Somali law translated into operating guidance for an international medical humanitarian organisation — medico-legal analysis, labour-compliance review, formal legal opinion

— Labour Code workstream support for the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs; national policies on traditional dispute resolution and legal aid for the Ministry of Justice

— Study on rural youth migration in Puntland and Somaliland for UNICEF; criminal-justice training-needs assessment for IDLO

FROM SOMALIA LAW BLOG

Hiring and contracting in Somalia: the employment questions to settle before you sign →

By the partners who supported the Labour Code workstream itself

Building an institution?

Drafting mandates, reform programmes and research partnerships all start the same way here: a conversation about what the rule is meant to do.

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