An African Perspective on Cross-border legal work

Abstract

When I first started practicing law internationally in southern Africa thirty years ago, things were simpler, in the sense that communication was more basic. There was no internet, no emails, and none of the gadgets that we know of today. If you wanted to communicate with a lawyer outside your jurisdiction you needed to write a letter, affix a postage stamp to it, and drop it off at the post office. Thirty years ago, I worked in a “modern” law firm which was, “well equipped”. It boasted a telex machine (an upgraded telegraph device that sputtered out words in machinegun- like bursts). The pride and joy of the firm was a fax machine. It was revolutionary and could send a document by putting it through the machine, after which it would come out instantaneously on the other side of the world. As there was no World Wide Web for you to google search for a foreign lawyer you had to subscribe for or enrol in a directory such as Martindale and Hubble which lawyers received as a hardcover book every year.