Please walk me through your education and career path.
My secondary school is very important because, without it I would not have gotten this job. I went to Makerere College School for six years, and at the time, this law firm gave an award for the best literature student.
So, when I was job hunting, I remembered the award and came with it which gave me an added advantage. Anyway, after college, I joined Makerere University where I pursued a degree in law and then to the Law Development Centre (LDC) for a postgraduate diploma in legal practice.
I worked in the legal department of Pioneer Easy Bus Limited and Kenlloyd Logistics Uganda Limited for six months before I joined Buwule & Mayiga Company Advocates in 2017.
What does your job entail?
I go to court and represent clients, attending mediation sometimes in court. I do legal work like drafting agreements and as a partner, along my fellow partners, Mr. Francis Buwule Kabonge and Mr. Edwin Busulwa.
We make administrative decisions for the firm and of course, Ow’ekitiibwa Charles Peter Mayiga is a partner too and occasionally attends meetings for the running of the firm.
As Head of Human Resources, my job is to hear people’s compliments, grievances, and complaints to ensure that they are addressed.
I organise team-building activities, review contracts of employment to see if they can be improved, make sure that all our entitlements are paid; issues of NSSF, Pay as You Earn (PAYE). I ensure the welfare of both legal and non-legal staff. As head of finance, is to handle the expenses of the firm on a weekly basis and then handle the requisitions of the firm.
How does the lawyer get into finance?
Our expertise is mostly law, so we also have an accountant and a cashier to handle the actual money. We also use the services of the external auditors.
So, these are the people from whom I get that advice and with whom I collaborate to get (this) work done.
In most law firms, the lawyers do everything but the difference here is that we acknowledge that we don’t have 100 percent knowledge, so we require the experts to advise us in the running of these activities.
What does it mean for you to play a supervisory role?
The advice of my fellow partners especially council Francis Buwule who has served in this role for more than a decade is helpful. Whenever I am stuck, I just cross over and seek his advice on what to do. It has made the job less intimidating.
What have you learned from Mr. Buwule that has shaped your career?
Then the power of lasting relationships. This law firm is 30-years-old but has retained its employees from the start. We have a lady who used to provide newspapers and stationery from the start, and she still supplies us.
You might think that it is a small connection, but such relationships create goodwill not only for clients but all the people that you work with. Then the ethics; there are things that the firm does not. People always say that lawyers are corrupt but I do not compromise my principles. He has taught me to work with faith. He says, ‘I don’t know how we do it, but we will do it.”
He has optimism, and is not afraid. In the legal profession, there is fear that senior lawyers want to make the young lawyers fail which is not the case here. If someone gets another job, he will let them because he believes they might become the company’s connection in another institution. That is really rare.
And what have you learned from the other senior partner, Charles Peter Mayiga?
He says that we need to be careful about the things that we give attention to, adding that the internet is full of people saying this and that about you.
One time I asked him how he handles social media and what is said about him. He said that people may talk about you but as long as you know that what you’re doing is the right thing, be firm even if it might not please everyone. The other advice he shared was that as we make money so is it to enjoy it as fruits of one’s labour by rewarding yourself for the hard work.
How do you reward yourself?
Eating something with my family is a great reward. If we are to buy one Pizza and share it amongst ourselves, I’m happy. I enjoy the arts, and one of my passions at Makerere College was acting so I go out to theatre to watch plays.
On what principles do you anchor your career?
It is transparency and accountability to have ethical legal practice. I want to have a reputation and conviction that there are things that I can’t do for money. That is the kind of legal practice that I want to be in.
Why are these principles important for you to hold?
People are so cynical about lawyers and I want to dispel that myth not just for them but also for me, dispel the myth that you cannot be a good person and a good lawyer at the same time.
How has technology disrupted your profession?
Currently, the biggest disruptions are not here though they are coming for us, for example AI-based technology. I took the opportunity to try Chat GPT. I prompted it to make an agreement for me and the speed at which it would generate this agreement is something that would have taken two days but it took minutes.
Those are the ways in which clients now have information at their fingertips. A client would previously come to you asking but now they come to you aware and want you to confirm what they have read on the internet. The future lawyer will not be one who expects blind acceptance from clients. The disruption is that these technologies have equipped our clients with legal knowledge and they just require us to implement the knowledge.
If you had to talk to your 18-year-old self, what career advice would you give them?
We previously thought that you had to focus on one career path but these days you can branch out, and you can try out so many endeavours. I am a lawyer and an advocate of the High Court, but also a legal auditor.
If there was one person, dead or alive, you would invite for a cup of tea or coffee, who would it be and what would you talk about?
I would invite my father. He died five days into this job. Most of my life principles came from him. All the connections that I have had both legal and non-legal, all my values of family, friendship at everything that they have is from him.
