KUZA is BORN

Theme: "Mentor Me: Starting My Journey"

Mentor: Godwin Wangongu, Senior Partner at Mboya Wangongu & Waiyaki Advocates.

Date: Tuesday 24^th July 2012

The jitters that come with every beginning came along with the first session of KUZA. Throughout the day as we waited for the brain-child to be introduced into the world we anticipated its arrival. 

At last, at 5.30 pm the inaugural session of KUZA took to life with the arrival of Godwin Wangongu, Senior Partner at Mboya Wangongu & Waiyaki Advocates. A movement of 50-strong students yearning to hear how he grew from a student at the University of Nairobi law degree program, then at the Main Campus to a respectable lawyer in one of the leading firms in corporate/commercial law in Kenya. 

We are proud to present to you excerpts of this defining moment of the KUZA mentorship program.

Godwin Wangongu tells his story:

Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time? I ask this because it is a question we ask our interviewees when we are recruiting at the firm. It is a question I like to ask. As I continue you’ll see why I am asking you this question.

In University I knew I was called to be a litigator. As soon as I was in the profession I was working with the likes of Mohammed Ibrahim and Charles Nyachae was the senior partner at the firm I was working at. All through my University life I knew that I was born to litigate.  Unfortunately, I never had a session like today’s to question what I wanted to do in the future. 

I worked in litigation for 4-5 years left and then I left and started my own firm. During my litigation work I consistently got enquiries from some of my clients who wanted conveyancing transactions done for them. Over time, I concentrated on these conveyancing and commercial transactions and my other colleagues who came into the firm did the litigation. 

I realized that litigation was sapping out the energy from me. So we called in some strategy advisers. They observed that 2/3 of the work coming into the firm was litigation but more of the work was from non-contentious issues: commercial work and corporate work. After a year and a half my firm merged with Mboya’s and we found a sharper focus in the areas I was interested in: corporate/commercial law.

The firm then grew in a specialized area of practice especially work related with the Capital Markets. I was the Senior Partner of the firm. We later Invited another person to come in and help us. He came from the corporate world and although he was a practicing lawyer, he was also a specialist in capital markets. Thus, we formed the Mboya, Wangongu and Waiyaki Advocates. I am still the Senior Partner at the firm. 

I believe in mentorship. When we hire, we need to be deliberate with our efforts to know the people we bring into the firm. We look for people who know our firm. When we bring in new members, we also mentor them. We require every associate who comes in to mentor another person. Every person who comes in is to mentor another. We believe that everyone has something to pass on.

How did I move on from litigation to commercial and corporate world?

The firm was primarily a litigation firm. As we grew we noticed that most of the work coming into our firm was from clients in the commercial area. Those who then joined us would take over the litigation we would do in connection with the corporate cases. 

We used to defend insurance firms against claims from third parties. The firm grew and we looked for a bigger challenge. It was a deliberate choice. We decided not to do insurance-related claims. There were also some land cases, cases taken in the 90s which are still being finalized. Since in this country, land is an emotive area, these cases drag on.

It was a challenge, though. It also took a change our focus; for us to put more energy and learn more about the field.

Where are we going as a firm?

From being corporate and commercial, we are developing into full-service firm. The irony is, though I started off in litigation and progressed into corporate/commercial matters, our firm is not putting in more resources to invest in litigation! This is because we are getting pressure from our clients to expand and offer litigation. Our clients have expressed interest in having a one-stop-shop for all services in the legal field.

Where are YOU going to be in 5 years?

Back to the question I asked you at the beginning. You need to think about your future. Let me give you an example. One of my colleagues is not only a lawyer, but also tax specialist. I’m not talking about the unit in Tax Law you may learn here in your degree program. You could study accounts, tax etc, so when a client comes to the firm, the client gets advice as both a lawyer and a tax specialist. 

If you see that in 5 years you would like to be a Company Secretary, start thinking today about what you would require for that. Enroll yourself in a Certified Public Secretary (CPS) course and register for the KASNEB exams.

Or, you may be thinking you want to join the diplomatic services. Start thinking about how to get involved in activities that will help you understand international law. Take for example the current PS of Foreign Affairs, Mwangi Thuita is a lawyer. He was actually my classmate. While we were busy dreaming of litigation he was more concerned with international law and diplomacy. 

There are those of you who may want to be academicians; those who would like to get your First Class Honors, pursue a Masters, PhD and later lecture at a University. You need to be studious. One such person I know is Dr Phoebe Okowa who graduated from the University of Nairobi with a First Class, obtained a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) and a Doctorate in Public International Law (D.Phil) and is now a is a Reader in Public International Law at Queen Mary, University of London.

(Check out her profile at: http://www.law.qmul.ac.uk/staff/okowa.html )

Briefly, that was my journey. That is why I was glad to come to KUZA, to share with you my journey so that you can have an idea as to where you would like to be, and most importantly how to get there. KUZA is important because mentorship IS important. We have been doing mentorship in our firm and we have seen the big impact it has had on our juniors. We have watched them grow through mentorship. We stress that mentorship is important in our firm because after intensive training of our juniors we have even seen some of our juniors advising our seniors!

Mentoring IS important. You need to walk with someone, to work with this person hand in hand. Be a part of KUZA. It IS important.