Association of Sierra Leonean Lawyers in the United States (ALLUS).
19635 Meekland Avenue
Hayward CA 94541
Telephone: 510 229 8920
Facsimile: 510 722 2241
9/4/2013
H.E. Bockari Stevens
Ambassador to the United States of America
1701 19th Street Northwest
Washington D.C., 20009-1605
(202) 939-9261
Your Excellency Bockari Stevens:
The Association of Sierra Leonean Lawyers in the United States (ALLUS) is respectfully requesting a meeting with the President of Sierra Leone His Excellency Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma when he visits the United States during the week of September 18, 2013 and we are requesting your assistance in helping to schedule that meeting. It is anticipated that the meeting will be held at the Embassy of Sierra Leone in Washington, DC.
As you are aware our members practice law in diverse states of the United States and it is imperative that we get a confirmed date with the President so that members practicing outside of the DC metropolitan area can make adequate travel arrangements.
We already understand that The President will be in the Washington DC area on the 18th of September and we wouldn’t mind having a meeting on that date or on the 19th of September, at the Embassy conference room.
The purpose of the meeting will be to discuss the membership’s interest in being permitted to practice law in Sierra Leone once certain conditions have been met and what those conditions should be. Also, we would like to include the Association’s inclusion in the current Sierra Leone Constitution review process.
With regards to our interest in practicing law in Sierra Leone, we would like to discuss with the President a possible amendment of the Legal Practitioners Act which would allow all Sierra Leonean Indigenes practicing Law in common law jurisdictions such as the USA, Australia, the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries, the ability to practice Law after taking a short course organized by the council on Legal education, in Sierra Leone constitutional Law, customary Law, Court Procedures and other areas of practice that are unique to the Practice of Law in Sierra Leone. We believe that as a group that we possess a skill set in the practice of law that will only enhance the profession in our Home land and we would like to be given an opportunity. As you may or may not have been aware, the movement to allow lawyers trained in the United States to Practice in Sierra Leone has been an on going effort for the past 30 years. We believe that this President stands poised to make a change in the legal system in Sierra Leone by infusing ideas in comport with the administrations call for Change.
With regards to our request that we be represented in the on going constitutional review, we note that the United States where we practice law is a constitutional democracy and its laws are mostly derived from its constitution. We believe that we have ideas on how we can strengthen the individual civil rights provided in the constitution of Sierra Leone, and other matters that run the gamut of our diverse practice areas, but which may need constitutional input. On this basis, we seek participation and representation on the Constitutional Review Committee. We note that the committee is constituted for a period of two years and we believe that our inclusion and participation will bring a robustness that is necessary in the debate to reform our most sacred document of governance.
I can be reached at either 240-515-6316 or aiscandari@aol.com,izcan79@gmail.com or at the telephone numbers and facsimile numbers at the header of this letter. On behalf of the Association we look forward to hearing from you soon so that we can discuss logistics.
Kind Regards,
M. Alieu Iscandari, Esq.
Interim President
cc: Via E mail
Brian Gilpin
Oswald Hanciles
Sulay Daramy
Yvonne Tagoe
Photo: Lawyer Alieu Iscandari
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