JP Karuaihe Trust Fund Excellence Awards 2010

The 4th annual JP Karuaihe Trust Fund Excellence Award winners have been announced. They are FLTR Mr Heiko Stritter (Engling, Stritter & Partners), Ms Vincia Cloete (Best LLB Student at Unam - 2009), Ms Stefania Cagnetta and Mr Nangosora Tjipitua (both best JTC Students - 2009), Mr Dieter Maree, Mrs Toni Hancox (Legal Assistance Centre) and Adv Geier (President of the LSN - accepting the award on behalf of Mr Jan Greyling of Jan Greyling & Associates, Oshakati).

About the awards

The LSN became involved with the JP Karuaihe Trust during 2006, when the trustees of the Trust approached the LSN to assist them in identifying and selecting deserving winners for the “Legal Excellence Awards”.  All our members (approximately 530 members of the Law Society of Namibia, in various sectors - ombudsman, attorneys, advocates, some prosecutors, some magistrates, some ministry officials, some legal advisors) were invited to compete for the Judge JP Karuaihe Legal Excellence Awards for Human Rights and Social Responsibility.

It has been said before, but needs to be said again, that the awards do not indicate that one firm, institution or individual is better than others.
The awards are intended to indicate and reward the commitment of individual legal practitioners and/or firms or institutions towards human rights and social responsibility.  

Best Student Awards

The criteria for this award are very obvious and straight forward.  With the assistance and co-operation of the Justice Training Centre and the University of Namibia, the LSN every year receives the name of the student who has obtained the best results the previous year.

The winners this year are:

Best Candidates Legal Practitioner 2009 in the Oct/Nov 2009  Legal Practitioners Qualifying Examination (LPQE) are shared by two candidates – for the first time.

MS  STEFANIA  ANNA-MARIE  CAGNETTA

and

MS NANGOSORA TJIPITUA

each achieved 68% average respectively in all 11 subjects during the 2009 October-November Legal Practitioners Qualifying Examination  (LPQE).

The best final year LL B student for the 2009 academic year is

MS VINCIA CLOETE.

Social Responsibility Excellence Awards

Criteria:

Whether the individual/firm:

1. did any amicus curiae/pro bono/in forma pauperis cases?  
2. sponsored/funded any law students?  
3. made any donations to disadvantaged communities / social groups?
4. supported any charity for a communities or social groups?  
5. trained any candidate legal practitioner(s)?  
6. lectured at the Justice Training Centre or UNAM or Polytechnic?  
7. served on a committee of the LSN?  
8. participated in any public legal education or social responsibility projects such as representing the LSN at public hearings or careers exhibitions,  presenting legal education talks on the radio and in other media?   
9. Provided training to colleagues free of charge?  
10. Relevant matters which the firm/individual would want the panel to take into consideration (not covered above).

There are two awards under this category to allow for individuals or smaller firms to ‘compete’ against the larger law firms.

The winners for 2010 are:

In the category LARGER LAW firms the winner is:

ENGLING STRITTER AND PARTNERS, who complied with most of the criteria.

In the category SMALL FIRMS/INDIVIDUALS the winner is:

JAN GREYLING & Associates – OSHAKATI, a small firm in the north of the country who showed commitment by doing at least 6 amicus curiae criminal matters – free of charge - over the period and who made donations for awareness campaigns such as ‘against women and child abuse’

If we could award a runner up for the small firms/individual category it would have been awarded to one of our recently admitted legal practitioners who was also a bursary recipient of the LSN, Mr Dieter Maree.  

This individual has participated, together with the firm Conradie & Damaseb, at the time, in giving donations to a Children’s Home in Katutura as well Cosmos Radio for the Phukumani Trust.  He has also prepared a document for the Law Society of Namibia on ‘Social Responsibility in the Legal Fraternity’. We hope that he will never loose his passion for helping others.

Human Rights Excellence Award

The criteria for the Human Rights Excellence Award are:

A:  Outstanding/landmark human rights case(s) / litigation which contributed significantly to Namibia’s jurisprudence.  
AND/OR
B:  Project(s) to which they contributed to create human rights awareness and/or improve human rights conditions.  

The winner this year is:  

LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTRE

The Legal Assistance Centre deals with human rights issues on a daily basis and lawyers practising at the LAC have consciously limited their earning power to continue serving the Namibian nation.  For the lawyers at the LAC honouring the Rule of Law often involves a 24/7 commitment which is seldom seen or acknowledged by the broader public.

We sincerely congratulate all the winners and we thank the JPK Trust for providing us with this platform to honour these achievements.  

We wish the JPK Trust much success with your future endeavours.  We trust that your commitment to providing bursaries to deserving candidates to study law and honouring achievements will go from strength to strength and that the LSN and the JPK Trust will have a long and fruitful relationship.