Cairo– Students and professors from seven Egyptian University law faculties participated in a national “practice arbitration” competition that was conducted with the support of the American Bar Association (ABA) and the U.S. Embassy on April 3 and 4, 2015.  Both the winning team and the runner-up team are from Menoufia University.  Teams from Al Azhar Women’s University and Cairo University won third place in the competition.  This is the fourth National Competition organized by the ABA in Egypt.

“Egyptian citizens and businesses need well-trained lawyers to assist them in protecting their legal rights,” said Sherry Carlin, Egypt Mission Director of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which sponsors the program. “It is inspiring to see the commitment of these students to developing their arbitration skills.” 

Law Faculties at Ain Shams, Al Azhar Women’s, Al Azhar Men’s, Cairo, Beni Suef, Menoufia, and  Zagazig Universities sent two teams each to the National Competition. Student preparation and training for the competition was conducted by faculty members from the participating universities with assistance from the ABA.  Professors from the participating universities also conducted trainings and competitions at their universities to select the teams that were sent to the National Competition. 

The National Competition is one facet of the Egypt’s partnership with the American people that supports legal education of Egyptian law students and lawyers.   With support from USAID, ABA has worked to integrate extracurricular activities such as moot competitions, legal writing competitions, legal skills training and legal clinics into law faculty programs to promote the development of professional skills in the legal profession.  Over the last six years, more than 1,700 law students and young lawyers from around the country have participated in ABA trainings and competitions.  These projects are part of the nearly $30 billion that the American people, through USAID, have invested in Egypt since 1975.