About LexisNexis - In the Community

Advancing the Rule of Law in Southern Africa

LexisNexis believes that our expertise in law and information technology makes us uniquely qualified to help advance the Rule of Law worldwide. We are committed to promoting the Rule of Law through a combination of financial support, donations of our solutions, collaboration with other organizations and employee volunteerism and pro bono work.

In 2007 we launched our inaugural LexisNexis corporate pro bono project, to support the Southern Africa Litigation Center (SALC), a joint initiative of the International Bar Association and the Open Society of Southern Africa. The SALC trains attorneys, supports human rights cases, and carries out other programs to advance the Rule of Law.

Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, the SALC operates in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe and focuses its initiatives on three principal areas:

  1. Support for human rights cases
  2. Advice on Constitutional advocacy in the Southern African region
  3. Training in human rights and rule of law issues

SALC, in partnership with local lawyers and human rights NGOs, identifies the specific constitutional and human rights issues that can be most strategically litigated before respective domestic courts in southern Africa. The Center is especially involved in media defense, media expression and media freedom cases, and with HIV litigation, particularly in discrimination and access to treatment issues relating to women and children.

To help the SALC realize its mandate, a team of five LexisNexis lawyer employees located across the US will be working exclusively with the SALC lawyers to provide pro bono legal research assistance. In addition to the assistance of our pro bono volunteers, LexisNexis has also donated six laptop computers and a number of Mathew Bender® print publications to support the Center's efforts.