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We would like to thank all the members of the national committees of all the African countries who have dedicated their time and efforts to ensuring that we have an excellent selection of candidates. Particularly the newest members of the national committees - Botswana, Namibia and Sierra Leone

This year ILFA has also received support from the Commercial Bar Association (Combar) who sponsored this year's ILFA candidate from Sierra Leone and we look forward to a long and fruitful collaboration with Combar. We are also pleased to welcome White & Case LLP

ILFA's Advisory Committee has also been honoured by the addition of former Lord Chief Justice and Senior Law Lord, Lord Bingham of Cornhill, The Honourable Mrs Justice Dobbs DBE, Mr Phillip Alliker, Barrister of Tanfield Chambers, Mr Richard Dowden, Director of the Royal African Society, Dr Adesegun Akin-Olugbade, General Counsel and Corporate Director of the African Finance Corporation and Mr Andrew Holroyd OBE, CBE former President of the Law Society of England and Wales.

We also wish to express our gratitude to the members of the Advisory Committee.

To ensure that ILFA continues to flourish, we have taken the opportunity to strengthen our Board with the addition of Sandie Okoro, Group General Counsel at Baring Asset Management, part of the MassMutual Financial Group, Paul Crook, Global Head of Corporate Know-how and Training at Allen & Overy LLP and Clarissa O'Callaghan, Head of Pro Bono at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP.

Sandie Okoro is widely known in the legal profession and manages a team of lawyers that are based in London, Boston and Hong Kong. Sandie will help to represent the constituency of financial and commercial concerns that take an interest in business in Africa and support the capacity building which ILFA seeks to foster.

Paul has been the main face of Allen & Overy's continual support of ILFA since its inception and we are delighted that he has agreed to take on a post as Director, making his commitment more visible.

Clarissa is a qualified solicitor having practiced in the Freshfield's dispute resolution department. Clarissa was instrumental in developing the firm's current pro bono activities in Africa and has helped run a legal training project in Kenya. Clarissa also sits on the executive committee of the Human Rights Lawyers Association

We made exciting changes to ILFA's format this year. For short periods of time some of our candidates were seconded to clients, such as SAB Miller, Barclays, The Crown Estate, AFREN Plc, Thomson Reuters and Barings Asset Management. One of the candidates spent a month in the Paris offices of Herbert Smith LLP. Other candidates had the opportunity to undertake mini pupillages with Members of the Commercial Bar and to sit with Judges in the Royal Courts of Justice.

The programme commenced on 7 September with a welcome dinner hosted by Lovells LLP.

We shall round off t with our Gala dinner at the Law Society in London on 26 November 2009.

We look forward to welcoming next year's interns and strengthening the relationships we have formed with Lawyers across Sub-Saharan Africa. The application process for 2010 will commence in January 2010.