In 2004, the U.S. Department of State entered into an agreement with the University of Washington School of Law to strengthen the Afghan justice sector by supporting legal education in Afghanistan. The core of that initial agreement was a commitment to recruit Afghan professors, principally from the Faculty of Law and Political Science at Kabul University, and guide them in obtaining LLM degrees from our university. In 2020, the Legal Education Support Program-Afghanistan (LESPA) will end. Over the past 15 years, the State Department, UW, and our Afghan partners, have shared experiences, frustrations, and successes that will have an enduring influence on all of us.

We have worked with 30 faculties (Law and Political Science or Islamic Law) at 21 Afghan universities and will have graduated more than 60 LLMs and 5 PhDs, a true achievement. We have provided a platform from which additional Afghan professors have obtained advanced education in Germany, India, Japan, Indonesia, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Additionally, LESPA program alums have been leaders in the introduction of clinical education, legal writing and research, curricular revision, the re-establishment of a culture of research and publication, the advancement of a national profession of legal educators, and have served as Deans or Vice-Deans at 25 faculties.

Our distinguished speakers will focus on two topics:

- What enabled LESPA to turn its initial challenges into eventual success?

- Which actual outcomes have had meaningful impact on Afghan legal education and the justice sector, as envisioned in the original program design?

Please join us to celebrate and explore the LESPA experience.