Taking Care of Rwanda’s Legal Business

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Los Angeles doesn’t seem like the first place the government of Rwanda would look for a lawyer. But for the last three years, Pierre-Richard Prosper, a partner in the downtown L.A. office of Arent Fox LLP, has been the one that country’s turned to when facing stateside legal matters.

When a U.S. company sold Rwanda some allegedly shoddy armored cars that were meant to protect the country’s president, Prosper was called in to be the legal muscle. He also defended Rwanda in a contract dispute with a company over a tea plantation, and works as a kind of outside consultant to help modernize the country’s legal system.

The 47-year-old Prosper got to know the players in the country, including the current president, during the ’90s, when he investigated the Rwandan genocide as a war crimes prosecutor for the United Nations.

Now, as a private attorney, he said that he has seen remarkable economic growth on his regular trips back. It helps that he’s a fan of the food there.

“It’s a mixture of local cooking of vegetables and meats,” he said, “and there’s a bit of Belgian and French, too.”

Old School

Actor Hill Harper regaled a crowd of local executives, lawyers and law students recently at an event staged by L.A. powerhouse Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP. And the “CSI: NY” star did some name-dropping.

During his speech at Gibson Dunn’s diversity networking reception, Harper described a chance meeting with a fellow student when he was attending Harvard University Law School.

“I’m walking out (of the gym) and in walks this skinny guy, his socks are a little too high and his shorts are a little too small,” Harper recalled. “I walk up to him excited and say, ‘Hey, man, do you want to play basketball?’ And he kind of looks down at me and he says, with a little attitude, ‘Well, why else would I be in the gym?’ ”

That student? Barack Obama.

Harper’s story drew chuckles from the 175 in attendance, including Charles Woo, chief executive at downtown L.A.’s Megatoys; Debra Langford, vice president of inclusion and business diversity at NBCUniversal; and Andre Birotte Jr., U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.

Staff reporters Alfred Lee and Alexa Hyland contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].

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