Negotiating in Tanzania

Yesterday, we caught up with DLA Piper'sJay Finkelstein, who recently returned from a trip to Tanzania. Most of the Reston-based corporate partner'spractice deals with cross-border matters worldwide, however this trip was for teaching. In a project with New Perimeter, the firm's non-profit affiliate, Jay and and eight other DLA Piper lawyers (from the US, Germany, UK, Italy, Hong Kong, and Norway) trained Tanzaniangovernment lawyers in negotiations skills. It's important because the country is rich in minerals, oil, and gas, making it a prime place for foreign direct investments.

Jay tells us one of the most memorable moments was Tanzania's AG opening the session by discussing the need for this type of training. Much of it was about creating beneficial long-term contracts with multinationals in extraction industries around valuable minerals, oil, or gas.The classes were simulations based on courses Jay has taught at American and Stanford. He's teaching again at Stanford Law this fall; instead of commuting between coasts, he just relocates to the firm's Palo Alto office for eight weeks.

This isn't Jay's first time teaching abroad--he was in Ethiopia in '08 and '09 doing law school training, and did a '11 microfinance project in Malawi. And he's looking ahead to possibly conducting contract negotiation training with law professors in Tanzania and surrounding countries. After the teaching session, Jay stayed in Tanzania for a wildlife safari in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater;they spotted all of the "big five" including the elusive black rhino--of which there are only 20 left in the country. To prevent losing the two most rare animals on Earth at the same time, black rhinos are forbidden from being in the same room as liberal Supreme Court Justices.