UTAMURIC Legal Chambers is a legal entrepreneurship ecosystem hub for UTAMURIC Ltd which focuses on professional legal services. The main objective of UTAMURIC legal entrepreneurship hub is to advance the objectives of UTAMURIC through legal practice. The chambers will be an innovation hub for advocates, a mentorship platform for young lawyers, as well as an avenue for public causes through public interest litigation.
The chambers are organized into five (6) departments as hereunder;
- Department of public interest litigation. This will be responsible for public interest cases such as environmental law, constitutional law and good governance, human rights. Advocates who have interest and capability in this area shall be allocated cases by the Director of the chambers.
- Department of commercial law. This shall handle legal work in the field of commercial law such as intellectual property, company related matters, banking, contracts, land transactions, international trade law, including disputes relating to East Africa Community integration. Allocation of advocates to this department shall be done by the Director of the chamber based on merit.
- Department of Civil litigation. This department shall handle all other non-commercial disputes such as land cases, torts, breaches of obligations, election petitions etc.
- Department of Criminal law. This shall handle criminal matters such as defending criminal cases, bail applications, bonds and overall advocacy for criminal justice reform.
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Department of legal research, law reform and publication. The overall objective of this department is to cultivate a culture of legal research and scholarly writing. The department shall undertake academic research and scholarly writing with a view of influencing legal reform. It shall establish a regional law journal, encourage scholarly writing, compile law reports of courts of record in the East African region for scholarly and commercial purposes; encourage legal research among lecturers and students in universities and provide a platform for publications of academic articles. This department shall also encourage writing of law textbooks that discuss law within the Uganda perspective and support initiatives for such publication.
The department shall also conduct a review and analysis of the most significant cases and publish the review on its online platform. Through its research, the department of Legal Research, law reform and publication will support the work of the other four departments, providing them with the most recent judicial decisions; it shall conduct a review of existing laws and practices that contravene the constitution or stifle fundamental freedoms, which will be the basis of public interest cases undertaken by the department of public interest litigation.
- Department of legal aid: This department shall provide probonol legal services to indigent persons. It shall conduct legal clinics across the country to help people of a myriad of legal issues, including formalization of business, succession issues, and provision of legal representation to indigent defendants as well as creation of public awareness.
