From passion to impact: Arwa’s long journey to legal excellence

Dar es Salaam. Making a connection between one’s experiences and their impact on society makes a career journey meaningful. Although she was not sure if her job would affect positive change in people’s lives, Arwa Yusufali, one of Tanzania’s leading lawyers with a focus on compliance, immigration and litigation, achieved her goal years ago.

Arwa is a founding partner of Elegant Law Chambers and she has over 10 years of experience in the legal arena. From an early age, Arwa was passionate about the law and believed that it was a noble profession.

"I come from a background that made it difficult to go after my dream, however, with my family's support, especially my mother's, this became possible. Among the things that kept me grounded and excited to learn law was the fact that I could make actual changes by practicing it. There are a lot of people who are unaware of their rights and simple things in life, and it is through my knowledge that I assist them," she explains.

Through her work, Arwa guides and assists companies to get licences before they start their operations.

"I also work with individuals to assist them with immigration issues such as permits, visas and grants. I also deal with labour and employment litigation, whereas I look at the benefits of the employee, how the law governs the employee and the Human Resources policies," she details.

Arwa's career journey began in 2012 as a Clark intern at Law Associates Advocates, immediately after she finalised her law school at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM). Her dedication and hard work saw Arwa get promoted as she served different roles, including as a legal officer and an advocate.

 In 2018, she joined IMMMA Advocates as an associate, and two years later, she became a senior associate at Breakthrough Attorneys, a role in which she served for four years.

"I was heading the department for regulatory compliance and immigration. In this role, I learned a lot of things that paved the way to the establishment of Elegant Law Chambers. Most lawyers usually have two dreams: to either become judges or to have their own law firm. I chose to pursue the latter," she details.

She, however, was previously influenced in 2022 to apply for the role of a judge, but she was not able to pass due to being too young for the position.

"It was always in the back of my mind to start something of my own, but I never acted on the thought up until late last year when I believed that it was the right time because I had made a strong foundation," she says.

Arwa explained that over the past four months since Elegant Law Chambers was introduced to the public, it has been a learning curve for her career.

"This law firm has unravelled a side of business I did not know before. It has been a humbling journey that has made me interact with stakeholders in different sectors whose experiences speak for themselves. I have made a network of people who perceive challenges as repetitive opportunities for growth," she explains.

She details that one of her career milestones is the way she has been able to make a positive difference in people's lives through her work.

"From the dawn of my career path, I wanted to become impactful through law and to see that turn into a reality is a blessing on its own," she says.

There are times she questions her journey, as in, 'Will you be able to do it?' 'What do you have to offer that others do not have?' and 'Will the client trust you?' roamed in her mind.

 "This was the biggest challenge in the beginning because such questions made me doubt my skills and goals; however, my support system is one of the things that grounded me," she recalls.

Through her experience, Arwa has picked up some lessons through mentorship and she applies these lessons to her career and personal life.

"Mentorship resembles peeking through someone's experience and making different yet wiser decisions on things. My first mentor taught me to read between the lines, carefully read documents and not get emotionally attached to the client because that's your client's case, not yours. I was taught all these things after I graduated from law school," she says.

She also commends mentorship for allowing growth for both the mentor and the mentee. As Arwa describes it, the mentor gets a chance to do things right through the lessons they picked during challenging times they faced, and the mentee gets a chance to follow the right path through the broad mind of their mentor.

Arwa explains that it is empowering to witness women working and breathing life into their dreams because this was not the case decades ago.

“One of my goals at the moment is to inspire more people, particularly women, to go after their passion," she says. Arwa hopes women in and out of the country will be encouraged to work their way to their dreams through self-commitment and dedication.

She advises women to publicly share their stories and start working on their dreams with the little that they have instead of waiting on funds that may never come.