Her elevation to Partner made her the firm’s first female partner and one of the youngest women to attain such a position in competitive legal practice in Tanzania and across the region
Dar es Salaam. Bertha Nanyaro’s appointment as a Partner at Victory Attorneys & Consultants in 2025 marked a defining moment in a career shaped by purpose, discipline and service.
It reflected a philosophy that she holds dear that leadership is not a privilege, but a responsibility.
For her, the role demanded making decisions with those absent from the room in mind, a commitment to protecting professional standards, and a determination to widen access where barriers once stood. It also required accountability, not only for outcomes, but for the growth of others.
Victory Attorneys & Consultants is a local law firm with a global outlook. It delivers high-quality legal services to both international and domestic clients, combining technical rigour with strategic insight. Within this environment, Ms Nanyaro, who is a Corporate Commercial Lawyer and Investment Advisor by profession, emerged as a standout figure. Her elevation made her the firm’s first female partner and one of the youngest women to attain such a position in competitive legal practice in Tanzania and across the region.
For Nanyaro, the appointment carried significance beyond personal achievement. It sharpened her awareness that young women are observing her journey and measuring what is possible through what they see. This awareness reinforced her resolve to act with integrity, intention and consistency, knowing that her conduct sets a visible standard.
She joined the firm as a Junior Associate, rose to Head of Department, and ultimately assumed partnership. In her current role, she leads the Mergers and Acquisitions, Commercial Transactions and Investment Department.
There, she has built a purpose-driven and performance-focused team known for strategic clarity, technical excellence and disciplined execution.
“My mission is clear: to use the law to help businesses grow, elevate people and shape Tanzania’s development trajectory,” she said.
“My journey in the legal profession is a story of courage, conviction and an unwavering belief that the law can be both a shield and a bridge. It protects rights while opening doors of opportunity.”
Her fascination with law began early. As a young woman, she observed how diplomacy, governance and legal systems influenced public order and national development. She came to recognise a central truth: when law is applied with integrity and vision, it can transform societies. This realisation planted the seed of a lifelong calling. It placed her at the intersection of legal excellence and transformational leadership.
She graduated from the University of Dar es Salaam in 2015 with a Bachelor of Laws degree. She later pursued postgraduate training at the Law School of Tanzania. In 2018, she was admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of Tanzania.
Her academic journey continued through advanced studies with the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC), the International Federation of Catholic Universities (UNICAP), the Project Management Institute (PMI Global), and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) in London. She specialised in contract management, construction law, project management, Public-Private Partnerships and arbitration.
These qualifications strengthened her expertise in corporate and commercial law, investment advisory, infrastructure project management and sustainable development. Deliberate goal setting, disciplined execution and a refusal to drift defined her ascent. Positions once recorded in her notebook as future ambitions gradually became reality.
“I believe clarity is power. If you are not clear about where you are going, life will assign you somewhere convenient,” she said.
“Every stage of my journey has been guided by disciplined execution, technical mastery and the courage to act even when outcomes were uncertain.”
Impact remains the compass guiding her leadership. She measures success not by titles, but by the positive change attached to each mandate she receives. Leadership, she explains, became a responsibility rather than an ambition, because it expands the scale at which one can serve.
“I am deeply committed to elevating women into spaces that shape economic growth, regulation and national strategy,” she said. “But elevation is not symbolic. It is structural. It requires building competence, expanding networks, granting exposure to decision-making rooms and fostering economic independence. I rise best when others rise with me,” she explains.
Her guiding principles are professional competence, integrity, accountability, empathy and empowerment. These values, she insists, are non-negotiable. They form the foundation of her leadership and shape every professional decision she makes.
Empowerment, in her view, must be tangible. She actively mentors young female lawyers navigating complex fields such as corporate and commercial transactions, fintech, mining, investment advisory, arbitration and emerging sectors. Several of her mentees now occupy leadership roles or hold specialised technical responsibilities.
She also collaborates with women-focused funds and organisations. Her work involves structuring governance systems, strengthening compliance frameworks and shaping advocacy strategies. Through these efforts, she has contributed to initiatives that extend impact to thousands of women across Tanzania.
Beyond her professional commitments, she supports the education of more than seven young girls who would otherwise have been unable to continue their studies. She regards education as generational leverage. By investing in it, she believes, lasting social transformation becomes possible.
Within Victory Attorneys & Consultants, the ethos of empowerment is institutionalised. The firm operates under the motto “We Rise Together.” Young lawyers, both women and men, are deliberately exposed to direct client ownership.
They receive sponsorship to attend national and international forums. Structured mentorship programmes support professional growth. Continuous training builds mastery in emerging areas such as fintech, arbitration, artificial intelligence and technology law. The firm also champions Tanzania’s national moot court competition. This initiative provides early exposure to advocacy excellence for students from universities across the country.
Many former participants now work in leading law firms, auditing institutions, academia and corporate environments. Despite these advances, Nanyaro acknowledges that the legal profession remains male-dominated, particularly within decision-making structures. Women often feel compelled to prove their competence repeatedly. To counter this, she believes women must cultivate technical depth, executive presence, consistency and courage. Institutions, in turn, must dismantle structural bias and intentionally create equitable pathways to leadership. The burden of excellence, she argues, should not rest disproportionately on women to justify their presence.
“Female representation ensures that laws reflect lived realities,” she said. “When women participate in drafting, negotiation and adjudication, policies consider first-hand experiences, especially in areas such as labour rights, land ownership, access to finance and family law. Inclusive lawmaking builds inclusive economies,” she quips.
Creating environments where women thrive requires systemic change. Institutions must establish inclusive policy frameworks, provide equitable access to high-value assignments, sponsor mentorship and learning programmes, reward competence fairly and normalise women in leadership. Culture, she notes, shifts when systems shift.
The legacy she hopes to leave is the normalisation of women in power. She wants young women to enter boardrooms without hesitation or self-doubt.
“I want decisiveness in women to be respected rather than misunderstood,” she said. “If my journey shifts even one narrative from limitation to possibility, or enables even one woman to rise without apology, then my legacy will have substance,” she says.
Her ability to merge legal precision with commercial awareness has elevated her standing within Tanzania’s corporate landscape.
In 2025, she was recognised as Tanzania’s Notable Practitioner in Investment Funds and Corporate Matters by the International Financial Law Review 1000 (IFLR1000). The ranking is among the most respected and widely acknowledged in the global legal industry, particularly in corporate and financial law. The recognition affirmed her growing influence in corporate and investment advisory practice.
“The recognition assigns responsibility to sustain excellence,” she said. “Reputation in corporate law is built on trust, depth and consistent delivery. This honour reminds me to keep raising the bar,” she adds.
Early in her career, between 2015 and 2016, she contributed to initiatives supporting asylum seekers and refugees. Working in collaboration with institutions such as Asylum Access and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Tanzania, she engaged with the Centre for the Study of Forced Migration and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Through this experience, she witnessed how legal identity and policy frameworks could restore dignity, opportunity and belonging to displaced communities. The exposure reinforced her belief in law as a tool for human restoration.
Her professional journey also includes service at the Tanzania National Roads Agency (TANROADS) in 2017. There, she engaged with the legal dimensions of infrastructure development, a critical engine of national growth. The experience broadened her understanding of public-sector operations and strengthened her appreciation of the law’s role in economic transformation.
To young women entering male-dominated industries, her message is one of assurance and resolve. She insists that it is entirely possible to rise in such environments. History, she notes, offers abundant examples of transformative female leadership in both public and private sectors.
What it requires, she says, is intentional mastery, consistent delivery, clarity of execution and unwavering integrity. “When your competence is undeniable and your character is consistent, you do not merely earn a seat at the table. You influence the direction of the room,” she said.
