Tools of empowerment

We help the legal system perform better. Everyday. Worldwide. One way we are doing this is by providing a fundamental tool to improve the rule of law&emdash;books.

In Africa, law schools, bar associations and other legal entities often have only a few old, worn law books. Some have no books at all. Books For Africa, the world's largest shipper of donated text and library books to Africa, established the Jack Mason Law & Democracy Initiative to address this dire need.

The legal businesses of Thomson Reuters have united to form a key partnership with Books For Africa's Jack Mason Law & Democracy Initiative to supply full libraries to legal institutions across the African continent. Additionally, we help fund the shipment of the books and host book drives to fill the shelves of school libraries.

The advisory board to the Jack Mason Law & Democracy Initiative is headed by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale. Tom Pfeifer, senior vice president, Corporate and Government Sales and Account Management, Thomson Reuters, Legal, serves on the board with them. In addition to Tom's service, law book donations and funds to ship books, Thomson Reuters also provides in-kind printing support.

At Thomson Reuters, Legal we combine industry expertise with new technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the legal market. Together with Books For Africa, we are doing even more&emdash;providing tools of empowerment to the next generation of leaders in Africa.

Supporting the Rule of Law in Africa

  • More than 50,000 books were sent to Benin with our financial support.
  • The Grimes School of Law in Liberia received more than 1,800 legal texts for coursework and its law library.
  • In 2009, we shipped 650 legal texts to legal institutions in Sierra Leone.
  • We provided more than 600 books to establish a law library in Cameroon in 2009.
  • Eight legal and government institutions in Tanzania received shipments of Thomson Reuters legal texts in 2009.
  • In 2009, we awarded a US$5,000 grant to support the shipment of a container of books bound for Zambia.