Building Pan-African Legal AI, Judicial Infrastructure, and Taking the Leap with Rawan Dareer
This week on the podcast, I had the honour of sitting down with Rawan Dareer. Rawan is a Sudanese-Canadian lawyer, entrepreneur, and the co-founder and CEO of Hakimu, a pioneering startup building AI-powered legal infrastructure across the African continent. After studying at NYU Abu Dhabi and earning a master's degree in migration studies at the University of Oxford, Rawan completed her JD at Stanford Law School as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. Along the way, she drafted parliamentary codes of conduct in Kuwait, conducted migration research for the United Nations, and clerked for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Rwanda. We got into the realities of harmonizing civil and common law traditions in Rwandan courts, how to deploy artificial intelligence safely inside public judiciaries, and why some of the most fascinating careers belong to non-practicing lawyers who use their training to solve systemic problems. What is the unspoken rule here? Talent is equally distributed around the world, but opportunity is not. Law school trains you to think in rigid, structured ways, which often pushes graduates straight onto the safest, most conventional career conveyor belt. Rawan points out that at the very beginning of your career, virtually nothing is irredeemable. You have far more flexibility today than you will have ten years from now. Whether you want to build legal tech from scratch, work on constitutional reconstruction, or tackle climate and migration policy, you do not need to wait for a traditional job posting to give you permission. Find exceptional people you admire, leave room for serendipity, and build the solution yourself. Choose your people over the job title. Early in your career, who you work with often matters more than the specific tasks on your desk. Seek out brilliant leaders you respect who will act as both hands-on mentors and vocal advocates for your growth. Leave room for serendipity. Do not let rigid five-year plans blind you to unexpected opportunities. Halfway through her second year at Stanford Law, Rawan had no idea she would be founding a legal tech company upon graduation. Stay open to pivots. Take the leap early. If you feel called toward a project or a country that falls completely outside the conventional Big Law script, take the risk now while your personal flexibility is highest. Even if a venture fails, the lessons and institutional fluency you gain are yours forever. Guest: Rawan Dareer, co-founder and CEO of Hakimu, Knight-Hennessy Scholar, and Stanford Law School graduate. Where to listen and how to support the show Search Studying Law Around the World on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. If you found value in this episode, please take a moment to follow the show and leave a rating. Selected episodes of Studying Law Around the World are eligible for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credit with the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) and Continuing Legal Education (CLE/CPD) credit with the Law Society of British Columbia (LSBC). For approved episodes, accreditation details, and participation information, please visit: https://studyinglawaroundtheworld.com/