William Kosar

William Kosar is a senior legal advisor, law professor, project manager, trainer and institutional development professional. He has worked throughout the world assisting governments and private sector entities with legal reform, legislative drafting and capacity building and is currently working remotely as Senior Legal Advisor to the EU-supported Budget Support Project in Somalia as well as remotely on several other projects including Fiji, Chuuk (Federated States of Micronesia), Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, South Sudan and Zambia as well as on mission in Khartoum, Sudan. Previously he was working on several USAID projects in Egypt and prior to that with the World Bank as Senior Legal Advisor to the Somalia Ministry of Petroleum & Mineral Resources and immediately prior to that with the USAID-funded Southern Africa Trade Hub (“SATH”) project in Botswana, Namibia, Malawi and Swaziland. Prof. Kosar was recently named one of the Top 100 Corporate Counsel in Africa: http://www.legal500.com/assets/pages/cc100/2015/africa15.html From 2014-2015, Prof. Kosar was Senior Legal Consultant for Somalia acting on behalf of the Ministry of Finance as well as the Financial Governance Committee of the Federal Government of Somalia. This followed a year advising the Central Bank of Iraq on behalf of the USAID-funded Financial Development Program. For the 2 previous years, Prof Kosar was Senior Legal Advisor to the Rwandan Ministry of Justice on behalf of UNDP. In 2011, he completed a USAID-funded 3 year assignment with Deloitte Consulting in Juba, South Sudan, as a Legal & Legislative Advisor to the Ministry of Legal Affairs & Constitutional Development of the Government of Southern Sudan where he provided strategic advice to the Minister including on the Transitional Constitution, has drafted over 40 laws, trained and mentored dozens of government lawyers as well working on the Ministry’s annual budget and development plan. Previously he was a Legal Advisor with Deloitte’s on the Afghanistan Economic Governance and Private Sector Strengthening project based in Kabul. In that capacity, he worked with Da Afghanistan Bank and was responsible for developing several financial laws. Prior to that, Mr. Kosar was a Legal Advisor/Trainer with the International Development Law Organisation in Kabul, where he designed and facilitated legal training programs including international business law, commercial law & procedure for the judiciary and the Faculty of Law & Political Science at the University of Kabul. In addition he provided legislative drafting training to the Legislative Drafting Office (Taqnin) of the Afghan Ministry of Justice and on worked on legislative strengthening with the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of the National Assembly). An author of two legal textbooks and numerous legal articles, Mr. Kosar has worked in Sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, the Middle East, the Balkans and Viet Nam. He is a native English speaker and speaks a number of other languages. Prof. Kosar is a qualified Arbitrator (Chartered Institute of Arbitrators) and is a Certified International Trade Practitioner. He makes his home on Kenya’s North Coast.