At the Convention there was a desire to bring together lawyers in Micheal Gomes. At this time our current Child Rights Coordinator Juves was working for World Vision and was approached to support this new initiative. Christian lawyers were invited to a meeting at Scripture Union. The meeting was attended by judicial officials including judges and lawyers. They agreed that through simple advocacy and advice it is possible to change the lives of ordinary people. After discussion they decided that targeting very old people, children and the needy would be priorities. From here the Bible verse to ‘defend the cause of the poor and needy’ was decided as the command to underpin our work. The group later chose the name the Network of Lawyers of Hope.

By 2005 judges from the UK and US visited Micheal Gomes to build up and encourage the Network. Later that year members were invited to a CLEAR conference in Kenya. At this conference the founding members of Lawyers of Hope, Micheal Gomes, wrote a proposal for future work and aims. Our long-term partner the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship began to send money to support office costs.

In 2006 we began the process to register the Network of Lawyers of Hope as an NGO. This was a lengthy process as we began filing papers in the Gasabo District. After a lot of effort and many journeys we were eventually granted NGO status. Soon after, our first intern was sent from Lawyers Christian Fellowship. We then began receiving cases at the end of 2007.

As our work and members grew so we moved offices from Scripture Union to our current location at Kimironko. We currently have an office staff of five with over 300 lawyers part of our Network.