About AIA Law Office

The AIA Law Office was established first 2000 and then in 2004 in the midst of the Somali civil war crisis. This 20 years old civil war in the country set into wave dramatic changes in Somalia’s political, legal, economic as well as legal environment. The demand for legal services due to these dramatic changes allows AIA to provide legal services to the Somali people in the country and outside the country.



The AIA Law Office besidex Somali language has a trilingual service (English, ITALIAN, and ARABIC). Based in the Capital City of Somalia, Mogadishu. Some of the AIA legal services’ custom dating back to 1983. The Founding Partner, Abdiwahid Osman Haji, is a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Somalia registration number # 52 dated June 19, 1983. He is currently a member with good standing of the Somali Bar Association.  He was also an associate professor of Somali criminal law at the Somali National University of Mogadishu (1980-1982) . He is also formerly founder of Somali lawyers’ office in 1985. His academic credentials are as follows: LLM (University of Ottawa) specialized in international humanitarian law (thesis: Somalia: the legality of UN intervention ), He is also the author of numerous articles and books. During his carrier in Somalia represented a Danish company Construction Kamphill who constructed the Savoy Centre ( or Jirdeh Building), American Embassy Compound and Indian Ocean Warehouse. He represented Kenya Airways, Somali Airlines several foreign businessmen from Italy.

AIA partner Abdiwahid and Isse Ahmed Warsame were among youngest lawyer in the Somali history  in establishing the first law office in the capital of Mogadishu in the middle of Somali civil war and pioneers participating in the re-building Somali  legal system and rule of law. Their backgrounds and experiences in politics, rule of law and private companies make them to show committed to help the active involvement of the United Nations in Somalia and help the Somali national reconciliation process and restoration of peace and stability in Somalia.

The AIA is licensed to practice throughout Somalia at all level of courts including Somali Supreme Court, regional and district court and any other similar legal tribunals. The AIA maintains a refined large database of all previously Somali laws to analyze past legal claim and record in a short time. The AIA law office enthusiastically supports Somali government institutions and Somali NGOs and their lawyers are instructed to give free and a pro bono consultation and representation and human rights and in public interest cases. The AIA law office gives high importance to understand foreign Client;s business needs and objectives operating in Somalia.
We are most important law office in criminal, civil, constituional
 and international law in Somalia with an extensive network of associate’s offices across other jurisdictions in West Asia, North Africa and their neighboring regions. The jurisdictions include Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Sudan, Djibouti, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Syria, UAE, and Yemen. We can also offer a fully centralized service from our Head Office in Mogadishu (Somalia) in London (UK) and Ottawa (Canada) if required.

In this period of civil war in Somali people and Somali government need AIA as a national advisory and consultant focusing on police training programme and training judicial personnel in the Somali judicial administration and ethics, juvenile justice, sentencing practices, human rights and the rule of law. These programs will be financed by AIA and partly financed by voluntary contributions, in cash and in kind, from NGOs foreign Governments and Somali Federal and Regional governments.
As part of a long-term growth plan, The AIA law office will expand national legal services in other Somali regions and in particular Somaliland. Also in 2012 will provide training the Somali police on how receive complaints from the public and conducting investigations into criminal cases as well as the enhancement of their capacity for general crime prevention duties and such specialist duties as investigation, criminal intelligence gathering, riot control, community. The aim of the police training programme to give refresher courses to police trained elsewhere and to revitalize lost police skills resulting from years of absence from work as a result of the collapse of the Somali legal administration apparatus two decade ago.

We provide consulting on key sector such as disarmament, demobilization and reintegration Initiative.  In the reintegration programme, each Somali participating in demobilization and reintegration has the option of receiving skills training in small and medium-sized enterprises, receiving vocational training, undergoing rural reintegration or receiving formal education. We help both the Transitional Federal Government and elements of the “opposition” to engage in a political dialogue.

Our lawyers know how to advocate effectively a peaceful settlement in a hostile environment where there is disturbing violations of humanitarian law and people are generally deprived their right under all the three systems of law in Somalia, specifically, civil law, customary law and Shariah law.
We can work directly with members of Somali transitional government to help to improve the administration of justice by developing the rule of law, building their capacity to enforce the law and improving the application of human rights standards and provide training to highlight the need for “harmonizing” among customary law, Shariah law and international human rights instruments.
We understand the rules of legislative process, how government operates and how to match the needs of our clients with those of other relevant stakeholders to achieve practical legislative results.