Vivek Maru
CEO of Namati | Empowering Legal Empowerment Worldwide
About
Vivek Maru is the CEO of Namati, a global nonprofit that is pioneering a new field of 'legal empowerment. ' Under his leadership, Namati has grown to 150 community paralegals across 10 countries, helping tens of thousands of people to understand, use, and shape the law.
Maru previously worked at the World Bank, the UN, and the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Agriculture. He is a Skoll Awardee, a Schwab Social Entrepreneur, and holds a JD from Yale Law School.
Talks1
How to put the power of law in people's hands
What can you do when the wheels of justice don't turn fast enough? Or when they don't turn at all? Vivek Maru is working to transform the relationship between people and law, turning law from an abstraction or threat into something that everyone can understand, use and shape. Instead of relying solely on lawyers, Maru started a global network of community paralegals, or barefoot lawyers, who serve in their own communities and break the law down into simple terms to help people find solutions. Learn more about how this innovative approach to using the law is helping socially excluded people claim their rights. "A little bit of legal empowerment can go a long way," Maru says.
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