From Academic Excellence to Legal Protege: The Arthur Ddamulira Story.

Arthur’s earliest chance to shine on the national stage did not go as planned. According to him, he enjoyed school and was good at it, but getting 7 aggregates in his Primary Leaving Exams at City Parents School (CPS) meant he missed out on joining schools like King’s College Budo, Namilyango College and St. Mary’s College Kisubi (SMACK). But this didn’t set him back. He joined Makerere College School (MACOS), where he set academic records.

“I consider it as luck, but by the time I left MACOS, I was one of the best students that had gone there, at least academically. The school gave me a lot of opportunities not just academically, but also in leadership and sports.” Arthur tells the Orion Beacon.

Having got 14 aggregates in O’Level, Arthur had the opportunity to finally join the likes of Budo and SMACK, but he preferred to go back for MACOS for his A’Level because he had a “chip on his shoulder” , much to the dismay of his parents. What made it worse, was the fact that MACOS was just shifting its A’Level campus from Makerere University where it had been for over fifty years to Kira-Mulawa, a suburb in Kira Municipality.

“The Mulawa campus was still new. Most of the buildings were makeshift and we didn’t even have a library. But this built my resilience and this made my story stand out even more.” he says proudly.

At his A’Level, Arthur scored the maximum 20 points. He received the Beacon Scholarship and joined Cardiff University for a Bachelor of Laws. That was his ticket to the UK. Arriving in a completely new environment, a lot of people might shrink in the presence of much more accomplished peers. However, Arthur saw it as another opportunity to perform on a bigger stage.

“Cardiff is a Russell Group university, and thus is very competitive to get into, but it is also ultra-competitive to go through it. I had a lot of opportunities to stand out. I revived the Law Review which had been defunct for eight years. I started a brand new society, the Commercial Awareness Society, which is a skill prestigious law firms are always looking for. This society is prominent in other universities like Oxford and LSE. I also competed in high-level mooting competitions such as the Oxford University Press Moot where I reached the finals’’

Arthur also explains his decision to study law and how he enjoyed the process. “I think law comes naturally to me. I enjoyed the critical thinking and being very methodical in going through the cases and precedents. It is an art (to some extent), but I think for me, it was like science.” Arthur graduated with a first-class honours degree with academic awards at the end of the three years.

Having been a standout student at Cardiff Law School graduating with a first-class, and with several legal and finance internships under his belt, he got multiple offers from UK law firms but chose to go with the Magic Circle law firm, Freshfields. “I had been lucky to engage with people from Freshfields as a Stephen Lawrence Scholar, so it was an easy decision. When you join Freshfields, it is an environment with the best lawyers in the world and it is a community I want to be part of. It is possibly the world’s leading firm, in my opinion, for corporate law. Early on in my career, I needed to learn a lot, and I didn’t think there was a better place to learn.”

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP is the oldest international law firm in the world and one of the most difficult law firms to join globally. The firm has a significant presence across the world with revenues of close to US$1.8bn. The firm was founded in 1743 as a lawyer to the Bank of England and has represented the Bank of England since then. Other clients include Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Google. In June 2023, the firm advised on UBS’ $3.2bn acquisition of Credit Suisse, a deal that was the biggest banking tie-up since the 2008 global financial crisis. The deal was famously wrapped up in one weekend. Partners at the firm earned an average of £2m last year.

It has been a steep learning curve for Arthur in his young career. For starters, he has begun by working (for six months) out of the firm’s office in Dubai. He has been absorbing and enjoying the journey. But in the long term, he hopes to return to Africa. He still thinks this is achievable even at Freshfields. Now, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts working on Africa focused projects and previously, he helped found the Africa Desk at London Politica (the largest political risk think tank for social impact in the world).

“Long-term, I want to work in finance and keep contributing to the development of credit markets in Africa. I have been coming back to Uganda every year since I joined Cardiff Law School, so working in Africa is at the top of my list. Luckily, Freshfields has one of the best Africa-focused practices and we do a lot of work for clients that are present in Africa.”

For someone born, raised and educated in Uganda, what Arthur has managed to achieve and the trajectory he is on is largely unprecedented. In our conversation, he has tried to put it down to luck. But when you probe deeper, he is relentless. “I am never satisfied with myself. I am constantly looking for new opportunities to challenge myself. When I got 20 points in A Level, I would have put my feet up and enjoyed that success. When I got a first-class, I would have done the same. But at every instance, I move on to the next challenge and try to conquer it. As long as you are breathing, you can still grow. Of course, sometimes, I don’t know when to stop, but it has still helped me achieve good things.”