Honoree: Herbert Smith Freehills

The recent history of the West African nation of Sierra Leone has been characterized by a succession of coups and counter-coups, culminating in a brutal civil war between 1991 and 2001. During this time over 50,000 people were killed, and hundreds of thousands more displaced to refugee camps in neighboring Guinea and Liberia. But the country of six million has made considerable progress since then, with a unicameral democracy restored in 2007.