Indeed, the legal and judicial professions as well as those of accounting and finance (commonly referred to as “numbers professions”) are numerous and varied.

 Some, traditional ones, are among the oldest and best-shared professions in the world, while others, more recent, are the result of the meeting between service needs and available professional capacities. To these professions are added today, those related, auxiliaries or intermediaries to the legal, judicial and accounting professions whose main purpose is to provide them with the means and methods for the efficient performance of their missions.

 These professions strengthen the capacities of legal and accounting professionals and provide them with innovative solutions for the exercise of their activity, in particular through the use of information and communication technologies. The performance of the technical means proposed is such that their scope has reached the professions most reluctant to technological development.

 The evolution of the nomenclature and, sometimes, of the nature of the legal and judicial professions and of figures has accelerated thanks in particular to professional meetings, a framework for exchanges and definition of policies adapted to the objectives of the profession. 

Thus seminars and especially annual congresses are organized by several legal and judicial professions. Among them, can be mentioned: the International Congress of Notaries, the Congress of African Notaries, the International Congress of Judicial Officers and Enforcement Agents, the International Congress of Lawyers, the Inter-African Forum of Company Lawyers or even the African Congress of Business Lawyers, the meetings of the National Orders of Chartered Accountants and Chartered Accountants (ONECCA) and the annual meetings of the African Association of Francophone High Jurisdictions (AAHJF). 

All these events have the merit of constituting a framework for exchanges between legal professionals or accounting professionals. However, even if they tend to advocate openness, they are essentially sectoral, registering the participation of professionals from a given sector or profession. Given the need for interprofessional synergy in the life and practice of business law and convinced of the considerable contribution of interprofessionalism in the expansion of the legal, judicial and accounting professions as well as the economic development of States, the Regional School of Magistracy (ERSUMA) of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) has established the International Forum of Law and Figures Professionals (FIPROD). 

Each edition of FIPROD is organized around a theme that is in line with the orientations of OHADA and its Member States as well as those of the legal and accounting professions. The interprofessional scope of FIPROD is unequivocal. Its objective is to contribute to interprofessional synergy in the field of business, accounting and finance. It aims to promote not only meetings between legal and accounting professionals but also between professionals and the recipients of their services. It allows in particular to: 

• Assess the legislative and regulatory framework for the legal, judicial and accounting professions; 

• Appreciate the capacities of legal and accounting professionals to respond effectively to requests for services; • Strengthen the capacities of legal and accounting professionals; 

• Assess the level of attractiveness of the business environment in the OHADA space; 

• Encourage a repositioning of the legal, judicial and accounting professions on an international scale; 

• Facilitate the establishment of a framework for interprofessional collaboration not only between the various actors in the OHADA space, but also between them and international firms; 

• Support collaboration and complementarity between legal and economic integration organizations and between them and technical and financial partners; 

• Create a permanent framework for exchanges between the legal, judicial and accounting professions called the “International Network of Legal and Accounting Professionals”, abbreviated as “FRIPROD”; 

• Provide a framework for promoting innovative solutions for the exercise of the legal, judicial and accounting professions; 

• Better adapt ERSUMA's services to the capacity building needs of legal, judicial and accounting professionals.