Lawyers on the Frontline: Applying a Proven Model to Today’s Development Challenges

Beyond Aid: How Mission Driven Counsel brings the USAID RLO Model to NGOs, Businesses, and Funders

By SAMANTHA GLOVER FERREIRA

September 22, 2025

In the complex and fast-moving world of international development, legal expertise is not just a back-office function, it is a critical enabler of effective, lawful, and accountable programming. Technical teams in the field need real-time legal advice on pressing issues ranging from program implementation hurdles, ethics concerns, and addressing fraud, waste and abuse. Knowing this, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) deployed Resident Legal Officers (RLOs) to strategic locations across the globe. 

What was a USAID Resident Legal Officer?

RLOs were U.S. government foreign service officers and U.S.-licensed attorneys in USAID’s Office of the General Counsel who were stationed at USAID Missions abroad. They provided on-the-ground guidance to ensure that U.S. foreign assistance aligned with U.S. laws, regulations, policies, and values. Like other USAID foreign service officers, RLOs would spend a number of years at one overseas post before moving to another overseas location. Over the course of an RLO’s career, he/she could expect to serve in several foreign countries, including hardship and danger posts, as well as doing a tour or two in Washington D.C. at USAID’s headquarters. 

Depending on the overseas post and the size and complexity of USAID’s portfolio there, the RLO may have only covered one country or may have had a portfolio covering several countries in the region. Those RLOs covering multiple countries would travel frequently to these other locations to ensure that all USAID Missions that they covered received on-the-ground legal coverage.

RLOs were essentially the in-house general counsel for the USAID Missions that they covered. RLOs served as part of the USAID Missions’ senior leadership and usually were members of the front office, together with the USAID Mission Director and Deputy Mission Director. They served as the primary legal advisors to USAID Mission Directors, technical staff, program officers, contracting and financial officials, and human resources staff. RLOs also played a key role in the U.S. government interagency, liaising with U.S. Ambassadors, Embassy counterparts, and host country officials. RLOs frequently went on to become USAID Deputy Mission Directors and Mission Directors.

Core Responsibilities

There was no typical day in the life of an RLO! As the Mission’s general counsel, all legal questions came to the RLO. These issues included program implementation, contracts and grants, ethics, implementing partner misconduct allegations, navigating operations and programming in non-permissive environments and closing spaces, tax exemptions, labor and employment.

In addition, RLOs advised on a range of non-legal questions related to in-country strategy, operations and policy. While the work of each RLO was tailored to the unique context of the region they served, typical responsibilities often included:

• Providing legal advice on the design and implementation of foreign assistance programs: RLOs reviewed strategies, project designs, and activity plans to ensure they complied with U.S. law and agency policy. RLOs accompanied programs from design through implementation and close-out, troubleshooting legal issues as they arose.

  
  

• Advising on contracts, grants and other financial assistance instruments: RLOs helped draft, review, and interpret USAID’s contracts, grants and cooperative agreements, offering real-time legal guidance to acquisition and assistance professionals. RLOs were key to drafting, negotiating and implementing USAID’s non-acquisition and assistance instruments, such as government-to-government agreements, donor-to-donor agreements and agreements with public international organizations.

  
  

• Ensuring compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements: RLOs navigated restrictions related to country eligibility, anti-terrorism vetting, sanctions, human rights due diligence (such as Leahy vetting), and gender-based violence safeguards, among others.

  
  

• Managing legal and reputational risk: RLOs proactively identified and helped mitigate legal and reputational risks associated with operating in challenging environments, including fragile states, post-conflict zones, and places with weak rule of law.

  
  

• Engaging with host governments and multilateral partners: RLOs negotiated and drafted framework bilateral agreements, such as agreements providing large sums of U.S. funds to host government counterparts (called “development objective grant agreements” (DOAGs)) with host government counterparts, establishing the framework for U.S. foreign assistance in-country and ensuring that that assistance and the staff working on that assistance received privileges and immunities as well as tax exemptions.

  
  

• Coordinating with the State Department and interagency partners: As members of the senior leadership team at U.S. Embassies, RLOs frequently collaborated with leadership and technical staff from the State Department and other federal agencies.

Why Field-Based Legal Support Matters

RLOs were a critical part of USAID’s global presence. They ensured that programs not only advanced U.S. foreign policy and development goals but also upheld the legal and ethical standards that underpin the credibility of American foreign assistance. They helped ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars were not only spent wisely, in accordance with all relevant regulations, but also tracked and not misused.

USAID did something no other U.S. Government agency could match: it put its lawyers on the ground, living and working in developing countries alongside the programs they supported. While the Department of State, the Department of Justice and perhaps a few other U.S. Government agencies might station a lawyer abroad here or there, USAID built an entire model around it. By embedding RLOs directly in Missions worldwide, USAID made legal counsel part of the frontline. This proximity wasn’t just convenient, it was transformative. It meant advice was immediate, grounded in local realities, and integral to daily decision-making. 

The presence of RLOs helped:

• Accelerate program implementation: With on-the-ground legal advice from counsel that understood the cultural context, Missions could move quickly and confidently from concept to execution.

  
  

• Avoid costly mistakes: RLOs were a part of the team and were in the room when decisions were made. This allowed for early legal involvement that helped prevent missteps that could have delayed programs, lea to waste of taxpayer funds, or violations of U.S. law.

  
  

• Enhance accountability and oversight: RLOs played a key role in internal controls, audit response, and fraud prevention, which was particularly important in high-risk environments.

  
  

• Improve responsiveness to crises: Whether dealing with humanitarian emergencies, political instability, or emerging security threats, RLOs provided rapid legal input tailored to the Mission's operational context.

  
  

• Support U.S. foreign policy coherence: By working closely with Chiefs of Mission and other U.S. government actors, RLOs helped ensure that USAID's legal positions were coordinated with broader diplomatic priorities.

While U.S. foreign assistance accounts for less than 1 percent of the total national budget, the amount of money that was programmed by USAID Missions was still very large, with five-year bilateral development objective grant agreements (DOAGs) frequently covering over a billion dollars of programming. With dollar figures that high, relying on lawyers back in Washington D.C. (with a time difference of up to 12 hours) just isn’t practical. Real-time legal advice to troubleshoot issues as they arise is essential. 

As American foreign assistance transitions to the Department of State and becomes increasingly complex, intersecting with conflict, technology, and global finance, the importance of placing capable legal advisors close to the point of implementation will only grow.

In a world where development challenges move fast, on-the-ground legal presence isn’t just a value-add, it’s a strategic advantage that should continue as the development landscape evolves. Mission Driven Counsel is a new law firm composed of six former senior USAID Resident Legal Officers residing in six continents. We are where you need us, when you need us.