Continuing legal education for judges: An indispensable tool in the administration of justice

Justice Dennis Dominic Adjei is a Justice of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. He is also a Justice of the Court of Appeal, Ghana. He is one of the nine-member Advisory Committee of the International Criminal Court. Justice Dennis Dominic Adjei was elected as the Inns of Court and Advanced Legal Institute of the University of London Senior Judges Fellow for Common Law jurisdictions for 2022-23 academic year. He is a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. Justice Dennis Dominic Adjei attended the University of Ghana from 1988-1991 and proceeded to the Ghana School of Law. He was called to the Ghana Bar in 1993. He obtained an Executive Master of Public Administration from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration. He further obtained a Master of Laws in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of London. He also holds a Master of Judicial Studies from the Duke Law School, Duke University, North Carolina, United States of America. Justice Dennis Dominic Adjei is the Acting Director of the Judicial Training Institute of Ghana and held the substantive office from 2014–2019. He was the Dean, Faculty of Law, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, from January 2019 to August, 2020. The author is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi. He is also an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the Ghana School of Law, Accra, where he lectures on the Interpretation of Statutes and Deeds; and Land Law and Conveyancing. The author has written five textbooks, namely: Constitutional Law of Ghana—Evolution, Theory and Practice (2020); Modern Approach to the Law of Interpretation in Ghana (3rd Edition, Reprinted, 2021); Criminal Procedure and Practice in Ghana (3rd Edition, 2021); Land Law, Practice and Conveyancing in Ghana (3rd Edition, 2021); and Contemporary Criminal Law in Ghana (3rd Edition, 2021). The author has also co-authored a textbook entitled "The Alternative Dispute Resolution—A Ghanaian Perspective." The author was Knighted by the Holy Father, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, into the Order of St Gregory the Great in 2005.

Hon. Justice Salisu Garba is the Administrator of the National Judicial Institute in Nigeria. His lordship was appointed the Administrator of the National Judicial Institute on 2nd of August, 2021 and prior to then , he was appointed the substantive Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja on 7th June, 2021. In September 1998 he was elevated to the Bench where he rose in his judicial career. His lordship was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1984 and was in active legal practice before proceeding to the Bench. He also served in the Magistracy to the rank of a Chief Magistrate. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Nigeria) and was given commendation by the National Judicial Council in 2004. He has attended several conferences both Nationally and Internationally and has written several articles

Mary Rose Gearty was appointed to the Irish High Court in 2019 and is the inaugural Director of Judicial Studies in Ireland. She has responsibility for child abduction cases under the Hague Convention and sits regularly in the Central Criminal Court and in a wide range of civil law lists. Mary Rose is a Bencher of The Honorable Society of King’s Inns and of Middle Temple in London. She established the mentoring programme for women at the Irish Bar and the Advanced Advocacy Course; she was one of the first internationally accredited advocacy trainers in Ireland. Mary Rose chairs the Irish branch of GEMME, an international association of judges for the promotion of mediation. She also chairs the judicial sub-committee of Irish Rule of Law International, which promotes the rule of law by devising and managing projects involving judges, lawyers and police officers in countries around the world. She sings in the Guinness Choir and owns a very large dog.

Maura McGowan was appointed as a High Court Judge in October 2014. She sits in the Queen’s Bench Division. She is a member of the Sentencing Council and serves on the editorial boards of the Criminal Law Review and Archbold. She is a member of the Sentencing Advisory Committees of the Supreme Court of the Eastern Caribbean and of Barbados. She has also advised the CJ of Uganda on the drafting and implementation of policy and guidelines on sentencing. She latterly practiced principally in serious crime though additionally appeared in public inquiries. She took silk in 2001. She was a member of both the Bar of Ireland and Northern Ireland. She is a Bencher of Middle Temple and is Treasurer in 2022. She was Chair of the Bar Council of England and Wales in 2013. She is the Director of Training for the Senior Judiciary of England & Wales. She retains a strong interest in the practice of advocacy and is an Advanced International Advocacy Trainer. She has taught on the Keble College Advanced Advocacy course since its inception. She has also taught or lectured in many jurisdictions including Hong Kong, Singapore, Mauritius, Cayman Islands, the United States, Tanzania, Ireland, Pakistan and South Africa. She is a trustee of the Slynn Foundation and of BAILII.

Russell was called to the Bar in London 1986 by the Inner Temple, of which he is now a Bencher. Russell moved from London to practice in Hong Kong in 1990 and was admitted to the Hong Kong Bar in 1991. He took 'Silk' and was appointed Senior Counsel in 2006. He then became Chairman of the Bar in Hong Kong in 2009 and 2010. As well as being an advocate, Russell regularly sat as Arbitrator and Deputy High Court Judge. Russell was the Chairman of the International Advocacy Training Council for three years to April 2019 and was appointed to the High Court in April 2019 and has dealt mainly with commercial cases along with some judicial review. Russell has just been appointed from June 2021 as the Judge in charge of the Constitutional and Administrative law List of the High Court.

Richard J. Sullivan was sworn in as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in October 2018. Before that, Judge Sullivan served for eleven years as a trial judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. Prior to becoming a judge, he was General Counsel and Managing Director of Marsh Inc., the world's leading risk management and insurance brokerage firm. From 1994 to 2005, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he was Chief of the International Narcotics Trafficking Unit and Director of the New York/New Jersey Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. In 2003, he was awarded the Henry L. Stimson Medal from the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. In 1998, he was named the Federal Law Enforcement Association=s Prosecutor of the Year. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney=s Office, Judge Sullivan was an attorney in private practice at the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York and a law clerk to the Honorable David M. Ebel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and the College of William & Mary in Virginia. From 1986 to 1987, he served as a New York City Urban Fellow under New York City Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward. Judge Sullivan is on the executive board of the New York American Inn of Court and the Center for Law and Religion at St. John’s University School of Law. He is an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, where he teaches courses on sentencing and jurisprudence, and he previously served as an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School, where he taught courses on white collar crime and trial advocacy and was named Adjunct Professor of the Year.

The Hon Justice Mark Livesey was appointed to the Supreme Court, and was the first appointment to the new Court of Appeal of South Australia on 23 January 2020. In September 2021 he was appointed President of the Court of Appeal. After working in commercial and insurance litigation, Justice Livesey joined the Bar in July 2000 and was appointed Her Majesty’s Counsel in February 2006. He had a broad practice in commercial and civil litigation and appeals. He also appeared in arbitrations, including the arbitrations over the construction and operation of the AUD$2.4 billion new Royal Adelaide Hospital. He served as President of the South Australian Bar in 2011-2012 and President of the Australian Bar in 2014-2015.

Hon. Justice Ngozika U. Okaisabor, Ph.D. is the first female Judge of the Customary Court of Appeal, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Prior to her elevation to the Bench, she served in several capacities in the Federal Ministry of Justice as a State Counsel, Chief Legal Officer and Legal Adviser to Parastatals. She has a Master’s in Legal Institution (MLI) from the University of Wisconsin, a Master of Laws (LL.M) with specialization in International Business and Trade Law from John Marshall Law School, Chicago and a Ph.D. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Nigeria), a Fellow of the International Dispute Resolution Institute (IDRI) and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators. Her membership in several professional Associations includes; International Association of Women Judges as well as the National Association of Women Judges. As a life member of the International Federation of Women Lawyers she served as the Regional Vice-President (Africa) from 2002-2005. She is also a member of the International Bar Association and currently the chair of Judges Forum. As a Prolific Speaker committed to the field of research and development with the aim of improving standards of legal practice in our evolutionary law, she has delivered papers in several National and International Conferences such as “Recording of Evidence and Use of Interpreters in Customary Courts” (National Judicial Institute), “Empowering the Victims of Fraud and Abuse”, “Empowering the Victims: The Panacea for Treating the Prodigious Virus” (Cambridge University, UK), and “Compliance, Governance and Best Practice in dealing with Unexplained Wealth” (Cambridge University, UK).