Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong gets international court position

A former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong, has been appointed as a member of the International Court of Arbitration.

Her appointment follows the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC’s) World Council meeting which took place in Paris on June 21, 2018.

A letter dated June 27, 2018 and signed by the President of the ICC (International Court of Arbitration), Mr Alexis Mourre, said her appointment would take effect from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2021.

“I am writing to congratulate you upon your appointment as a member of the International Court of Arbitration following the ICC World Council meeting which took place in Paris on 21 June 2018,” the letter, which was also addressed to other council members, indicated.

“The inauguration of this revitalised and fully gender-balanced court opens a promising new chapter in the court’s history with its largest, most regionally and generationally diverse network of members to date,” it said.

The president noted that the new court was a unique group of outstanding professionals.

“It will be a privilege and an honour for me to work with all of you over the next three years. We look to our renewed members to carry forward the court’s unparalleled institutional knowledge and experience from the current term of office, as well as counting on incoming members to bring fresh enthusiasm and a broad range of new perspectives to the essential work of the court,”he added.

Profile

Mrs Appiah-Opong is the Managing Partner of the law firm Lithur Brew and Company.

She holds an LLB from the University of Ghana and was called to the Ghana Bar in 1994. She also holds a graduate diploma in Law and Development from the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands.

Mrs Appiah-Opong joined Lithur Brew & Company in 2000 as a shareholder/director.

She is an experienced litigator whose expertise includes but is not limited to commercial law, transactions and general corporate advice.

Attorney-General

After 19 years of legal practice, she was appointed as the Attorney-General (A-G) and Minister of Justice of the Republic of Ghana from February 2013 until the end of her tenure in January 2017.

As A-G and Minister of Justice, she was the Legal Advisor to the Government of Ghana and represented the Presidency, the country, as well as its ministries and agencies in all major transactions. As a litigator, she appeared before the highest courts in the country and major international tribunals such as the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).

Mrs Appiah-Opong took the country by storm in September 2014 when she announced Ghana’s decision to battle Cote d’Ivoire to bring finality to a maritime boundary dispute between the two countries.

Ghana emerged victorious in September 2017 when the Special Chamber of the ITLOS held that Ghana did not violate Cote d’Ivoire’s sovereign rights.

The tribunal’s decision has saved Ghana billions of dollars.

Leadership role

Mrs Appiah-Opong’s leadership role as A-G and Minister of Justice saved Ghana millions of cedis which would have been paid in the form of judgement debt.

As a member of the General Legal Council, she had a key voice in legal training and professional discipline.

In her capacity as the Minister of Justice, she managed the government's legal response to all issues, oversaw drafting and the presentation of legislation to the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana, and supervised the general administration of the justice ministry with quiet distinction.