On June 20, 2018, Julius Maada Bio, the President of Sierra Leone, appointed Francis Kaifala (LL.M. 2018) Head Commissioner of the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission. At Texas Law, the former Fulbright Scholar earned an LL.M. in Human Rights & Comparative Constitutional Law. In addition to being a Fulbright Scholar, Kaifala was an MD Anderson Scholar in Transnational Law in the Law School’s Institute for Transnational Law and a Human Rights Scholar in the Law School’s Rapoport Center for Human Rights & Justice.
Prior to coming to Texas Law, Kaifala worked for 10 years as a corporate commercial lawyer and a strong advocate for human and socioeconomic rights reform. He has written several articles and social commentaries calling for reform that have appeared in national and international journals, magazines, and websites. He earned his undergraduate degree in Law at the University of Sierra Leone, graduated from the Sierra Leone Law School, and was called to the Bar in 2007. He is also an alumnus of the School of Law at Queen Mary University of London, where he earned the joint LL.M. in Law and Economics. His human rights work at the Sierra Leone Bar earned him several awards and recognitions, including Young Lawyer of the Year 2015, Lawyer of the Year 2016, the Sierra Ovation Awards Top 100 Most Influential Sierra Leoneans 2016, Salone Times Newspaper Top 10 Sierra Leoneans in 2016, and Institute of Leadership’s Top 50 Young Sierra Leoneans 2017, Emerging Leader of the Year 2017, Sierra Leone’s Best Professional 2017, 50 Most Influential Sierra Leoneans 2018, among others.