Isabella Okagbue

Professor Isabella Elizabeth Okagbue FNIALSProfessor Isabella Okagbue, is an accomplished lawyer and academic with many published books and articles to her credit. She graduated top of her class from the Faculty of Law at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (1977) before continuing her education with an LLM degree at the University of Lagos (1981) and a second LLM degree at Harvard Law School (1984). She is a member of the Nigerian Bar.She was awarded the prestigious Fulbright African Senior Research Scholar Award in 1992/3 and spent a further period at Harvard Law School as a Fulbright Fellow. Her other honours and awards include a Butterworths Fellowship from the London Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and Best Student Prize Faculty of Law University of Nigeria. In 2011 she was made an Honorary Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.Isabella had a distinguished academic career for many years with the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies rising from the position of Graduate Assistant to become a professor of law and the Director of Research. While at the Institute her scholarship focused on criminal law and criminal justice, civil liberties, women’s rights and juvenile justice. She worked for a short period with the United Nations in Somalia with UNOSOM II where she was responsible for the prisons, street children and juvenile justice programmes run by the UN in Somalia. After leaving the Institute she switched gears and engaged in corporate law work. She joined the United Bank for Africa Plc and held various positions including general counsel, company secretary and chief compliance officer. She subsequently joined Metis Capital Partners Ltd as an Executive Director where she ran the day to day operations of the company and advised on projects with international blue chip companies in telecommunications and real estate among others. She has since retired from Metis Capital. She is currently a non-executive director with FSDH Capital Ltd and FSDH Merchant Bank LtdShe is a member of several professional organizations and serves on the boards of a number of NGOs including the Negotiation and Conflict Management Group and the Nigerian National Committee for the United World Colleges. Until recently she served on the Board of Etisalat Nigeria a major telecommunications company in Nigeria. She was an erstwhile Council Member of the Lagos Multi Door Courthouse the first court connected ADR center in Nigeria. She has also served as a Council Member of the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research.