Gertrude Torkornoo bio, born Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo on September 11, 1962, is a Ghanaian judge who has been serving on the bench in Ghana since 2004. In November 2019, she was nominated to the Supreme Court, and in December of the same year, she received parliamentary approval and was sworn in on December 17, 2019.
Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court, Torkornoo served as one of the first Justices of the Commercial Division of the High Court. Throughout her career, she has been actively involved in the core reform agenda and activities of the Judiciary and Judicial Service of Ghana, starting from 2005.
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Early Life and Education
Gertrude Torkornoo, born on September 11th, 1962 in Cape Coast, originates from Winneba in the Central Region of Ghana. She received her ordinary-level certificate from Wesley Girls’ High School and her advanced-level certificate from Achimota School. She is an alumna of the University of Ghana and also graduated from the Ghana School of Law in 1986.
Additionally, in 2001, she pursued a Postgraduate Diploma in International Law and Organization from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), which is a part of Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Moreover, in 2011, she obtained an LLM in Intellectual Property Law from the Golden Gate University School of Law at Golden Gate University in the USA.
Age
Gertrude Araba Esaaba Torkornoo is 60 years old as she was born on September 11th, 1962 in Cape Coast.
Justice Torkornoo started her legal career as a volunteer at the FIDA Legal Aid Service before undertaking an internship with Nabarro Nathanson in London. Later, she joined Fugar & Co., a law firm in Accra, as an associate and eventually became a director in 1994. In 1997, she co-founded Sozo Law Consult and worked as Managing Partner until her appointment as a Justice of the High Court of Ghana on 14 May 2004.
Justice Torkornoo served as a High Court judge until October 2012 when she was elevated to the Court of Appeal. In November 2019, she was nominated to the Supreme Court of Ghana and sworn into office on 17 December 2019.
Leadership profile
Justice Torkornoo has held various leadership roles in the judicial service, including serving as the chair of the E-Justice Committee. In this capacity, she has overseen the planning of the automation of all levels of courts and the incorporation of electronic resources and software into the work of the Judicial Service.
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In addition, since 2013, she has served as the Supervising Judge of commercial courts, where she has worked to promote efficiency and effectiveness in the commercial division of the High Court through initiatives such as brown bag learning sessions, consistent meetings with staff and court leadership, and engagements with external service operators.
Justice Torkornoo has also presided over the implementation of the Business Environment Engineering Project (BEEP), which provided guidance on the introduction of Users Committees into other institutions and influenced the development of business environment reforms by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Justice Torkornoo has served in numerous other roles within the judiciary, including as a member of the faculty and Governing Board of the Judicial Training Institute and as a member and chair of various ad-hoc committees. She has also been involved in overseeing several reform projects involving collaborations with other African countries, as well as serving as a member of the Law Reform Commission since 2016.
In 2020, she was part of the seven-member panel that heard the election petition brought by John Mahama against The Electoral Commission of Ghana and Nana Akufo-Addo.
