Umu Hawa Tejan-Jalloh
In 1975, she was appointed as a State Counsel in the Sierra Leone Ministry of Justice. She was later promoted to senior State Counsel and Principal State Council. In 1996 she was appointed as a High Court Judge, where she served until 2004 when she was appointed as a Court of Appeals Judge. She remained in that position until she was appointed as the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice in 2008.
She was sworn in as Sierra Leone’s Chief Justice on January 25, 2008, succeeding retired Chief Justice Ade Renner Thomas. She was the first woman to hold the Chief Justice position in Sierra Leone’s history.
She proceeded on leave to retirement on 6 February 2015, with Valesius Thomas as acting Chief Justice, until finally being replaced by Abdulai Hamid Charm on 25 January 2016.