Cllr. Francis Saye Korkpor will today formally retire from the Supreme Court Bench after serving his tenure as Chief Justice of the Republic of Liberia.
An elaborate sendoff ceremony is expected to be held in his honor as he turns over officially today at the Temple of Justice in Monrovia.
President George M. Weah, the Speaker and members of the House Representatives and the Senate Pro-tempore, Justices of the Supreme Court Bench and members of the Judiciary as well as national and international partners are all expected to grace the occasion.
Cllr. Korkpor leaves the Supreme Court after 18 years of service ranking from the position of Associate Justice to Chief Justice from 2004 to 2022 and will therefore be replaced by Associate Justice Sie-A-Nyene Gyapay Yuoh who was nominated by President Weah and confirmed by the Liberian Senate.
On September 5, Korkpor turned 70 years old, the maximum age for a Liberian Supreme Court Justice as specified in the 1986 Constitution and his retirement was announced by the Judiciary’s second in line Associate Justice, Jamesetta Howard Wokollie.
Born in 1952 in Lao Clan, Nimba County, Korkpor’s career in public service and the law spans over three decades and it includes service as a private lawyer, prosecutor, and Supreme Court Justice.
He earned his bachelor of arts at the University of Liberia in 1976 before going on to earn his criminal justice degree from the North Carolina Justice Academy in the United States of America from 1977 to 1978.
He returned to Liberia after completing his criminal justice program and enrolled at the University of Liberia’s Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law where he graduated in 1982 with a bachelor of laws degree
Korkpor entered government as a prosecuting attorney in 1982, the same year he graduated from the Law School. While serving at the Justice Ministry, he aggressively prosecuted repeated offenders, violent criminals, and public officials who committed ethical defilements or indecencies.
His untiring work as a prosecutor in the Department of Litigation earned him promotion to the posts of Assistant Minister for Economic Affairs in 1985, and Assistant Minister for Legal Affairs in 1988.
He served in the latter position until the beginning of the civil war, which forced him to travel to the United States, where he pursued advanced legal education.
Having gained experience in practice as a Counsellor during the early 1980s, Korkpor resigned from government and established the Tiala Law Firm in Monrovia.
As a busy private lawyer, Korkpor was a testament to his ability to provide sound legal services to the people of Liberia; especially human rights organizations and journalists who were targets of the erstwhile government of Charles Taylor.
He also represented the legal interests of several other organizations like the Catholic Church of Liberia.
During the period of private practice, Korkpor established himself as one of Liberia’s foremost legal minds and built partnerships and maintains collegiality within the Liberian National Bar Association (LNBA).
Korkpor has pursued a reform agenda for strengthening the third branch of the Liberian government in a number of key positions.
