Lebrecht James Nii Tettey Chinery-Hesse, (19 October 1930 – 30 August 2018) was a Ghanaian lawyer and civil servant. He served as a specialist in legislative drafting in the service of Uganda, Ghana, Zambia and Sierra Leone. He is a former Solicitor-General of Ghana and once Acting Attorney General of Ghana.

Early life and education

L.J. Chinery-Hesse was born on 19 October 1930 in Jamestown,

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

. His father was Herman Wilhelm Hesse and his mother was Emily Naa Chinery. He was the first of their nine children. He had his early education at the Government Junior Boys’ School in Accra and the Osu Salem Presbyterian Boarding School. He was further educated at the

Accra Academy Accra Academy is a Single-sex education, boys' high school located at Bubuashie near Kaneshie in the Greater Accra Region, Ghana. It admits both boarding and day students. Founded as a private school in 1931, it gained the status of a Government ...

and

Adisadel College Adisadel College, popularly known as "Adisco", is an Anglican boys' boarding school in Cape Coast, Ghana. It was established by Rt. Rev. Nathaniel T Hamlyn in 1910. Adisadel College is one of the oldest Senior high school, secondary schools in ...

. In 1950, he proceeded to the United Kingdom for his tertiary education. He studied

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

initially at the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hu ...

. Although he obtained the best prize in Classics, he decided to switch his academic interest to

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

. He enrolled at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

and passed his law examination in 1956.

Career

Chinery-Hesse was called to the English Bar at the

in 1956. On his return to Ghana in the year of Ghana's independence in 1957, he became a private legal practitioner for a year. In 1959, he entered the Ghanaian public service as an assistant state attorney and rose to become a principal state attorney in 1964. Thereafter, in 1966, he was made chief parliamentary draftsman in Ghana. In 1969, Nicholas Yaw Boafo Adade was appointed the Attorney-General, and Chinery-Hesse was made to combine his role as chief parliamentary draftsman with an appointment to act as

Solicitor-General A solicitor general is a government official who serves as the chief representative of the government in courtroom proceedings. In systems based on the English common law that have an attorney general or equivalent position, the solicitor general ...

. In 1972, he became a member of the Ghana Council for Law Reporting. In 1979, he was the acting Attorney General of the

Republic of Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. Chinery-Hesse left office as chief parliamentary draftsman at the Attorney General's department in 1982. In 1982, Chinery-Hesse left Ghana for Sierra Leone where he served as a

First Parliamentary Counsel Parliamentary counsel are lawyers who prepare drafts of legislation to be passed into law. The terms parliamentary drafter, parliamentary draftsman, legislative drafting officer and legislative counsel are also widely used. These terms are used ...

until 1987. He spent the next three years in legal draftsmanship roles in Zambia. From 1989 to 2014, he worked as an expert in legislative drafting in the Ministry of Justice in

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...

, Uganda. Chinery-Hesse was a member of the Committee of Experts under the chairmanship of Nana S. K. B Asante that did work towards the 1992 Constitution of Ghana between June 1991 and July 1991.

Personal life

He married

Mary Chinery-Hesse Mary Akuokor Chinery-Hesse, , née Blay (born 29 October 1938) is an international civil servant and diplomat, serving as the first woman Chancellor of the University of Ghana, inducted on 1 August 2018. She was the first female Deputy Director-G ...

(née Blay), a Ghanaian diplomat and international civil servant and the first woman chancellor of the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It is the oldest public university in the country. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the British colony of the Gold Coast ...

. She is the daughter of Robert Samuel Blay (1901–1979), a barrister, jurist and a Justice of the

Supreme Court of Ghana The Supreme Court of Ghana is the highest judicial body in Ghana. Constitution of Ghana, Ghana's 1992 constitution guarantees the independence and separation of the Judiciary of Ghana, Judiciary from the Legislative and the Executive (governm ...

during the First Republic. They had a son, Herman Chinery-Hesse (1963–2024), who was a technology entrepreneur.

Death and funeral

He died on 30 August 2018 and was buried in

, Ghana after his funeral service at the

Accra Ridge Church The Accra Ridge Church is an English-speaking inter-denominational Protestant church based in the residential neighbourhood of Ridge in Accra, Ghana. The church is affiliated to the Anglican Diocese of Accra, Methodist Church Ghana and the Pre ...

. A separate

memorial service A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...

was held at All Saints Cathedral in

Nakasero Nakasero is a hill and neighborhood in the centre of Kampala, the capital and largest city of Uganda. Nakasero is important to Uganda's economy and politics, as it is home to Kampala's central business district and several government offices, ...

, Uganda on 14 September 2018 in remembrance of him. He belonged to the Ghana Club and the Accra and Kampala chapters of the

Rotary Club Rotary International is one of the largest Service club, service organizations in the world. The self-declared mission of Rotary, as stated on its website, is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, go ...

. His hobbies were reading, golf, swimming and table tennis.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chinery-Hesse, Lebrecht James 1930 births 2018 deaths Alumni of the Accra Academy Alumni of Adisadel College Ga-Adangbe people 20th-century Ghanaian lawyers Ghanaian Anglicans Hesse family (Ghana) Lawyers from Accra Osu Salem School alumni Ghanaian people of Danish descent Ghanaian people of German descent Ghanaian people of English descent Ghanaian people of Jamaican descent Alumni of the University of Hull