Victoria Bright: Championing Justice

From a very tender age, Victoria Bright (aka Vickie) has demonstrated a remarkable passion and enthusiasm for justice.

This innate characteristic was honed at Wesley Girls’ Senior High School in Cape-Coast where this proud daughter of Otublohum in Accra attained her secondary school education. The school’s motto: “Live Pure, Speak True, Right Wrong, Follow the King” – is her guiding principle in life.

It’s not hard to spot this remarkable trait in any interaction with Vickie. She firmly believes in “promoting a just society by challenging all forms of injustice.”

Vickie has a strong spiritual foundation and is guided by Isaiah 1:17, “Learn to do well; seek judgement, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” New King James Version (NKJV).

Vickie is a qualified solicitor in the UK and Ghana. Until her return to Ghana in 2005, she was a partner at DLA Piper Solicitors (“DLA”), one of the world’s largest law firms.

Currently she is a private legal practitioner and consultant. She also serves as the Executive Chairman of International Legal Consultancy Services (ILC), lending her rich wealth of experience internationally and in Sub-Saharan Africa. ILC provides comprehensive, business-oriented legal advice and consultancy services focused on quality of service delivery.

Vickie was Minister of State in the Kufuor administration and also served as Legal Advisor to the President.

After over 25 years of legal practice, her love for justice is unwavering. “I’ve always wanted to help promote and maintain justice in all spheres of human endeavour” she says. That explains why she loves her chosen vocation so much.

Vickie is endowed with superb negotiation and advocacy skills. This is borne out by the number and quality of projects that she has successfully been involved in over the years. These include advisory roles for a number of blue chip companies in Africa, Europe and the United States.

Her analytical prowess and superb negotiating acumen has resulted in the consummation of many business transactions. These qualities helped her rise to prominence in the local and international business scene.

It's the end of just another workday for her as she departs her office on the fourth floor of the Mövenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra at 6pm on a Friday.

"My love for what I do keeps me going, even after a hard day or a disappointing one," she said. "I just think about the smiles I am able to put on the faces of satisfied customers and that really energises me.”

Vickie's success hasn't been without sacrifices. Very long hours, frequent travels and reduced quality time with family and other leisure activities have been sacrificed over the years. As exciting as it is, it can also be overwhelming.

Lawyer Ayo Ajose who’s known Vickie for as long as she can remember, describes her simply as a remarkable, open minded, dependable and a just person. “With Vicky on your side you’re covered. She’ll have your back notwithstanding your creed, religion, political persuasion or social standing. You’d never want a better friend than Vickie Bright,” she says.

"Vickie was an outstanding student," said Professor Demaret a teacher at her university in Europe, where she won one (1) of six (6) UK government scholarships out of over 3000 applicants.

“She demands a lot from herself. She will not accept anything mediocre, she always aims for excellence. Beyond that she is a great team player.”

Pioneering role
Vickie has won a number of firsts over the years. These include being the first Black person to attend the College of Europe, which is the European Union’s prestigious postgraduate institute, often referred to as the “Harvard” of Europe.​​​​

She was also the first Black woman in the UK to become a partner in a substantial international law firm.

Of note also is the fact that she is also the only Ghanaian lawyer listed in Who’s Who of Professionals. Since 2013 she has been listed and acknowledged as an international legal expert in the International Who’s Who of Professionals. She has also been listed in the Worldwide Who’s Who 2014 and 2015.

Vickie heading to court
Vickie’s schedule is about to get a lot more hectic. She has Parliamentary ambitions and is confronted by some unnatural challenges.

She has instructed her lawyer, Thaddeus Sory of Messrs Sory @ law to go to court to annul the outcome of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) 2015 Parliamentary Primary at Okaikoi-South constituency in the Greater Accra Region.

She affirmed that the primary in her constituency, which she boycotted was fraught with a number of irregularities including a bloated register.

“I have sent three petitions to the NPP to use the internal mechanisms to address my concerns since May 2011 but unfortunately the Party has failed to respond to my concerns about the fraudulent nature of the voters register.”

“As things stand I have no option than to go to court after exhausting all internal means to have my concerns addressed but to no avail.”

She counsels that the NPP ought not to preoccupy itself only with the National Register but should also focus on constituencies, where there are genuine concerns about a bloated register and other irregularities.

She accuses Mr Ahmed Arthur, the MP for Okaikoi South constituency in Greater Accra of having submitted forged academic documents to circumvent the vetting process. She also decries the MP’s resort to strong arm tactics including the reliance on violence and macho men. On one occasion guns were fired by the MP’s supporters at a meeting with her delegates in the constituency.

“An internal party investigation concluded that Ahmed Arthur submitted forged academic documents. A committee headed by Ambrose Dery, a former Deputy Minister of Justice and Attorney General, submitted a report to that effect” she explained.

“Why the findings and recommendations of the report have been shelved is a mystery.”

“I am going to court as a matter of principle to disqualify the sole candidate Mr Ahmed Arthur, about whom I raised a number of issues concerning his academic qualifications,” she emphasised.

This is certainly going to take a toll on her already loaded schedule. But Vickie is ready. This is what she's trained for, seeking justice at all times.

Education/Qualifications
Vicky attended Wesley Girls’ High School for her secondary education and continued on to study at the University of Sussex, UK, Robert Schuman University, Strasbourg and College of Europe, Bruges Belgium.

She graduated with a bachelor’s degree (double hons) in Law and French and LLM in European Law from the College of Europe in 1991. She also holds a diploma in French and EU Law from the Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg, France.

Vickie’s international profile is further enhanced by her language skills. She has a good working knowledge of French. In all she speaks four languages-

English, Ga, Twi and French.
Professional Experience Summary
Vicky’s 25 years as an international energy/IT/ PPP/private equity/corporate lawyer spans both private practice and industry.

This unique experience enables her to advise Ghana Club 100 companies and Government Institutions, UK FTSE 100 companies, and senior corporate executives in all aspects of their business – including legal risk management; negotiating and drafting a wide range of international commercial and corporate agreements and performing comprehensive due diligence on potential target investment companies.

She has also advised several UK government departments and investment banks on a regular basis on various agreements with the private sector, including a whole range of IT contracts, outsourcing contracts, joint venture agreements, private equity and other financing agreements, energy contracts, public private partnership agreements and large scale projects worth several hundred million of dollars.

She has advised several Ghanaian Ministries and Government Departments on various projects of economic and/or strategic significance to the country.

In addition to her international corporate/commercial practice, Vicky is a recognised expert in Private Public Partnership Projects (including energy, infrastructure and health sector projects), telecommunications/ technology law, European Union Law, Data Protection and Freedom of Information law.

Her technology law expertise embraces contracts for large-scale on-shore and offshore outsourcing projects, satellite agreements, the Internet, mobile and electronic commerce.

She also has significant EU and Ghanaian Procurement expertise, having led a high level PPP as an outsourcing specialist prior to moving to Ghana.

In the UK, Vickie regularly published articles and spoke at conferences on corporate, technology and outsourcing issues. She wrote the IT chapter of “The Euro in Law and Practice” and regularly chaired various conferences on telecommunications, data protection, IT and e-commerce.

Awards
Victoria has won several awards.
In 2005 Victoria won the GPA Personality of the Year Award – an annual award given to individuals who have made a significant contribution towards enhancing the image of Ghanaians in Europe

Victoria also won the African, Caribbean & Asian Lawyers’ Association’s “Solicitor of the Year” award for 2000.

Family life
She traces her lineage to the family of Nii Kwaku Nyame Ankrah - her great grandfather. Her grandmother, Madam Regina Adukwei Ankrah, was an Otublohum royal.

Her parents are Patience Nelson and Vincent Bright. She is the eldest of four siblings, all girls.

Community Social Responsibility
Vickie is passionate about children and extremely sensitive to their plight. Seeing children suffer and subjected to any form of injustice gets her goat.

Over the years she’s been associated with social responsibility projects that include: contributing to homeless charities for children such as the World Vision International, the Children’s Society etc.

She has consciously nurtured her Okaikoi South constituency by contributing significantly to refurbishing the party office and contributing to the general well-being of a number of her constituents and their families.

She also sponsors children by paying school fees and paying hospital care/bills of constituents as well as contributing to funeral and medical expenses.

Hobbies
She lists her hobbies as reading, experiencing other cultures, travelling, going to the cinema and spending quality time with family and friends.