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Dr Gifty Edila

First Black director of law in a council in England and Wales

Call 1979, Inner Temple

Gifty Edila was born in 1955, Gold Coast, now Ghana, and moved to the United Kingdom at only 11 years old. Ever since the age of 12 Gifty knew she wanted to make a difference, and strive towards a world of fairness and justice, ultimately leading her to pursue a career as a barrister.

Although, the Race Relations Act (1965) had been passed a decade before Gifty Edila went to university the representation of Black women within this profession at the time was still minimal, with only 10% of women working within this sector, and the proportion of Black women being even less than this. Defying all of these statistical odds Dr Edila obtained an LLB Law degree at the University of London. which later led to her achieving an LLM Master of Law degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was called to the Bar at The Inner Temple in 1979.

She obtained pupillage in the Chambers of Barbara Calvert QC, the first woman to open her own Chambers in the UK, based at 4 Brick Court, Temple. Dr Edila later joined North Kensington Law Centre as an in-house barrister. She then went on to be called to the Nigerian Bar during her two years stay in Nigeria. On her return to the UK she worked at Camden Law Centre and from there moved into local government. Dr Edila became Head of Legal Services at Newham Council where she worked on many major projects including the regeneration of the Docklands, extension of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link through Stratford, and the building of the Excel Exhibition Centre.

She became the first Black and ethnic minority Director of Law in a council in the UK. She also became the first Black and ethnic minority President of the Association for Directors of Law (called ACSeS, which is now reformulated as LLG) in over 500 councils in England and Wales.

Dr Edila worked as Director of Law at The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the wealthiest borough in the UK, where she was the first female and the first Black and ethnic minority lawyer to be appointed to the post. She later moved to Hackney Council to work as Director of Law and Regulatory Services where she was heavily involved in the work on the 2012 Olympics and its legacy.

Dr Edila's achievements includes:

  • Supporting the Government to introduce the very first Code of Conduct for local government politicians
  • Influencing new local government legislation by the Government to strengthen councils' power to prosecute criminal cases and sue in civil cases
  • Past Chair of Family Rights Group, an important organisation supporting families/children and influencing legislation affecting the care of children
  • Member of Loughborough University Council
  • Recognition by The Lawyer Magazine over an unprecedented 3 different years' publication of the top 100 lawyers in the UK doing innovative things in the law
  • Led award winning legal teams in all the three councils she managed, including judging excellence awards for over 10 years
  • Received an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Loughborough University for excellent work in the legal profession and for supporting the university

Even after retiring in 2016, Dr Edila continued to excel through being the first Black woman in the UK to write a book about her career. Her book Defying Expectations:The Extraordinary Journey of a Black Woman Lawyer explores the challenges she faced in depth and how much harder she had to work, in order to excel in her chosen career path. Therefore, inspiring young people in schools, women and the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic community to pursue their dreams, no matter how difficult it may be.