Amaka Anku

PENN KEMBLE DEMOCRACY FORUM FELLOWS

Amaka Anku is a DC-based lawyer, analyst, and international development consultant. 

She has worked on development and conflict resolution in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Gabon, and Nigeria, and for organizations such as the International Rescue Committee, Africare, the International Crisis Group, and the African Development Bank. She has published on transitional justice challenges in Rwanda, and presented her work at international conferences in the US and Europe. Her diverse career includes a clerkship for United States federal judge Legrome Davis, where she was lead attorney in charge of over 120 cases. From 2011 to 2015, Amaka practiced in the international arbitration group of global law firm Shearman & Sterling, LLP, where she represented multinational corporations in complex and multimillion-dollar cross-border disputes. Amaka earned her bachelor’s degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, magna cum laude, and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.