Justice Maxon Mbendera SC (4 November 1958 – 18 August 2016) was a

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

of the Malawi Supreme

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

and the chairman of the Malawi Electoral Commission. Mbendera held an

LLB Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the China, People's Republic ...

(Hons) from the University of Malawi and an LLM in International Trade and Investment Law. In 1981, he was admitted to the Malawi

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and worked for Savjani & Co. for 13 years. He then set up his own

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, which he led for 15 years until he was appointed Judge of the High Court in 2009. During his time at the bar, Mbendera served as both secretary of the

Malawi Law Society Malawi Law Society is a legal membership organization that unites all lawyers in Malawi. It is administered by an elected executive board. Malawi Legal Information Institute (MLII) The Malawi Legal Information Institute is a division of the MLS.

from 1993 to 1995, and its president from 1999 and 2001. Mbendera served as Malawi's

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from 2011 to 2012. He was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of Malawi at the end of 2012. That same year, he was appointed chairman of the Malawi Electoral Commission. His term as chairperson was expected to end in October 2016. At his death in August 2016, Mbendera was survived by his wife and four children.

Notes and references

1958 births 2016 deaths 20th-century Malawian lawyers Attorneys-General of Malawi University of Malawi alumni 21st-century Malawian lawyers {{africa-law-bio-stub