Annette Karungi is an advocate of the Courts of Judicature in Uganda. She heads the Department of Post Graduate Legal Studies and Legal Aid at the Law Development Centre (LDC). She holds a Master of Laws (LLM) from Makerere University, a Post Gradute Diploma in Legal Practice (Dip LP) from the Law Development Centre, and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB Hons) from Makerere University. Annette has a thorough working experience gained from 19 years of public and private legal practice. Has direct experience with prosecution of serious crimes in the courts of record, drafting legal documents, representing litigants in courts of law and other tribunals, mediation and arbitration, teaching law at the undergraduate and post graduate levels and institutional capacity building of government agencies. Her interests include; criminal justice, human rights, enviromental and constitutional law.
As Head of the Bar Course, Annette is responsible for the overall admnistration of the Department. As a Lecturer at the Law Development Centre, she has offered
professional legal advice to Bar Course students in Criminal Proceedings, Trial Advocacy, Land Transactions and Civil Litigation. Annette also teaches the Law of Evidence and Constitutional Law on the Diploma in Law Course as well as Human Rights and Criminal Justice, Civil and Political Liberties on the Diploma in Human Rights Course. She has for over 10 years participarted in lecturing on several tailor made courses especially the Admnistrative Officers’ Law Course, Law Courses; for Court Clerks, Auctioneers and Bailiffs, prosecutors from the National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), Kampala City Council Officers (KCCA), Judicial officers from the South Sudan and prosecutors from Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Malawi (under the aupices of LDC in conjunction with UNODOC). Annette also does Part- time lecturing at Uganda Chrisitian University and Kampala International University. Over the years, she has impacted positively the academic and professional lives of students both at the under graduate and post graduate level.
As Head of Department, Annette has recently handled sensitive assignments at the Law Development Centre. She recently chaired a task force constituted by the Director to review the Rules for Passing the Bar Course. This resulted into the current rules for Passing the Bar course2016 and subsequently 2018.
She also has wide experience in curriculum design and development having previously participated in the curriculum review and update both for the Bar Course and Diploma in Law Courses at the Law Development Centre. In the recently concluded Bar Course curriculum review process, Annette led the team that reviewed the curriculum for Criminal Proceedings and single handedly developed the curriculum for Public Legal Practice which is now one of the optional subjects offered at the Bar Course. The current curriculum emphasizes hands-on student centred learning. She was able to do this after a series of bench-marking visits to similar law schools in the UK, India and Ghana among others. The student centered learning curriculum has greatly improved the pass rate at the Bar course in the last two years to the current rate of over 70%. The quality of LDC graduates has also significantly improved.
Annette has managerial and admnistration experience in project implementation having worked with a USAID/MCC (Millenium Challenge Corporation) funded Project – Anti- Corruption Country Threshold Project (ACT) as the Investigation and Prosecution Component Manager. The overall purpose of the ACT Project was to strenghthen the capacity of key Government of Uganda agencies and institutions to work collaboratively to prevent, investigate, and prosecute public corruption cases. The Project is credited for among others sponsoring the setting up of the Anti-Corruption Court and training investigators and prosecutors to be able to prosecute corruption cases.
Having worked as a State Attorney in the Directorate of Public Prosecutions for about 4 years, Annette has acquired practical experince in Criminal Justice in Uganda. She was the first Resident State Attorney of Entebbe where she was responsible for overseeing the general admninistration of the station, directing police investigations and prosecuting cases particularly those from Entebbe Aviation Police (AVIPOL). She has wide experience in leadership, accountability, budgeting and management of financial resources as well as supervision of staff. While working with DPP, she headed the complaints’ desk that was responsible for ensuring professional standards among DPP staff in the perfomance of their duties.
