Richelieu Edwin Lomax LL.M. '08
Richelieu Edwin Lomax LL.M. '08
The story of Richelieu Edwin Lomax LL.M. '08 is a tale of survival against all odds. By age 7, the Liberian boy had lost his father. Six years later, after Liberia erupted in civil war, he and his mother were displaced to camps in the heart of rebel territory, facing malnutrition and the constant threat of execution. When he traveled to the front lines with a Nigerian major who had befriended him, they were ambushed by forces loyal to then President Charles Taylor and spent six months in a Nigerian hospital. The major became Lomax’s guardian, and the major’s wife took on the Herculean task of readying Lomax for a post-conflict life. He finished high school (earning first place in the state national exam) and supported himself through computer jobs before enrolling in the law program at the University of Jos.
In 2005, he returned to Liberia, later landing a job as a judicial system monitor for the U.N.’s Mission in Liberia. Frustrated by the lapses in his country’s legal system, Lomax applied to HLS, believing an LL.M. would give him a real chance to influence Liberia’s legal profession. Now, as one of the few Liberian graduates of Harvard, he is amazed to find himself part of a group that includes the country’s president, the president of Liberia’s bar, the solicitor general and Harry Varney Sherman LL.M. ’82, whom Lomax describes as “the best lawyer in Liberia.”
Since graduating, Lomax has become an integrity officer with the World Bank, investigating corruption in bank-supported projects around the world. His long-term dream is to return home to fight corruption in the public sector. “Having the Harvard degree will give me a voice in Liberia that I’d never dreamed of having,” he says. “I must use this opportunity to help my country.”
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