The International Monetary Fund has announced that its general counsel Rhoda Weeks-Brown will retire at the end of September, with a search for her replacement getting underway.

Weeks-Brown prepares to leave after an almost 28-year career at the IMF, having been GC since 2018. She is the organisation’s first woman GC and as a Liberian national, the first GC to hail from a developing country. During her time at the IMF she has played a key role in a number of programmes, including the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative – aimed at reducing debt for a number of the world’s poorest countries – and its General Resources Account – a lending tool kit for low-income countries.

As GC, she has also helped steer the IMF through a particularly turbulent period, including its response to Covid-19, which directed much needed financing for country’s struggling with the impact of the pandemic. She also spearheaded efforts to integrate governance reforms into the fund’s policy advice, including areas such as anti-corruption.

Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, said Weeks-Brown’s “groundbreaking” appointment as GC in 2018 was a testament to her outstanding leadership, skills and expertise, adding: “Rhoda has been an exemplary corporate citizen, serving as a prolific member of many important fund committees, as a tireless coach and mentor to many staff, and as a relentless champion for diversity and inclusion both inside and outside the fund.”

Weeks-Brown originally joined the IMF in 1997 as a counsel and then senior counsel, before becoming assistant GC in 2004 and then deputy director of the legal department in 2010. She also had a stint as deputy director of the fund’s communications department before becoming GC and director of the legal department.

She started her career in private practice at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, working in its financial institutions regulatory group.

Georgieva added: “Rhoda has contributed to virtually all aspects of the fund’s work. In addition to a sharp analytical mind and deep legal experience, she has been a passionate advocate for the importance of the fund’s work in a rapidly changing world. Her generous guidance, caring and friendship will be missed by many of us.”

An IMF spokesperson said it will initiate a process to select Weeks-Brown’s successor, without giving further details. Former Milbank and Fried Frank lawyer Yan Liu is currently the IMF’s deputy GC.