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Jan 14, 2015 Letters
Dear Editor,
Steps are (supposedly) being taken to have members of the legal profession elevated to Senior Counsel status. It has been a number of years since this was done, perhaps because some of the leading candidates for such elevation are not friends or admirers of those who will confer the elevated status.
It is my gut feeling that these steps are now being taken because a certain prominent individual has declared that ‘I want my thing. I don’t care who else has to get along with me’.
The factors that qualify a lawyer to take silk have been stated. Permit me to state some factors that should prevent or at least delay a lawyer’s elevation to that status.
(1) repeated or persistent demonstration of disrespect for the bench whether magistrate, judge or commission of enquiry.
(2) extremely poor cross examination technique.
(3) the practice of malicious prosecution or the taking of directives from outside of the legal framework as to whether or not to prosecute or whether or not to discontinue prosecution.
(4) the lack of proper and relevant legal experience.
(5) the commission, condoning or endorsement of illegal acts.
(6) the solicitation of sexual partners for others.
(7) the demonstration of clear political bias in reporting on the proceedings within a court or before a commission of enquiry when one’s position is supposed to be neutral and impartial.
Based on what is outlined above, careful deliberation should precede any decision on whether to confer silk on some lawyers when their time comes. Some names that come to mind are (a) Basil Williams (b) Shalimar Ali-Hack (c) Sita Ramlall (d) Anil Nandlall (e) Latchmi Rahamat.
It is worth noting that holding a particular office does not automatically qualify a lawyer to wear silk. In fact, one ought not to hold certain offices unless one already wears silk. Relevant experience is also of paramount importance. Experience as a de facto librarian should not count towards qualifying one to wear silk.
It is likely that most of the persons identified above will be Senior Counsel before much longer since in the current dispensation politics reigns supreme. It is nevertheless also possible that a decision can be made based on the weight of professional opinion, that a certain name on that list cannot be made a Senior Counsel at this time.
In that case a decision may well be made that since he can’t get it then no one else will.
There is a certain prominent attorney who is already recognized throughout the Commonwealth Caribbean as a de facto Senior Counsel (i.e one without the abbreviation). It would be an exercise in idiocy to deny him the formalization of that status based on a parting directive from a vindictive historical figure.
In concluding permit me to advance the view that it is time that the legal profession took a page from the medical, engineering and surveying professions. In these professions fellowships and chartered status are conferred by the respective professional bodies.
Politicians therefore have no leverage to ‘muscle’ these professionals into ‘behaving’, to ‘spite’ them if they don’t, to reward unprofessional or criminal conduct or to honour untalented cronies.
Clive Jefferson
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