est. 2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

LAWYERS in the NEWS

David
2 minutes

No single profession attracts the ire of Barbadians like lawyers. On a daily basis For example, we often hear complaints about lawyers taking unreasonably long periods of time to transfer monies from clients accounts to their clients. The complaints come from Barbadians living overseas  who having entrusted life long savings (pensions) to lawyers to settle various transactions in absentia or Barbadians on the rock who have no choice but to take on the stress of the legal system to process routine transactions.

The Bar Association (BA) has done little to assuage the concerns by Barbadians that it is an efficient self regulating body.  Suggestions to include ordinary folks on the BA’s Disciplinary Committee has not met with a favourable response. There is a sense lawyers and by extension the legal system has the country in a vice grip headlock.    Where are ordinary citizens to turn for justice if the Court System, its trusted officers (lawyers) and the BA continue to NOT satisfactorily resolve concerns from citizenry?

BU accepts bad apples are to be found in all professions – doctors, engineers, construction class, bankers and the list is very long. However, what cannot be denied is the ‘omnipresence’ nature of the legal profession on our little society. What cannot be denies is the right of Barbadians to assign priority to issues affecting them as they think fit.  The time for citizens, ordinary and others, to fight back.

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320 responses to “LAWYERS in the NEWS”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    The problem is that the fraternity must agree.

  2. David Avatar
    David

    DISBARRED

    LAWYER ‘MISSING’ Ex-attorney still owes former client just over $2m

    By Maria Bradshaw mariabradshaw@nationnews.com

    Disbarred attorney Therold O’Neal Fields owes his former client, Patricia Simpson, $2 124 354, representing the $601 000 which the Court of Appeal ordered him to repay to her plus interest of $1 523 354 accumulated over the past 15 years.

    And, while the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is saying it cannot locate Fields, attorney Philip Pilgrim, who represented Simpson pro bono during the disbarment proceedings against him in 2014, believes the “authorities are not doing enough” to find him.

    “I am not impressed at all that the authorities are doing their best to locate Mr Fields,” Pilgrim said, as he sat in his St Michael offices with Simpson. The 74-yearold, who resides in Britain, has travelled to Barbados to find out the status of the case against Fields.

    It was back in 2014 that the Court of Appeal disbarred the attorney for the failed transaction involving Simpson, who sent him amounts of BDS$5 000, £20 000 and £112 000 in 2006 to purchase a house for her at Eloise Gardens, Christ Church. The court had also ordered Fields to repay the money with interest of eight per cent added from the date of the complaint in 2008. The attorney has not repaid a cent.

    When contacted, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale confirmed he was in possession of a matter involving Fields and Simpson. He said they had not been able to locate him as yet.

    However, Sunday Sun investigations revealed that Fields resides in Christ Church in close proximity to the Oistins Police Station and operates ROLD Legal Consultants, where he has been offering himself as a legal consultant to farmers and residents of Gibbons, Christ Church, who are seeking to obtain compensation from Shell PLC in the United Kingdom as a result of an oil spill which occurred in Barbados many years ago.

    On December 21, 2022, a reporter of the Nation Publishing Co. Ltd attended the Pegwell Boggs Community Church where Fields held a meeting with several of these residents and assured them he was in contact with attorneys in the UK who were willing to work on their behalf to obtain settlements of millions of dollars for the oil spill. He also sent close to 40 residents letters outlining the monies ranging from $20 million to $100 million which he had calculated was owed to them by the oil company.

    Pilgrim told the Sunday Sun he was also in possession of a letter which Fields wrote to the residents on October 4, advising that attorneys in the UK were ready to proceed with their claim.

    He noted: “Mr Fields was at one time living in Newbury, St George, and as recent as October 2023 Mr Fields is giving his address as Ocean Dream Apartments, Scarborough, Christ Church, and he wrote a letter dated October 4, 2023, to some of the claimants being farmers at Gibbons Boggs who he is proposing to represent in a matter against Shell PLC. So it is very unfortunate the authorities are saying to me the efforts to locate Mr Fields have proven futile. I don’t agree with that assessment at all.”

    Outlining the timeline of events when his client first reported Fields to the Disciplinary Committee of the Barbados Bar Association in 2008, Pilgrim said: “We’ve had a time span of five years that went by after she lodged her complaint to the Bar Association; then we’ve had more than eight years that have gone by since April 15, 2015 (when he was struck off the roll) to October, 2023,” as he pointed out that the disgraced attorney was committed to the High Court following a preliminary enquiry at the magistrate court.

    Pilgrim also lamented that Lester Corbin, who acted on Simpson’s behalf by delivering the cheques to Fields, and who gave evidence at the disciplinary hearing, “has since died”.

    “Miss Simpson is not in the best of health. She is now 74 years old and is here in Barbados to find out what is happening and she is extremely distressed that the matter cannot proceed and in the meantime Therold Fields is seen in public in Christ Church telling farmers that they are going to get a great deal of money from the Shell PLC matter. You want to tell me that all of that is going on and the authorities in Barbados cannot locate Mr Fields?” the attorney queried.

    Source: Nation

  3. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Once again “High praise” for the blog master. I saw the above story on Instagram and raised it elsewhere for discussion but unlike here where no one made a comment, just one person made a comment there.

    Instagram Post
    “Disbarred attorney Therold O’Neal Fields owes a former 74-year-old female client more than $2.1 million. The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is saying they can’t locate him, but the woman’s lawyer believes “authorities are not doing enough” to find him.”

    I was looking to post the Instagram bit here, but I saw the blog master al ready has the story here.

    Yes! Only one person in that other forum was brave enough to comment. In that den of lawyers, not a fellow said one word.

    You can have mangled or false legislation, you can ask for new courts and more judges, you can stitch a constitution together, but until folks are not afraid to say that “wrong is wrong”, everything is meaningless.

    Good men saying nothing is one of the reason why crooks are flourishing on the island. Will you wait until you or a family member are victims before you speak up against crooked practices? There may be no one left to hear you.

    Sad news David … You cannot do it by yourself.

  4. David Avatar
    David

    Speed up the delivery of justice, please!

    The movement of the Earth’s crust is considered so slow that geologists warn it is virtually impossible to perceive it with the naked eye. So, when the pace of the current flow of decisions from Barbados’ courts was recently likened to the speed of tectonic plates, the truth of our situation hit home like the proverbial “ton of bricks”, bringing with it deep regret or embarrassment, or both.

    For hardly a month goes by without a judge, magistrate, police prosecutor, defence attorney or victim of tardiness complaining about or offering wellmeaning solutions to the long-standing question: why does it take so long to resolve court cases in Barbados?

    Just last month, an acting magistrate, Bernadeth John, wisely dismissed several matters which had been languishing in the system for years without resolution and for which police officers were still without files.

    Responsibility

    What is perplexing in Barbados and different parts of the Caribbean, where a similar problem exists, is the appearance of what many see as a weakening of the once strong sense of responsibility to get the job done by delivering justice in a timely fashion. This is about meeting the high standard advocated by Dr Martin Luther King Jr in a letter from a Birmingham jail in Alabama in 1963 when he warned: “Justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

    In that respect, we can learn a lot from the days of Sir David Simmons when, as Chief Justice, he headed the judiciary, wrote at least 100 decisions, masterminded the construction of the hall of justice and pushed the court calendar along at a steady clip.

    A key element in the issue of delay of justice is whether its delivery is being hampered by unavoidable barriers or by necessary pauses. In our case, those apparent factors don’t seem to apply.

    Instead, according to available evidence, far too often (1) files are not available for months and years; (2) frequent adjournments requested by prosecutors and defence counsel; and (3) crowded court calendars that, when combined, help to erect roadblocks to legal redress or equitable relief to victims or alleged perpetrators.

    Now, Sir Elliott Mottley, a veteran at the Bar who once served as Bermuda’s attorney general, and High Court Justice Carlisle Greaves, who also served with distinction in Bermuda’s judiciary, have added two intriguing reasons for the delays.

    Sir Elliott has cited the oftenlate opening and the early closing of Magistrates’ Courts proceedings as a contributing factor to the backlog, 16 000 earlier this year, compounding the nightmare.

    “I challenge anyone to go after two o’clock to any Magistrates’ Court and see whether the magistrates are sitting,” he told Starcom Network’s Sunday Brass Tacks radio call-in programme recently. “I remember when the Magistrates’ Courts started at nine.

    They start at half past nine and a quarter to ten . . . . How many magistrates sit until four?”

    That rhetorical question deserves a firm answer from the offices of the Chief Magistrate and the Chief Justice. After all, they hold final responsibility for the management of cases before our courts.

    Mathematics indicates late openings and early closings may be costing the Magistrates’ Courts days of hearings every month.

    Human resources

    For his part, Justice Greaves has put much of the case for more magistrates to be appointed. “I say we have to expand the lower judiciary, not only increasing the work that they do by transferring some of the matters that we try in the Supreme Court, but by increasing their numbers. It doesn’t make sense having one magistrate in a jurisdiction with a few people and no crime, while you have one serving in a jurisdiction with lots of crime,” was the way he put it.

    To that we say stick a pin on the question of more magistrates. Barbados must first solve the matter of the use of existing human resources before adding more lower-level judicial officers. We could end up compounding the problem.

    Sir David, a member of the Law Reform Commission, publicly indicated that the panel was developing new rules of criminal procedures in the Magistrates’ Court, and they should be ready by early next year. We must await those procedures before moving forward.

    But even before then, Justice Greaves, who has earned kudos in and out of Bermuda for the successful reform measures he fashioned and implemented, should be invited to do the same for his birthplace, beginning with sessions attended by magistrates on how to structure and manage their calendars.

    Source: Nation

  5. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Jesus.. this is similar to my 10/30/2023 post above.

    I have bad news for everyone… Bookmark and read in 2032, it will still be relevant.

  6. David Avatar
    David

    Legal squeeze

    Bar revising act to clamp down on attorneys stealing from clients

    By Maria Bradshaw

    mariabradshaw@nationnews.com

    In an effort to deal more effectively with attorneys stealing from their clients, the Barbados Bar Association has submitted sweeping changes to the Legal Profession Act, which includes a rigorous process of auditing attorney’s client accounts as well as a more rigid disciplinary procedure.

    In addition, attorneys would also have to submit to mandatory yearly training in order to receive their practicing certificates.

    These are just a few of the new proposals which the Association has submitted for a revised Legal Profession Bill, as it continues to be dogged by instances of attorneys stealing thousands of dollars, from their clients.

    They are hoping the new rules would come into effect next year.

    A press release submitted to the Sunday Sun yesterday by the president, Kaye Williams, highlighted the new changes.

    “Attorneys will face a tough new legislative and regulatory framework in 2024 if the changes for which the Barbados Bar Association has been asking are passed in a revised Legal Profession Bill. The Barbados Bar Association has been informed by the Law Reform Commission that a draft Bill will be provided no later than January 2024.

    “One such proposal includes imposing pre-requisites that have to be met every year in order to practice. Annual practising certificates are currently granted ‘as a matter of course’ when the yearly fees are paid to the Supreme Court. This can no longer continue,” the association stated, adding it would not be “business as usual to obtain that certificate”.

    Reputation

    “First, it is illegal for any attorney to practise law without a practising certificate and second, it will not be business as usual to obtain that certificate. Not only must members be subject each year to compulsory legal education training, the Barbados Bar Association has advocated for rigorous accounting rules which have to be met before any attorney can obtain their annual practising certificate. Every year, client accounts must be verified and audited and the reports certified and issued by accountants. There must be a legislative framework that not only provide for annual monitoring of client accounts, but also stiff penalties to ensure compliance,” the release stated.

    It added: “Findings of theft from clients and related misconduct destroys the reputation of not only the profession but also Barbados as a business jurisdiction. The aim of the legislative provisions is to ensure that, each and every year, clients’ funds are safe and that clients’ accounts are in order before the issuance of a practising certificate to an attorney. The requirement for financial probity among attorneys is essential within the legal profession and indeed a requirement for the due administration of justice.”

    In terms of the disciplinary committee, the association reiterated it was a separate body but pointed out that extensive changes would also be coming to the disciplinary process.

    “Generally, the public is not aware that, under our current legislation, the disciplinary committee is a separate body to the Bar Association. That notwithstanding, the BBA has recommended extensive changes to entirely revamp the system of discipline in terms of its governance, size, composition, and powers. One proposal is that the current system of discipline needs to be replaced with an entirely new body led by a legally trained chairman, comprising of members of the public, civic society and retired judges. It will act as a properly funded and staffed tribunal in order to determine all complaints in a prompt, fair manner.”

    It explained: “Under the current system, if an attorney is disbarred and ordered to repay, that is the end of the disciplinary process. The power to enforce the court order to repay lies with another arm of the legal system entirely. The Barbados Bar believes that the body imposing the discipline must have certain powers to ensure swifter justice for the public as well as enforcement of orders made for restitution and repayment of client funds.”

    Only last month, Chief Justice Sir Patterson Cheltenham called for an amendment to the Legal Profession Act to allow for swifter justice for clients whose funds had been misappropriated by their attorneys.

    Speaking to new attorneys who were admitted to the BAR, the Chief Justice said this was an area of “constant complaint and disappointment” both here and overseas as he suggested that was necessary to create a body that it could address these matters more expeditiously.

    He stated: “The solution to this problem, in my view, is to replace the current system of discipline with a new body led by a legally trained chairman – a retired judge is one possibility – and comprising of members of the public and legal profession. It has to be properly funded and staffed in order to evaluate all complaints made with dispatch and fairness to all involved,” as he also disclosed that a new Legal Profession Act was in draft.

    Source: Nation

  7. David Avatar
    David

    Regulating the legal profession

    The following article was written and submitted by the Integrity Group Barbados. “In Barbados the concept of self-regulation is an illusion, because comprehensive machinery for that regulation can hardly be said to exist.” – The late Sir Roy Marshall, former chairman of the National Commission on Law and Order – The Nation Newspaper, March 18, 2011.

    The report in the Sunday Sun of November 5 which carried the headline

    Disbarred Lawyer Missing

    told the sad story of a former client who is owed $601 000 by a disbarred attorney.

    The report stated that in 2014, the Court of Appeal had ordered him to repay the money, yet up until now the client has not seen a penny. This is not an isolated case, as there have been other recent instances where members of the legal profession have been brought before the courts for misappropriation of clients’ funds.

    While the lawyers involved have been brought to justice, and the Disciplinary Committee of the Bar Association has done its duty in having these lawyers disbarred, their clients have been left in the lurch having lost large sums.

    Perhaps it was for the foregoing reason that, in early October, Arthur Holder, Speaker of the House, on being elevated to Senior Counsel, reminded the legal profession of the importance of integrity.

    In an interview with the local media, he asserted that, “The money of clients does not belong to the attorney. You do not mess with clients’ funds and I believe that if you do not stick to that oath and you take clients’ money, you should be treated and done like as you would do a normal person, that you should feel the full weight of the law if you steal clients’ money. It is as simple as that.”

    Great concern

    The foregoing must be of great concern to the Barbados Bar Association and the many lawyers who serve their profession with distinction and adhere to the highest levels of integrity. There can be no doubt of the position of the Bar Association on this issue, as one of the first clauses in their Code of Ethics states that, “An attorney-at-law shall maintain his integrity and the honour and dignity of the legal profession and of his own standing as a member of it and shall encourage other attorneysat- law to act similarly both in the practice of his profession and in his private life and shall refrain from conduct which is detrimental to the profession or which may tend to discredit it”.

    Moreover, the Legal Profession Act, which first came into operation in 1973 and was last revised in 2004, states that the Judicial Advisory Council may make rules generally as to the keeping and operating of bank accounts or clients’ money by attorneysat- law. The legislation further states that the rules may also require an attorney-at-law, in such cases as may be prescribed by the rules to keep on deposit in a separate account at a bank for the benefit of the client. The Legal Profession (Accounts) Rules, which were also enacted in 1973, provide further guidance on how clients’ funds should be managed.

    Badly wrong

    Barbados has been served well by our legal profession, yet something is badly wrong and needs to be fixed. It has been over two decades since the late Sir Roy Marshall was invited to chair the National Commission on Law and Order and called for changes in how members of the legal profession were policed.

    Sir Roy stated that, “In Barbados the concept of selfregulation is an illusion, because comprehensive machinery for that regulation can hardly be said to exist”.

    He highlighted that in Britain there is strong and effective legislation to regulate the conduct of legal practitioners, and a very powerful, wellfunded, and serious enforcement body – the Law Society – which ensures that the client is protected.

    In February 2015, Andrew Brathwaite, then vice-president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados (ICAB), in an interview with the Nation Newspaper, stated that “Proper accounting for client money can be complex, especially where there is a large number of clients and client transactions and errors may occur inadvertently despite the best of intentions. Even where the lawyer has employed qualified accounting staff to supervise record keeping, independent verification may still be advisable”.

    He suggested that “Independent verification may include periodic audit of client accounts, or limited procedures to verify that the recommended accounting systems and controls are in place and operating effectively”.

    Brathwaite also pointed to Britain’s Law Society’s Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) as offering a detailed guide for the protection of client accounts.

    The following are summary extracts from the SRA regulations on how legal firms and sole practitioners are to deal with money belonging to clients. The regulations advise that legal firms and sole practitioners shall:

    • Keep client money separate from money belonging to the legal firm or sole practitioner.

    • Ensure that client money is paid promptly into a client account.

    • Ensure that client money is available on demand unless an alternative arrangement has been agreed in writing with the client.

    • Ensure that client money is returned promptly to the client, or the third party for whom the money is held, as soon as there is no longer any proper reason to hold those funds.

    • Only withdraw client money from a client account for the purpose for which it is being held or following receipt of instructions from the client, or the third party for whom the money is held.

    Draw from Britain

    Whilst the local regulations also cover the foregoing areas, IGB is of the view that proactive monitoring and compliance of the legal profession should be far more effective and supports the suggestion from Brathwaite that we draw on Britain’s SRA to strengthen our own regulations in Barbados.

    The absence of a strong monitoring framework for the legal profession in Barbados has persisted for too long. IGB understands that the Bar Association has requested changes to strengthen the Disciplinary Committee.

    We hope that the lawyers that sit in our House of Assembly will work to bring the necessary changes to correct this glaring deficiency. The reputation of our legal profession is at stake.

    Source: Nation

  8. TheoGazerts Avatar
    TheoGazerts

    I am quite certain that you have already heard the story of the “Little Boy who cried wolf”. These lawyers wait around graduation time every year and make fancy speeches, promises and announce new initiatives and then disappear into the woodwork. The story have a sweet twist; the big bad wolves (lawyers) are here, but in this story the big bad wolves never disappear, The thieving and dishonesty continues.

    Fool me once shame on me; fool me twice shame on me; fool me three times and I am an idiot and you know it. For quite some time they have been singing the same song and the media and the public eats it up every year. Around this time next year, just like Christmas music, you will be hearing the same old song from the lawyers.

  9. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Confession: I did not read the 3:5x bullshit postings.
    I suspect that many Bajans did exactly what I did.
    Boiling point will be reached at some stage.

  10. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    [She said they have had “some serious problems” with Reverend Bannister “for the past three years or so”.
    Their grievances concern the decline in church life, the absence of ministries such as providing hampers to the needy and a previously active youth band.]

    I chose a sid. I lost all respect for some of those involved. Some huffing and puffing about criminals but no concerns for the needy.

  11. grant v walcot walcot Avatar
    grant v walcot walcot

    remove them from the Bench. The PM and Ag knows how to do that

  12. grant v Avatar
    grant v

    Hahaa what a joke, mockery of the justice system. It must be more than heartbreaking for Patricia. Did she not have Kings Counsel Pilgrim on her side. Cant find Mr. Fields… Lets call him Ghost Fields. Its amazing that there is not a nationwide outcry on Brass or copper Tacts. Fields is laughting at a field of idiots

  13. It is the same old song Avatar
    It is the same old song

    Meanwhile the gumb-beat continues on how to treat attorneys. Please see BT’s epaper with an article titled “Keep them out”. The gist

    Excerpt from BT
    “Disbarred attorneys must be prevented from offering legal services to
    the public “under new guises”, says Chief Justice Sir Patterson
    Cheltenham.
    In his last address to the Bench And Bar in that role, he said legislation
    must be strengthened to end this practice.
    “Where persons are found guilty of misconduct, are disbarred, they
    cannot be in a position to offer their skills to members of the public.”

    Every yea, one of these guys run out with a new version of their old song. Change up the lyrics just a little, call the media and announce a brand new hits.

  14. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Can we recover from what ails us?
    Why must folks wait, until they are ‘exiting the building’ wit their bags of loot over their shoulder, to point out that something is wrong with our system.

    Their replacement occupies the vacated position and he/she says nothing or lack ideas until it is time to leave.

  15. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    effin de rumour I just hear is true, there is hope for us over 70s.

  16. David Avatar
    David

    Backlog still a stain on judiciary

    High Court judge Justice Carlisle Greaves posed a rhetorical but not too subtle question recently: “How long is too long for the organs of the state to grant an accused man his hearing?”

    Justice Greaves, something of a conscience of the republic’s court system, didn’t wait for an answer.

    “Sixteen years and no reasonable explanation has been given as to why this matter has been delayed so long . . . . The State has been absolutely responsible for that, and it has not given one answer.”

    He is not alone in voicing this concern about how long it takes to bring a matter to some semblance of a satisfactory judicial conclusion.

    A few days ago, the Organisation of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Association urged the Barbados Bar Association, the judiciary and others involved in the dispensing of justice to link arms in a much-needed effort to reduce court delays.

    “If legal redress or equitable relief to an injured party is not forthcoming in a timely fashion, it is effectively the same as having no remedy at all,” warned the regional body, adding that a backlog denies justice to complainants and flies in the face of the entrenched constitutional rights of those before the court.

    Barbados’ backlog is said to be about 16 000 cases, which is far too high, and we all know that justice delayed is justice denied.

    Some things are clear, others are not. The judiciary must by now recognise that the delivery process is overloaded and therefore in dire need of reduction. Even the Caribbean Court of Justice, Barbados’ highest court, has been complaining for years about the slow speed of dispensing justice.

    Another is the magistracy, which needs more attention, administrative direction and greater use of resources to get the job done.

    Third, the legal profession, with more than 1 000 active members and growing, has its own set of problems, ranging from tardiness and professional misconduct by some practitioners, to issues of effective self-regulation. With the Law Reform Commission set to put some self-regulatory reforms to the Bar Association to police the profession and avoid the comingling of client and lawyers’ accounts and the theft of clients’ funds, it may be on its way to remove a stain on the profession.

    What’s unclear are the solutions to the problems. We are not without ideas. The addition of more magistrates and judges; faster disbarment of offending lawyers; the provision of administrative and clerical staffers to the courts and the presiding officers; alternatives to litigation; and accelerated dismissals of cases that were on the docket for years are but a handful of them.

    What much of these factors and recommendations seemingly boils down to is improved administration of the court system; judges and magistrates being required to deliver judgments on time as the Constitution requires or face removal from the Bench; and strict enforcement of court decisions, especially monetary awards to long-suffering victims of fraud or malpractice or both.

    An answered question, though, is the role of the prosecution in the backlog. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions should explain its side of the story of the inordinate delays in the delivery of justice and the years it often takes to give accused people their day in court.

    That’s what Justice Greaves and the Organisation of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations may have been alluding to in their analyses of the causes, effects and possible solutions to the backlog.

    What we are not convinced about is the validity of the requests for more judges and magistrates for the courts. In other words, the case hasn’t been made effectively and with clarity for the Government and the treasury to throw money at the problem, hoping to get it solved. The judiciary was expanded a few years ago but the conundrum remains unsolved.

    Source: Nation

  17. David Avatar
    David

    Law Faculty vows to keep up good work

    The Law Faculty at the University of the West Indies (UWI) is not resting on its laurels and will continue to push to produce excellent attorneys and legal minds.

    Law lecturer Nicole Foster gave that assurance last week as she delivered a lecture at 3Ws Oval entitled the Cave Hill Law Faculty – A Legacy Of Excellence, Charting New Paths For The Future.

    She, however, believes there are areas that they can improve on, including marketing all of their services, maintaining better relationships with their alumni and by improving their physical plant which was opened about 50 years ago.

    “We had a very successful 50th anniversary celebration. It was so touching and persons were excited that the faculty reached out to them . . . therefore we definitely have to do better in terms of formalising those relationships in a way to make those contacts regular,” Foster said.

    She noted that although they had made steps to enhance the faculty, including through murals and other touches, more could be done.

    “We’ve begun in small ways to try to improve the general ambience and look of the faculty but we are really hamstrung in terms of dealing with a very old building.

    “[However] one of the areas where we do need improvement is our physical plant. Those of you who were here in 1973, it’s the same building, so that I respectfully suggest that it’s time for a make-over, expansion and upgrade,” she added.

    During her presentation, which was the final of the lecture series sponsored by the Nation Publishing Company Ltd, Foster highlighted that the faculty grew tremendously from when it first opened in the 1970s with 38 students. President, the Most Honourable Dame Sandra Mason and several Caribbean Court of Justice judges are among their alumni.

    She also spoke about several of their units and special projects that have brought about positive change such as the Alternative Dispute Resolution Unit, the Environmental Law and Ocean Governance and Climate Justice unit (which will be officially launched soon), the Improved Access to Justice in the Caribbean (IMPACT Justice) project and UWI Rights Advocacy Project.

    Foster explained that the project has been instrumental in critical human rights matters such as the decriminalising of cross-dressing in Guyana coming out of the McEwan v the Attorney General.

    “This project was established in 2009 to promote human rights, equality, and justice in the Caribbean through human rights litigation through collaboration with human rights lawyers and organisations.

    “These cases have furthered the advancement of legislative and policy reform in those countries and contributed to greater accommodation of the LGBTQ in public life and served as an example for the region.”

    She added that they would strive to do their best to address critical issues in the region.

    Marketing executive at the Nation Publishing Company, Romaine Lovell, said the company, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in November, was pleased to partner with the campus which celebrated 60 years in 2023.

    “As our detractors scornfully dismissed our founders Harold Hoyte and Sir Fred Gollop as young inexperienced upstarts who would survive less than 50 days in the publishing business, last Thursday the Nation celebrated 50 years of delivering credible, accurate and reliable news.”

    He congratulated the faculty and by extension the university on its work over the years.

    “We are proud of the position we hold and similarly the position of UWI and we commend you for celebrating 60 years. You’ve built a legacy of excellence and have charted new paths for generations to come,” Lovell said.

    (TG)

    Source: Nation

  18. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Read the blurb on the promises of UWI. Would have love to see a promise directed towards teaching the students how to better interact with clients (monies) and teaching ethics.

    You can produce more lawyers but if you are sending thieves into various communities, you should rethink your good work.

    We are well past the time of fancy speeches and people patting themselves on the back. Corrective action is needed.

  19. TheORealist Avatar
    TheORealist

    These same speeches will be given next year. It is part of an annual ritual.

    Hear your cry; apply Vaseline, blow warm year up your ass, whisper sweet nothings in your ear and then have their way.

    “See you here again, next year, you sweet sexy thing”.

  20. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ TheO
    Boss, if our former friend and BU colleague Jeff C could nor fix – or even explain this dilemma, don’t expect lesser luminaries from the Cave on the Hill to do so…

    As long as the dictator Sir Cave Hilary is in charge, functionaries on the hilltop will continue to sing the praises of ‘one of the greatest universities in the world’ … despite its nakedness…

    … We must learn to ignore the ACTUAL results on the ground, like stolen client funds, broken judiciary, insults from the CCJ, and clearly crooked officers of the court.

    Instead, we should accept that our ‘heroes’ are those who make the most personal gain from selling key national assets that were previously mutually owned, to foreigners – while being conferred honorary degrees, and having university assets named after them…

    The only thing WORSE that being forced into slavery ‘vi et Armes’, is CHOOSING to place yourself into serfdom – VOLUNTARILY, in exchange for a few pieces of shiite silver…

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