For the first time in 20 years, Guyana saw the appointment of the status of Senior Counsel to long serving legal practitioners yesterday.
At a State House ceremony to hand over the instruments of appointment, the President said the absence of such appointments over the past two decades could be seen as a ‘dereliction of duty’.
Among those officially appointed were two of the first three women to ever be elevated to Senior Counsel.
Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire and Ms. Rosalie Robertson were present while Justice Claudette Singh will be presented with hers at a later date as she is currently overseas.
Attorney General, Mr. Basil Williams, Mr. Neil Aubrey Boston, Mr. Charles Fung-A-Fat, Mr. Clifton Llewelyn John, Mr. Rafiq Khan and Mr. Vidyanand Persaud are the other legal practitioners to receive the honour.
According to the President, appointing Senior Counsel “is a mark of respect, of recognition and of reward for the accomplishments of those who have given, and who continue to give, selfless service to our nation. Your average individual service is 37½ years and your accumulated service is 338 years. You embody a massive amount of legal education and experience. You are exemplars of a fine tradition of an honourable and ancient profession.
He explained that the appointment of Senior Counsel, which was last done in 1996, constitutes an important institution of the State and is also an important part of his personal obligation as President of Guyana to ensure that deserving citizens are given their due.
“It is my obligation, not an option, to respect our national system of honours. Failure to confer these awards, whether as a result of caprice or malice, would constitute a dereliction of duty, the debasement our identity of nationhood and an affront to our citizens. I shall, with regularity and consistency, recognise and reward the work deserving citizens by conferring these honours on the basis of merit. This is the custom of our people. This is the convention of good government. This is the culture of a good society,” President Granger said.
Since the list of appointees was announced on December 31, 2016, there have been some criticisms as a sitting judge was named. However, the Head of State noted that the 20 year absence of appointments means that a generation of qualified legal practitioners have missed out on receiving this honour. “For the first time in 20 years, I have appointed three women and I couldn’t find any reason why women weren’t appointed before and as far as sitting judges are concerned as in the case of Justice Roxane George, she served for several years in the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] and were this a normal jurisdiction, during those years, she would have had the [Senior Counsel appointment] long ago. It is a travesty that for 50 years, we couldn’t find a woman attorney to grant the Senior Counsel to and she is fully qualified,” the President explained.
He added that Justice Claudette Singh too has served (and is still serving) in various capacities within the legal profession. She was Deputy Solicitor General, Puisne Judge and a Justice of Appeal and as Guyana Police Force’s Legal Advisor. President Granger said that in normal jurisdictions her experience and qualifications would have qualified her elevation to Senior Counsel.
President Granger reiterated that this elevation is a sacred symbol of nationhood, which reflects the country’s ambitions and aspirations to improve the quality of life, to be more fully integrated as a community of citizens with common ideals and to share a sense of national identity.
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