Former Attorney General (AG) of Guyana Bernard De Santos, SC, who passed away on Friday night at a city hospital following a prolonged illness, is being remembered as a heavyweight in the legal profession, who was instrumental in grooming some of today’s most prominent lawyers.
De Santos, who was 80, was appointed AG following the historic 1992 general elections and he served in the post until 1997, when he returned to private practice. He was well known for his expertise in criminal trials.
President David Granger extended condolences upon De Santos’ passing in a brief statement yesterday.
In a statement, the Bar Council of the Guyana Bar Association said the legal profession was mourning the loss of a stalwart.
It noted that De Santos was one of the leading Senior Counsel in the country and, although experienced and knowledgeable in every field of practice, his specialty was in the field of criminal law, and particularly in jury trials of the most serious offences.
“He was also an expert at cross examination and could often be seen in the courtroom skillfully and patiently breaking down the evidence of witnesses opposing his clients’ cases,” it said.
The statement also described De Santos as a gifted raconteur who was frequently at the centre of a group of lawyers on the corridors of the courts regaling them with stories of cases and judges from days gone by.
“He was kind and patient with younger lawyers and he mentored many junior lawyers who were new to intricacies of the profession,” it noted, while adding that with his passing there is a vacuum in the profession.
Attorney Sanjeev Datadin, who De Santos took under his wing in 1997, said he was eternally grateful for all the assistance he had given him. “He’s who put me on the path that I am on today. Showed me how it’s done. Showed me how to practice law,” he said.
In an invited comment to Sunday Stabroek, Datadin recalled that when he entered into the legal profession in 1997, De Santos had just concluded his stint as AG and “he and I started out together” at De Santos’s law firm, De Santos and Associates. That partnership lasted for five years.
“The profession has lost one of the greatest that we have had. Undoubtedly we have lost one of the greatest. A man who has served both sides,” he said. “He was tireless. He never gave up. Kept fighting. Kept fighting. His clients have been the beneficiaries of that hard work,” he added, while noting that in the five years he worked with De Santos, he learnt more than he had in school.
According to Datadin, De Santos was best in criminal trials before a jury. “I don’t think many lawyers in Guyana have that ability. He can captivate an audience. He can speak in their language…,” he said, before later reiterating that no one could cross-examine in criminal trials like De Santos. “I’ve worked in Trinidad, Barbados, the Caribbean, [and the] UK. I haven’t seen anybody with his ability to do that. He was exceptional,” he said.
Datadin added that he recently called De Santos to thank him for his vote of confidence in identifying him as a suitable candidate for the conferral of silk.
De Santos several weeks ago had spoken to this newspaper about the controversy surrounding the withdrawal of SC status that was conferred upon attorney Timothy Jonas. De Santos was adamant that what had occurred was wrong and should be rectified. He also used the opportunity to name a few attorneys who ought to be conferred with the honour and Datadin was among them.
Though mobility had recently become a challenge for De Santos, Datadin said that he was still “sharp as a tack.”
He said the late attorney would remind him that his mind was still “agile and going” but the body was letting him down.
Senior Counsel Ralph Ramkarran also shared fond memories of De Santos.
He said their friendship began in 1973, when he (Ramkarran) started to practice. “Already at this time he was a prominent East Coast practitioner. It was in that jurisdiction that I began my career and I relied a great deal on his advice and guidance. I learnt much from listening to him in court,” he said.
Ramkarran told Sunday Stabroek that as the years went by, they took different paths in the legal profession. “Bernard’s reputation in criminal law grew until he was easily the most distinguished criminal lawyer in practice and the best cross-examiner in the criminal field. It was an education listening to him cross-examine a witness and then analysing the cross-examination later. It was a reputation that gained him Senior Counsel long before he became qualified to have that honour. At the time he qualified, like the present, politics played a role in determining who obtained the honour,” he explained.
He added that De Santos was totally non-political for most of his life and never sat comfortably in the political arena. Like many people, he said, De Santos was affected by the decline of Guyana in the 1970s and 1980s and felt honoured that the late Cheddi Jagan sought him out and appointed him AG in 1992.
Ramkarran said that De Santos returned to legal practice and his non-political ways after 1997 and once again resumed “his pre-eminence as the leading criminal lawyer in Guyana, although by that time many younger lawyers began to knock at the door.”
He stressed that De Santos served the legal profession with great distinction and is one of the greatest lawyers ever produced by the country.
“His distinguished example is one which younger lawyers would do well to emulate. I owe a personal debt of gratitude to Bernard, who generously showed me the way in my earliest years,” he said. Meanwhile, former Attorney General Anil Nandlall, in a Facebook post, described De Santos as a “towering giant,” who has distinguished himself at both the criminal and civil Bar over the last 40 years.
He said that like every one of those of his pre-eminent ilk, his was a style unique to him and carefully chiselled to coincide with his effervescent personality. “…It was an admixture of intellect, charm, elegance and smooth, but emphatic aggression when necessary. This was not only reflected in the courtroom but in his writings and speeches in the National Assembly where he served from 1992 to 2011,” he said.
As Cheddi Jagan’s first Attorney General, he said, De Santos “in “difficult times, with meagre resources,” served the office with distinction.
According to Nandlall, “Santas,” as he was colloquially called in rural Guyana, “was already a household name in those communities when I was a mere toddler. I was always in a state of awe at the reverence which that name provoked in the villages whenever court matters are the subject of discourse. Therefore, my close association with him when I entered the legal profession was a natural phenomenon.”
“He became a mentor, a political comrade and mostly importantly, a close friend. We would sometimes “gaff” for hours about everything under the sun. Everyone who knows him would know that his romanticism with life and its many creations was indeed legendary,” he said, before adding that he was consoled by the fact that he knows that De Santos lived life to its fullest.
“Notwithstanding all that he achieved, he remained deeply rooted to his Plaisance working class upbringing. He spent an entire career serving the poor and the working people as a lawyer. I spent many years alongside him in the Magistrates Court of East Coast, East Bank and West Coast Demerara. I learnt greatly from the feet of a master,” he said.
