Three attorneys were yesterday conferred with silk by President Irfaan Ali who declared their appointment to the dignity of senior counsel to be meritorious and deserving.
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, Timothy Munro Jonas and Jamela Ali were granted the honour at the Baridi Benab in State House mere minutes after the High Court ruled that the President could legally make such appointments.
“Today I am pleased, as President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, to confer the title of Senior Counsel on three eminent members of the legal profession. Their records of excellence and sterling service exemplifies the high standards to which the legal profession aspires. The conferment of Senior Counsel on these three legal luminaries is meritorious and deserving,” Ali told those gathered for the brief ceremony.
He stressed that the title of senior counsel had long been associated with high standards and traditions of legal excellence.
“The conferment of silk is a mark of quality and thereby a means of enhancing public trust in our legal system. Such appointments will repose greater confidence in the efforts to ensure a more efficient and effective system,” he noted. He added that public confidence in the legal system is enhanced by the presence of persons who embody the high standards and traditions of legal excellence and service.
“The quality of the legal system is a litmus test….it therefore remains an obligation of all – government, citizens and particularly members of the legal profession – to work to ensure an effective and efficient legal system, where justice must be affordable, accessible, swift and fair. These are the foundational principles which should and must guide justice administration in Guyana and which will enhance public confidence in our justice system,” he said.
Less than an hour before the silk ceremony, Justice Nareshwar Harnanan dismissed an application by Jonas to declare it unconstitutional for Guyana’s President to appoint senior counsel. (See other story on page 10.)
Speaking with reporters after the conferral, Jonas explained that with the judgment it is now clear “how this thing must work.”
“The absence of transparency is what has caused corruption in our country….so I was not willing to participate until a Court pronounced this is how it should be done. That has now happened and I am satisfied,” he said.
In his ruling Justice Harnanan declared that the President at this juncture is the repository of the prerogative power to appoint deserving attorneys at law to the dignity of senior counsel.
He however called for there to be increased transparency of the criteria in the nomination and selection process.
Welcomed
Jonas welcomed this statement telling reporters that it is a matter that requires advocacy.
“We need to make sure that it is transparent enough that no one is surprised when they turn up to the party,” he said.
He reminded that during the litigation the first named respondent Attorney General Anil Nandlall submitted that it is time for there to be regulations so that criteria are established that everybody understands.
“I will be lobbying for that…we mustn’t have any more surprises. There were no surprises today. Nandlall is eminent, he’s deserving. Jamela Ali is eminent, she’s deserving. There have been surprises before. Good people have been overlooked before that shouldn’t happen. Nigel Hughes should be here, he’s not here. That shouldn’t happen,” Jonas stressed.
Asked what mechanism he would like to see used to make the process more transparent, Jonas said he would like to see a Committee make the selection.
“I would say six: Chancellor, Chief Justice, a judge, three senior counsel and the Attorney General that’s seven. Let them agree who to invite to apply and then by majority in a secret meeting let them decide and make that proposal to the President,” he posited, explaining that previously judges were invited to submit names yet the appointments announced did not accord with those submissions.
The attorney stressed that he accepted this appointment certain that he had been nominated by the Judges as he had made their approval a condition of his acceptance.
“I told [President Ali] I would not accept [this appointment] unless the judges gave their imprimatur. To my surprise he called me the next day and this is back in October to say that he received written confirmation that the judges had approved my nomination and therefore I told him I was willing to go ahead subject to the pending litigation,” he shared.
Nandlall told reporters that he was pleased and honoured.
“The conferment of silk is one of the high points in any lawyer’s career. It’s one of the things that every lawyer worth his salt strives to achieve and when it is achieved it’s a great accomplishment. It carries with it certain responsibilities and I hope that I discharge those responsibilities with the corresponding dignity, with the maturity and with the sense of level-headedness becoming of the status of Senior Counsel,” he shared, adding that he will endeavour to both guide junior lawyers and help those who are indigent and cannot afford to access the courts to remedy wrongs done them.
Asked what measures he would recommend to ensure transparency in the selection of future Senior Counsel, Nandlall said he had no idea right now.
“The discourse would have to begin on how we move forward,” he said.
