Veteran civil and commercial litigation attorney and one of the first Legal Aid executives Joey King SC passed away yesterday at the age of 93 after ailing for some time.
King spent his entire career working at Guyana’s oldest law firm, Cameron and Shepherd, located on Avenue of the Republic.
His longtime colleague and friend Ralph Ramkarran remembered him for his integrity and dedication to the legal field, so much that even when he retired in 2006, he continued going to his office until he was no longer physically able to do so.
“He qualified as a lawyer since 1954 and had started working immediately at Cameron and Shepherd and there he spent his entire career,” Ramkarran told the Stabroek News.
“He became a senior counsel in 1975 and was a very distinguished lawyer; a man of integrity. He had also served as a high court judge and he appeared in many civil cases. Dozens of them which were reported and [he] made a valuable contribution to legal learning in Guyana,” he added.
Ramkarran said that King “retired in 2006 at the age of 75, a senior partner. Had become senior in 1972 after the passing of J Edward Defreitas until 2006 when I took over.”
King was born to parents of United Kingdom heritage as his grandparents had settled here and his father worked as a manager on several sugar estates.
And while his siblings had left Guyana, settling in many counties throughout the world, King stayed here and dedicated his entire life to his work. “His relatives lived in New Zealand, Barbados, Canada, and the United Kingdom and all over the world but all had left Guyana. He was the only one that remained in Guyana,” Ramkarran said.
King had a love for motor racing, and had made a name for himself in the sport.
Ramkarran said that during King’s career, he had been close friends with the late David de Caires, lawyer and founder of Stabroek News as well as the late Miles Fitzpatrick SC, human rights and social freedom champion.
Josephine Whitehead was also a very close friend of King’s and stayed that way until his passing.
Of his personality, Ramkarran said that King stayed away from politics but loved people and was compassionate. “He was a very outgoing person, but not a public personality. He was not a person who was involved in political or public activity but was very engaging, convivial, gregarious; a person who had many friends and was very popular and loved people,” Ramkarran said.
Ramkarran also pointed out that King had no immediate family of his own and had lived his last days at the St Thomas More Catholic Home for men.
Ramkarran’s son Kamal Ramkarran yesterday wrote about King’s passing. “I went to see him twice last week. The first day I went, he was sleeping and the nurses woke him. He gave me such a sweet bleary eyed smile that he reminded me of a baby. On the second visit the next day, his voice was strong and clear and when I mentioned that to him, he said that was the only part of him that remained strong apart from his right bicep, which he flexed for my benefit,” he posted on his Facebook page.
“I thought to myself after those visits that no matter who we are or what we’ve done, one day we’ll be helpless again and dependent on others to take care of us and I resolved, once again, to try to remember every day that I’m alive, to live,” he added.
