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AG rewards local top performing Hugh Wooding Law school students
The efforts of local lawyers, who topped their classes as students at the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago, were yesterday recognised by Attorney General, Basil Williams.
From left: Narissa Leander Class of 2013 to 2014; Attorney General Basil Williams; Thandiwe Benn- Class of 2011 to 2012 and Eleanor Luckhoo Class of 2014 to 2015.
The lawyers honoured were Eleanor Luckhoo, Class of 2015; Narissa Leander, Class of 2014; Thandiwe Benn- Class of 2012 and Raphael Adjodha, Class of 2013. The latter is the only male and was unavoidably absent.
Offering congratulations to the young lawyers on Government’s behalf, the Legal Affairs Minister said that their hard work must be acknowledged. He reminded that the practice was stopped by the previous government several years ago, but this was now being corrected.
He recalled that just before taking his present post, he was involved in what he described as a “stiff fight” in court during a jury trial with one of the lawyers, an attorney, whom he later discovered, had topped her class at the Trinidadian law school. He soon discovered that despite doing well, her efforts were never recognised by the previous government. Now, the Minister said he was in a position to correct this. “I have decided to resume making these awards to the students because not much had been done for them.”
The fact that over the recent years, law students have had to “find their way through the programme” by paying their own fees since the government scholarships and assistance in this regard were stopped, was mentioned by the Attorney General. He added that the awards which consisted of Law Reports from 1977 to 2007 were a form of encouragement for their hard work.
The prize winners were urged to read, continue the development of their analytical skills and “always help each other” by Court Registrar Sita Ramlall.
Chief Parliamentary Counsel, Cecil Dhurjon, CCH, SC also complimented the lawyers’ achievement, describing it as just the beginning.
“You should address the profession, always with the same fervour and determination, and the same desire to reach the top always”. He also urged the prize winners to emulate the examples set by other notable Caribbean legal luminaries such as Sir Lionel Luckhoo, J.O.F Haynes, L.F.S Burnham, G.H.S Elliot, and Cameron and Shepherd.
In closing, Head of the Guyana Bar Association Christopher Ram said he was pleased that the awards were restarted since, “Excellence must be recognised. I would like to congratulate all of you on what is undoubtedly a remarkable achievement”.
He added that they are in the profession at an extremely critical time and this should be regarded as a first step and a major one in their career. (GINA)
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