Serving in the legal society for 50 years…. Former Judge Stanley Moore S.C. is a ‘Special Person’

Sep 01, 2019 News, Special Person

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“I just can’t retire and go home. I think it’s the way we lawyers are built. We don’t stop working until our mind stops…”

By Rehanna Ramsay

While most people would consider themselves retired by the age of sixty-five, Stanley Alfred Moore, Attorney-at-law and Senior Counsel, at the ripe age of 84, refuses to relent where providing legal services to the nation and people of Guyana is concerned. In fact, the seasoned lawyer is observing his 50th year of practice and service to the bar and bench.

His work stretches beyond Guyana and the Caribbean to the most distant lands of Botswana and Swaziland located on the African Continent — places he once referred to as home.
But although having achieved notable success in his career, this week’s ‘Special Person’ spends most of his days, usually slumped over a pile of court files, cooped up in a small corner office at the law offices of McKay and Moore, located on Croal Street, Georgetown.

Moore admits that he is not as sharp as he once was, but notes that his mind is ever-ticking.
Despite his age, Moore still attends Court. His goal is to stay active and remain au fait with the discipline of law for as long as possible.
“I just can’t retire and go home. I think it’s the way we lawyers are built. We don’t stop working until our mind stops,” Moore reflected.
The lawyer noted, however, that “these days,” he takes life in stride.
His satisfaction comes from relishing in the memories of his prime years of private practice and work as a judge, locally and overseas.
Photographs from that time, some of which hang on his office wall, are among some of his most valued treasures.
In spite of his professional accomplishment, the lawyer said he is forever humbled by life’s lessons. “I’m a perennial student of life, so I am forever learning.”
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
Perhaps, this modest perspective has something to do with Moore’s simple upbringing.

He told Kaieteur News that his life started out quite simple.
He was born on Monday, July 1, 1935 “in a pleasant little lane called Asylum Street in New Amsterdam, Berbice.” However, his parents, Olive Isabella Walcott-Moore and Llewellyn ***Cornett Moore, left the Ancient County when he was still very young.
The family relocated to Thomas Street, Kitty.
“That’s where my brother, Carlyle Moore and I grew up.”
The quiet neighbourhood of Kitty, Georgetown, in the pre-independence era of what was known then as British Guiana, is where the former judge gave his first recollection of life.
Moore said that his father was employed at the Transport and Harbours Department as a Marine Engineer and his mother worked as a seamstress to help provide for the family.
The family held education in high regard, so the Moore brothers attended St. James the Less Anglican School.
But in 1939, the family was separated by unavoidable circumstances.
The patriarch of the family was enlisted to join the troops fighting ‘for King and Country’ in World War II.
“(British) Guiana was a territory, so when the war broke out, the Crown rounded up troops from across the foreign territories to fight.”
Moore said that his father never returned home.
“And so my father was not a physical reality. Therefore my mother in actuality was a single parent.”
The attorney said that this did not prevent his mother from ensuring that her two sons excelled in their academics.
“My mother worked hard, but it takes a village to raise a child, really, so relatives of both the Moore and Walcott sides of the family who lived in close proximity of us in Kitty were able to support.”
After completing school at the elementary level, the lawyer said that he opted to attend Tutorial High School.
He explained that he chose Tutorial High over Queen’s College because, in the British Guiana period, high school education was not free.
“In those days, fees were attached to attending Queen’s College, and I naturally did not want to burden my mother with the cost of my education. So I took advantage of a scholarship to Tutorial High School.”
Moore nonetheless said that he made use of his days at Tutorial High. In fact, he said that he was among the first group of students to successfully lobby for and complete a sixth form education at the institution.
“I was one of four students to sit and pass the Cambridge Higher Certificate Examinations, there.”
After completing his high school education, the then teenage Moore entered the world of work.
He said that he was employed as a pupil-teacher at least for one year.
He taught at his old elementary school, St. James the Less, and St. Barnabas Primary.
According to the lawyer, teaching gave him the foundation he needed to build his career.
He recalled that next, he was among the selected few to be employed as an officer of Customs and Excise for Her Majesty, the Queen’s Customs in British Guiana.
According to Moore, the position was prestigious, since in the Colonial days, non-Whites were not allowed to hold certain positions in the public service.
However, by the time, Moore was selected as a Customs Officer, the British Empire was starting to lose its ruling grip on Guyana.
“The times were changing and they were starting to relax the restrictions,” Moore said, recalling a time when persons of a darker hue than that of Europeans were not even permitted to apply for certain jobs.
“I can tell you of instances where newspapers would advertise vacancies, but cautioned persons that if they are not fair in complexion with straight hair, they need not apply.”
By 1960, Moore had married his first wife, Solita McKenzie, and they had two children.
LEGAL ITCH
It was while working at Customs and Excise that he developed an interest in the law.
He was quite young in his marriage and worked to provide for his family a decent life, but his itch for studying law would not budge.
The young husband and father considered ways in which he could fulfill his desire.
“I knew I could not afford the funds to study formally, so I began the course by self-tuition.”
However, as fate would have it, the aspirant lawyer would cross paths with a Guyanese scholar named Frederick Wills, whom, he said later became his mentor.
“Mr. Wills was conducting classes for law students and I joined the class.”
Moore said that he regarded the opportunity to be taught by Wills as most esteemed and humbling, given the fact that he was among students who would later be regarded as some of Guyana’s veteran and distinguished legal minds.
These individuals included former Chancellor of the Judiciary and former Judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice, Desiree Bernard; former Judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice, Duke Pollard; former Solicitor General of Guyana, Mohamed Ayube Ali Mc Doom; former Chancellor of the Judiciary, Aubrey Fitz-Ronald Bishop and Fellow Senior Counsel Rex Mc Kay – whom Moore regards as his mentor to this day.
During this time, Moore made yet another career shift, which allowed him to further his studies.
He went to work as manager at the Booker’s Enterprise, a London-based firm, which at that time, controlled some 30 percent of the country’s economy.
After successfully obtaining his LLB degree via an examination set by a London University, a young Stanley Moore parted ways with the company.
He now had his sights set on furthering his legal studies at a London-based institution.
“It was an amicable separation. My time with the company was over and we parted ways on good terms. It was on such good terms that they offered to take me on one of their ships to London, [England]…” He recalled that the journey to London took him 11 days.
Once in England, Moore enrolled at the Lincoln Inn University to study for the English Bar examination.
By 1970, Moore had already completed his final bar exams and acquired a Commonwealth scholarship to read for a Master’s Degree (LLM) at the University College of London.
The lawyer then went on to lead an illustrious career in Guyana and the Caribbean.
He reminisced that his first case in the Caribbean was the famous case of the protesting nurses in Grenada.
“I acted as Mr. (Rex) McKay’s junior in that case.”
Moore’s career led him later to serve as acting Magistrate and Judge for a short period.
POLITICS
After years of private practice, the Attorney had a brief stint in politics. In 1981, he was appointed under Linden Forbes Burnham’s Administration to serve as Minister of Home Affairs, but resigned after serving for one year.
“It was rather brief but I think everyone, at that time, had agreed that the Cabinet was too large, so I offered to resign.”
His other political positions included Attorney General of Montserrat and later acting Governor of Montserrat.
The lawyer notes that the latter, which he served for two years (1990-1992) is equivalent to the post of an Executive President.
‘As Governor of the British territory, I was a representative of Her Majesty the Queen herself.”
Given his association with politics, Moore was appointed as a Member of Parliament in both Guyana and Montserrat. He believes that he was quite fortunate to hold the positions.
He said he was merely looking for work, to be close to his second wife, Cheryl Pickering, who was working as a pilot in Antigua, when he landed the overseas appointments.
JUSTICE MOORE
With his interest in Justice never waning, the lawyer also took up senior judicial positions in The Bahamas, Grenada, and the British Virgin Islands. He would later serve in Botswana and the Kingdom of Swaziland before returning to private practice.
In addition to this, Moore gave of his time and efforts to educate upcoming lawyers at the University of Guyana and at the University of the West Indies.
He was also a visiting professor at the Florida State University for Comparative law, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Public International Law in the early 2000s.
Speaking about his experiences, Justice Moore said it had a lot to do with his years of preparation.
“I always say that preparation plus opportunity equals success, but you have to go out and find those opportunities. Also, I believe I was very fortunate.”
Moore explained, too, that his work with the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute contributed significantly to those foreign connections.
In the early 2000s, the Senior Counsel was engaged in a number of programmes for the Institute.
While in Canada on a forum for the Institute, where he met with four South African Judges, his conversations with the Justices piqued his interest in the South African legal system.
He visited Botswana and Swaziland and between 2004 and 2014, he was appointed to serve as a Justice of Appeal in both countries.
He shared that his most memorable case is his acquittal of a South African woman who was convicted for the murder of her lover, after she found out he was having an affair.
“I set her free because when I reviewed the evidence, it was a clear case of self-defence,” the former Judge said. He continued that, “I think she deserved her freedom. Sometimes, I wonder whatever became of that woman.”
OTHER PASSIONS
Outside of his legal career, the retired Judge said that his other passions include acting—something he developed an affinity for while in London.
Justice Moore said that he loved acting and was involved in a number of plays at the Theatre Guild in his former years.
“One of my most memorable parts was playing the role of Nugget Joe in a play called Stabroek Fantasy.”
He also enjoyed broadcasting ‘back in the day.’
“I worked part-time at Radio Demerara and Guyana Broadcasting Service (GBS) providing analysis, and ball-by-ball cricket commentary.”
Moore said that he was very much involved in other types of sports as well.
However, these days Justice Moore is satisfied to spend his leisure time with his family which includes his wife Cheryl, six grandchildren and four remaining children – which include Alex Hubert Moore (Magistrate), Alfred Thompson Moore, his daughter Susan Moore Williams— the Post Master General (Ag) of Bermuda, and Adrian Moore who resides in England.

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