Debate Arises Over Selection of Senior Counsel Title for Lawyers: Constitutional Lawyer Proposes Legislation to Establish Criteria

A constitutional lawyer has suggested that legislation may be needed to determine which attorneys-at-law are given the title of Senior Counsel (SC), amid the debate regarding the selection of 12 lawyers for the honour.

Garth Patterson SC has also questioned on what authority Cabinet had replaced the King’s Counsel (KC) and Queen’s Counsel (QC) titles with that of SC.

He raised the issues as he and other senior attorneys interviewed separately by Barbados TODAY acknowledged that no legal or constitutional criteria exist for lawyers to qualify for the SC designation.

Their comments come a day after it was reported by this media house that acting on the advice of the Prime Minister, President Dame Sandra Mason had proposed to grant the honour of Senior Counsel to a dozen attorneys, including a government minister, two sitting members of parliament and one former parliamentarian.

Patterson and Hal Gollop SC confirmed that selection is ultimately left to the discretion of the Prime Minister and Patterson further suggested that even the committee which makes recommendations to the Prime Minister has no legislative guidance.

“There is no legislation that supports the committee…. It is an ad hoc committee. There is no legislation to support the formation of the committee or membership of the committee. So all I can say is that the process seems to be ad hoc and the composition of the membership seems to be ad hoc,” the senior counsel said.

Asked what he would suggest to enhance the existing process, Patterson said there would first have to be a legislation framework.

“Secondly, you would have to have clear guidelines and criteria for appointments for the office of senior counsel. You would also have to have provision for independence in the process so that the committee is constituted by legislation for the expressed purpose of having responsibility for applying the criteria by legislation,” he suggested.

Patterson added that the committee should comprise a broad spectrum of society and not be “overly” political.

Gollop did not agree with his colleague that any such legislation is needed.

“There is a strong discretion in the hands of the Prime Minister. I don’t know of any other format by which they may be appointed. There used to be a custom, I believe, that you had to be a lawyer for ten years or more and you had to be a leader…a mentor of younger attorneys. What you need is a system where you are sure that you have people who are highly qualified,” he told Barbados TODAY.

In a notice issued late Thursday, the Government Information Service confirmed that among those in the first cohort of SCs since Barbados became a republic on November 30, 2021 are Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams, Speaker of the House of Assembly Arthur Holder, government backbencher Edmund Hinkson, and former member of parliament and government minister Rudolph Cappy Greenidge.

The others are Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale, deputy chairman of the Employment Rights Tribunal Kathy-Ann Hamblin, former president of the Barbados Bar Association Liesel Weekes, Tammy Bryan, Gillian Clarke, Anika Jackson, Stephen Lashley, and Angella Mitchell-Gittens.