The Femme Lex Cohort for Caribbean female lawyers

Gabrielle Gay is seeking to redefine the way in which Caribbean female lawyers approach the profession with her newly formed 12-week programme The Femme Lex Cohort.

The programme, which is a joint sponsorship between the Erline Bradshaw Foundation, The University of The West Indies Cave Hill Campus Law Society, Barbados Youth Business Trust, University of the West Indies Cave Hill Law Society, Impactr, was launched virtually on the 29th September 2021.

“This is a very esteemed gathering of some of the most promising intellectual and legal minds from across the entire Caribbean.

“The Femme Lex Cohort is a twelve week fully certified legal mentorship entrepreneurship programme in partnership with the Barbados Youth Business Trust and the Caricom Youth Ambassadors, The University of The West Indies Law Society, ILA & Partners and Imapctr app where they use social media presence for good.

This programme was born out of the pandemic, being a third-year law student myself and having a first-person experience of having the digital switch to learning with the stress of the pandemic and its impact on mental health. I realise there were gaps that needed to be filled in the legal education system not just in Barbados but in the region as well as the world,” she said.

The Office of Eastern Caribbean States Ambassador 2021 said that her programme is seeking to bridge the gaps in education.

“We are in a new time in education and The Femme Lex Cohort is attempting to bandage these holes and fix these gaps in education.

“We have enrolled all of our ladies into the Business Enterprise Femme Lex Cohort edition which is a 12-week training and mentorship programme where they would be given exclusive access to legal mentors, business mentors, they will learn how to pitch, how to create their own law firms, how to partner as lawyers with other individuals in their field to not only be the best law students and legal professionals but there is also the focus on entrepreneurship,” she said.

Eight young women from Barbados, Guyana and The St Vincent and the Grenadines were awarded as the first cohort of young aspiring lawyers to be a part of the programme which will certify them on the process of creating their own law firms, collaboration, and business management; just to name a few.

The eight young ladies who are pursuing Bachelor of Laws in Barbados at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus and the University of Guyana, or an Associate Degree in Law from the Barbados Community College, are: Nia Williams (Guyana), Reanna Mcgarrell (Guyana), Tanisha Carrington (Barbados), Iman Wilson (Barbados), Hailee Bannister (Barbados), Zoe Sills (Guyana), Shamayne Drakes ( Barbados) and Rhea Ollivierre (St Vincent and The Grenadines). Gay said that the young ladies would start training immediately, as her goal is to provide a space that young female lawyers can grow as she realised that this was a void in the law community in the Caribbean as well as globally.

“The following young women have so much promise and I have spent a lot of time with these individuals, and they embody what The Femme Lex Cohort stands for.

“Women coming from Small Island Developing States who are passionate and ready to take on the world,” she said.

At the virtual event which was attended by the Barbados Youth Business Trust, Barbados’ Ambassador to the International University of Sports Federation, Taahir Bulbulia, CARICOM Youth Ambassador Java Sealy and President of UWI Law Society Pierre Cooke Jr. who all made brief remarks where they noted how The Femme Lex Cohort initiative was pioneering and they believed that not only will it grow from strength to strength but it will be beneficial to not only regional law students but international students as well.
(Write Right PR Services)