Four join the Bar

Four attorneys-at-law with rich legal backgrounds were on Friday admitted to the Barbados Bar to practise law in the jurisdiction.

Noah Haynes, the son of Queen’s Counsel Leslie Haynes; Rene Forde, the son of Queen’s Counsel Roger Forde; Andrea Husbands; and Lewis St John, the grandson of Sir Harold St John, were accepted into the local legal fraternity by Chief Justice Sir Patterson Cheltenham during a ceremony at Supreme Court No. 1 on Friday afternoon.

He urged the new attorneys to take their oath “most seriously”, especially in light of recent developments in which lawyers were convicted of crimes.

“You will find . . . you have walked into a profession that in recent times has had a significant battering. Many lawyers are now occupying a dedicated wing, I am told, over in St Philip [Dodds]. Make sure that you just drive along the highway there, do not ever stop . . . ,” the Chief Justice advised.

“When I first came to the Bench, I indicated that there will be a low tolerance for deviance. It spoils and soils and betrays all the trust imposed on you, and once one lawyer is highlighted in the public it ripples right across all of us . . . . And it doesn’t stop there – they will say that the judges are no better. So that there has been a very tough response from the judiciary to these infractions or infelicities.”

Sir Patterson said it was evident from what he had seen thus far, that there is “zero tolerance for those found with infelicities”.

“There is really no reason to get involved in this. Law does not have any get-rich schemes at all . . . . It’s about slogging, hard work, long hours, a day is simply a day,” the Chief Justice said. (FW)