One of the current areas of emphasis for the Canadian Government funded project Improved Access to Justice in the Caribbean (IMPACT Justice), is legal professionalism. The regional justice sector reform project is coordinating a meeting in Jamaica on February 13 and 14 to discuss a number of issues related to legal professionalism in the region.
The two-day meeting at the Pegasus Hotel focuses on accounting standards, the composition and procedures of disciplinary committees (including the question of lay membership), codes of ethics and mandatory continuing legal professional education.
IMPACT Justice, Regional Project Director, Professor Velma Newton noted the expected results from the meeting: “The outcome of this meeting may well be a model Legal Profession Act for the region, containing provisions which individual countries can adopt wholesale or modify to suit their circumstances in addition to agreement on a regional system of continuing legal education for lawyers,” she said.
Representatives of the legal community scheduled to attend the meeting include Senator Wilfred Abrahams, immediate past president of the Organisation of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations (OCCBA); Ruggles Fergusson, president of the OECS Bar Association; Tapley Seaton, Q.C., immediate past president of the OECS Bar Association; Justin Simon, Q.C., former Attorney General of Antigua and Barbuda and most of the current Bar Association presidents in the CARICOM region.
