LAW Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT) president Lynette Seebaran-Suite, SC, says the Prime Minister refused to meet to discuss the process to appoint senior counsel (silk) in 2023.
She told LATT members this in an e-mail on June 24.
She also explained LATT’s involvement in the 2024 selection process. She said in 2023, when invited to consult, LATT sought a meeting with the Prime Minister to "persuade the Executive to reform the process.
"The request was flatly refused by the Prime Minister."
On the 2024 process, she said she received a letter from Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, on May 21, a little over a week after an invitiation attorneys to apply for admission to the Inner Bar was gazetted on May 13.
She said Armour told her he received 53 applications, and she was given this list.
Seebaran-Suite said she received approval from LATT’s counsel to approach some senior counsel for their views on whom it would be appropriate to admit to the Inner Bar.
“The Executive approved a listing of the members of the Inner Bar whom I would approach to consult,” Seebaran-Suite disclosed in her e-mail explanation to members.
Newsday was told the “executive” comprises part of the association’s council.
She said on June 3, she met with those senior counsel who were available, and they were to send her their selections anonymously.
“I then finalised the persons whose names would be carried forward and communicated them to the Attorney General on June 5, 2024.
On June 4, 2024, the AG wrote to me informing me of the names which were being submitted by him to the President.
“The AG had no further discussion with me before the announcement of the awardees.”
On June 17, President Christine Kangaloo presented instruments of appointment to 13 attorneys at a ceremony at President’s House, St Ann’s. Two more were given their instruments on the succceding days, as they were not in the country at the time. One more is expected to receive an instrument, bringing the total number to 16 attorneys conferred with the title of senior counsel.
Seebaran-Suite said the practice of consulting with the president of LATT had existed for many years.
“My decision to engage with the process was informed primarily by two factors.”
These, she said, were: “The attempt to seek reform of the process in 2023 had been stymied by the outright refusal of the Prime Minister to even meet with us and the speed with which the appointments were made without further referral to LATT after the refusal of the request for a meeting.
“The desirability nevertheless of participating in the process as a courtesy and to provide some guidance on the appointments notwithstanding the limitations of the engagement.”
In a statement on June 20, LATT renewed calls for the adoption of the recommendations of its 2015 “silk report” on the appointment of senior counsel “to ensure a transparent and independent process of selection at specified intervals which is not subject ultimately to the dictates of the executive.”
Seebaran-Suite said
