Approximately 40 people attended a meeting of the Council of Legal Education, held in Barbados from September 15 to 17.
Attorney General Dale Marshall hosted a reception for the delegates at the Barbados Museum last Friday night, and stressed the importance of having this first face-to-face interaction of the Council, since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020.
Mr. Marshall continued: “The law schools have been through a lot of challenges in terms of the delivery of quality legal education during COVID-19. We have come through those challenges and are looking forward to the future.”
The Attorney General noted that a lot of challenges were facing the legal profession going forward. He said Barbados was happy to have hosted the meeting, and disclosed that attorney-at-law, Liesel Weekes, was elected as Chair of the Council of Legal Education.
The Council of Legal Education is a regional organisation which operates the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad, the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica and the Eugene Dupuch Law School in The Bahamas.
It was created by an agreement signed in 1971 by the Governments of Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, The University of the West Indies and the University of Guyana, in order to provide training for lawyers wishing to practise in the region. The Council meets annually and functions as the governing body of the law schools.
The membership of the Council comprises the Chief Justice and Attorney-General of each participating territory; the Dean of the Faculty of Law of The University of the West Indies; the principals of the law schools; the head of the Judiciary of each participating territory, and members of the private bar nominated by their own professional bodies.
Representatives of CARICOM and the Caribbean Court of Justice may also attend the meeting.