Grenada to host 12th Annual Law Conference of OECS Bar

Members of the legal profession throughout the OECS will gather in Grenada from September 11- 13 to participate in the 12th Annual Law Conference of the OECS Bar Association, anticipated to be the biggest and the best since the inception of the event in 2004.

The packed weekend programme of activities, to be held at the refurbished Radisson Convention Centre (Grand Anse),{{more}} focuses on Continuing Legal Education for lawyers for the entire day on Friday (Sept 11) and half-day on Saturday (Sep 12). On Saturday afternoon, the OECS Bar holds its Quarterly Council meeting, embracing representatives of the nine (9) Bar Associations throughout the OECS, and focusing on matters touching and concerning the development of the legal profession and Bar Associations. Sunday (Sept 13) is reserved wholly for tours and other social activities.

The continuing legal education programme on Saturday (Sept 12) is a joint effort of the OECS Bar and the Judicial Education Institute (JEI) of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.

Top law publishers from the United Kingdom and the Caribbean will also be on hand to display the latest law materials on the market and to provide discounted rates for attendees to the Law Conference.

Topics this year embrace important and wide-ranging themes such as Internet defamation (libel), constitutional right to silence; liability of officers and directors of companies; properly managing client accounts; protecting lawyer/client privilege; effectively defending accused persons; dying in one country with assets (property) in another; and re-examining bench/bar (judge and lawyer) relations.

Among the impressive line-up of speakers for Friday’s programme are Dame Janice Pereira, Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court; Queens Counsel Andrew Mitchell of the United Kingdom, one of the leading authorities on anti-money laundering legislation; Mr Jefferson Cumberbatch, a veteran law lecturer at the University of the West Indies; and Senior Counsel Israel Khan, a top criminal practitioner in the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago.

Saturday’s joint symposium between the OECS Bar and the JEI features Mrs Karen Nunez-Tesheira, a leading Caribbean authority and author on the Law of Succession (inheritance), who will be examining the very important and common scenario of persons dying at home with property in another country and vice versa (dying in another country with assets at home), in the context of updated legislation and case law. Mrs Nunez-Tesheira is a former lecturer at the Hugh Wooding Law School (Trinidad) and a former Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament in the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. The joint symposium will also feature Queen Counsel Dr Henry Browne, who ranks among the top criminal practitioners in the OECS.

Law Conference 2015 will also pay special tribute to Ms Nicole Sylvester, a former president of both the OECS and St Vincent Bar Associations, who sadly passed away last July 2nd. She conceptualized and initiated the Law Conferences (formerly Law Fairs) in 2004 and was the main coordinator of this annual premier event for nine (9) consecutive years, until 2012.

This year the obligation falls on the Grenada Bar Association to host this premier event of the OECS Bar, which rotates every year among the nine (9) islands comprising the OECS family. Grenada last hosted the event in 2007.