Dear Editor,
I write in relation to the story in the edition of the Kaieteur News dated 1st November, 2014, captioned ‘Legal fraternity calls for immediate sacking of Nandlall.’
The newspaper reports that the Guyana Bar Association and the Guyana Women Lawyers Association have issued a public statement deploring the recent conduct of the Attorney General, and, in particular, the making of certain statements by him to a journalist with the Kaieteur News.
This incident involving the Attorney General has serious implications for the legal profession. The Attorney General is regarded in our Commonwealth jurisdictions, as being the leader of the practising Bar. The Chancellor of the Judiciary has earlier this year, invited applications from members of the Bar for preferment to the dignity of silk. It was widely expected that the Attorney General, as the leader of the Bar, would have been conferred with this honour.
However, after the recent contretemps referred to in this letter, it is difficult to envisage how this could happen.
What is equally unfortunate is that if the President is unable to confer the dignity of silk upon his Attorney General, it invariably follows in my opinion that no other member of the practising Bar may be so elevated either.
Neither can the Solicitor General nor the Director of Public Prosecutions, both of whom I would have expected to receive similar preferment, by virtue of the office they hold. Needless to say, these matters are of grave concern to me as a member of the Bar of over fifty years’ standing.
Yours faithfully,
Brynmor T I Pollard, SC
