The lawyers have put their profession into cold storage

Dear Editor,

Later today, a small percentage of the country’s lawyers will assemble in the High Court for the annual general meeting of the Guyana Bar Association whose membership excludes lawyers employed by the State. Their agenda will focus less on the Association’s financial report or the Council’s report for the past year and more on the elections for the Council for the ensuing year. A year in which the Bar Association and the wider profession have witnessed, oxymoronically, both much happening, and nothing happening. At the top, in a most damaging situation which gripped and then lost the national attention after the proverbial seven days, the judiciary handled in a most clumsy and inept manner a matter that eventually involved the President, the Chancellor (ag), the entire collective of judges, an individual judge of the High Court, and the Attorney General, the Leader of the Bar.

Yet, the now most senior members of the profession were given national recognition by way of elevation to the status of Senior Counsel, and the country’s top judges accepted high awards conferred by the executive. I can recall no period, with one possible exception, in which the judiciary and the profession were portrayed in

such unflattering light, bringing the administration of justice the closest to disrepute the country has witnessed. On a more positive note, for the first time, two women hold the most senior positions in the judiciary, albeit in acting capacities not provided for in the Constitution.

We witnessed too, the unending exchanges between the incumbent and the former Attorney General, locked in newspaper battles to prove who is better, more honourable, and more competent, the nobility of the office and the profession being the immediate casualty. And we witnessed the disdainful silence of the senior members of the legal profession who in days gone by would have considered themselves keepers of the dignity of the profession. They are no less blameworthy for the mess in which the profession has found itself.

The law provides for a Legal Practitioners Committee, comprising of lawyers only, which has responsibility for overseeing the conduct of the members of the profession. Despite the unheralded work of a few members, the Committee has been largely ineffective, hobbled by lack of resources, commitment and courage to deal with the egregious infractions by some members of the profession. Very recently I learnt of a matter in which a lawyer committed what amounts to a fraud on the courts, a matter known to his colleagues on the other side in the case but who are reluctant to raise the issue. And the stories of files being ducked in respect of certain lawyers have more than a credible ring about them.

Lawyers are bound by a Code of Conduct under the Legal Practitioners Act but many it seems pay little attention to its prescriptions, confident that they will get away with whatever. Even when lawyers are found ‘guilty’, the strongest punishment they face is being told to refund the fees or money paid to them by their hapless clients. In a civilised environment, such action would require publication. Here in Guyana, there is no more than whisper among lawyers while the offending lawyer is free to continue the offending practice. My recommendation would be for the Legal Practitioners Committee to be headed by a retired judge enabled with a capable full-time staff, and for all its findings to be publicised. The public needs protection from unscrupulous practitioners.

For fourteen years, lawyers have blocked statutory provisions (the Fiscal Enactments (Amendment) (No. 2) Act, 2003) aimed at bringing them more securely into the tax net. Professionals in Guyana, including accountants and doctors, seem to have an allergy to paying taxes, but what makes the legal profession stand out is that the members ply their trade in court buildings provided, maintained and staffed from funds borne by taxpayers. Yet, the stories of tax evasion by some lawyers would be comical if the matter did not involve criminal conduct.

In the past, it did appear that there was a class bias in tax administration that treated the small business person and the employee less favourably than professionals. There should be no discrimination in tax administration and it would be a great day when the annual reports of the Revenue Authority start disclosing statistical information on the tax contribution of various categories of taxpayers.

The new Council will also be aware that the profession is often confronted with legislation and executive action that are considered bad in a democratic state and in some cases, a violation of the Constitution. In this regard, it was a particularly bad year for the Bar Association. Hobbled by issues concerning its President, the Bar Association was silent, unable or unwilling even to make a statement, let alone take legal action. Had the butcher in Shakespeare’s Henry VI been living in contemporary Guyana, he would not have found it necessary to advocate “…let’s kill all the lawyers”. He would soon realise that the lawyers have put the profession into cold storage.

The men and women who will vie for election to lead the profession over the next year or two will be undertaking a formidable responsibility. I wish them well. But only if their objective is to serve the society that grants them an elevated status, and not as an embellishment of their CV’s.

Yours faithfully,

Christopher Ram Former President Guyana Bar Association