J. Emile Ferdinand (left), chairman of the Council of Legal Education, presents Waiden Daley with his certificate and prizes at the Norman Manley Law School's graduation ceremony held at the Assembly Hall, University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus last Saturday. - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
THE GREY skies and damp grounds provided the backdrop for the graduation of more than 100 students from the Norman Manley Law School at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus on Saturday.
The graduates comprised of students from Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean who pursued and successfully completed both the two-year and six-month programmes.
Jamaican student Waiden Daley was the most outstanding, having walked away with six prizes at the graduation ceremony held at the Assembly Hall on the university campus.
Apart from making the principal's honour roll for two years, from 2003 to 2005, Daley was the recipient of the Most Outstanding Student award, which he shared with Taneisha Brown; the Sir McGregor Memorial prize, the Keith Simmonds Memorial prize, also shared with Taneisha Brown; the Gifford, Thompson and Bright prize, the Ziplaw Company Ltd. prize, the Raphael Codlin prize and the Victor Robinson Memorial scholarship.
ADVISE
Guest speaker, Justice Rolston Nelson, a judge of the recently established Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), advised the graduates that they should strive to maintain their integrity, remember the poor and dis-advantaged and work to dispel the myths and misconceptions that the law exists for the rich.
"Always be prepared to stand up for the rights of the downtrodden and the outcast even at the expense of social ostracism," Justice Nelson told the future attorneys-at-law during the graduation ceremony. "Even in your non-professional conduct (and) in your dealings with ordinary men and women you must display the highest standards of conduct," he advised.
"I would ask you to be solicitous to prevent any kind of domination of the weak by the strong; in family law, landlord and tenant; in the important area of public law and constitutional law," he advised further.
But while the law school continues to train many of the region's lawyers, principal Keith Sobian, during his report, said the inability of some students to afford the tuition fees continues to be a problem for the institution.
In a bid to address the problem, Sobian said the school has established the Norman Manley Law School Development Fund. As a personal contribution to the fund, he handed over a $100,000 cheque to the school's registrar Michael Martin during the ceremony.
Sobian, who is a Trinidadian, also criticised the poor state of the Legal Aid Clinic. "I think it is not appropriate, that because the clientele of the Legal Aid Clinic come from the class least able to afford it, that the state of the Legal Aid Clinic should remain in the way that it is," the law school principal charged.
