Public Defender Earl Witter and Deputy Solicitor General Patrick Windsor Foster have been appointed as Queen's Counsels. Both men were appointed last week Monday.

Governor-General Professor Kenneth Hall made the appointments on the recommendation of outgoing Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

Witter, 63, was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in London, England, in 1972 and was later admitted to practise at the Jamaican Bar.

He has been in private practice continuously and extensively in all courts of the home jurisdiction. Since 1973, he has specialised in criminal, constitutional and industrial relations law and practice.

He has appeared in many of the important or major criminal trials in Jamaica and the Caribbean over the last 30 years.

Mr. Witter was also a member of other Bars, including in Grenada and St. Kitts. He was one of the lawyers who represented the Grenada 13 who were involved the Maurice Bishop killing.

In his earlier career, Mr. Witter was also a journalist with The Gleaner Company, where he was a specialist crime, political and industrial relations reporter. He was appointed to the post of Public Defender in September last year.

Mr. Foster graduated from the Norman Manley Law School in 1982 and worked in the public sector as legal officer for three years at the Ministry of Construction and Housing.

He then moved on to the Attorney-General's Chambers where he worked in the litigation division for five years. He subsequently entered private practice, first at Dunn Cox and Orrett and then at Clinton Hart, where he was partner.

Mr. Foster returned to the Attorney-General's Chambers in 2003 and was promoted to the post of deputy solicitor general last year.

He has represented the Government in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

Some of the major cases that he has been involved with are the Air Jamaica Pension Fund case where he represented the workers. He also represented the Government in the extradition case of Leebert Ramcharan and Donovan 'Plucky' Williams.