HILARY PHILLIPS was yesterday elected the first female president in the 28-year history of the Jamaican Bar Association (JBA).She defeated Jacqueline Samuels-Brown, a general practitioner specialising in advocacy and criminal law.
Some 280 lawyers voted at the JBA's annual general meeting held at the Institute of Jamaica in downtown Kingston.
Ms. Phillips, a Queen's Counsel and the JBA's immediate past vice-president, is a senior partner in litigation at the law firm Grant, Stewart, Phillips and Company. She has been practising law for 27 years.
Despite her historic win as the first female president, Ms. Phillips said her challenge and role will not be subjected to gender.
"I am not running as a woman, I am running as a colleague...canvassing for both male and female colleagues," Ms. Phillips said prior to the election.
