Misha Lobban, Contributor

Jennifer HOusen revered attorney-at-law, has blazed a trail of outstanding achievement in the legal profession in London

WHEN I first met Jennifer Housen at her office at the Caribbean Legal Practice Institute in New Kingston, her pleasant and down-to-earth personality belied the pain and sorrow she has experienced.

In 2002, within a short period of time, she was diagnosed with uterine cancer, which led to a hysterectomy that aborted her plans to have a second child. She buried her husband after only one year of marriage and almost lost her only son following a fatal motor vehicle accident.

Never one to be daunted by challenges, Jennifer has surmounted difficulties in her life through personal determination, a positive attitude and self-confidence.

Driven by a strong belief in living a life of purpose and a desire to accomplish great things, Jennifer Housen, barrister-at-law and legal trainer, has blazed a trail of outstanding achievement in the legal profession in London. Today, she is making an indelible mark in the area of legal training in Jamaica, and is an inspiration to the many young men and women whose lives she has been moulding through the Caribbean Legal Practice Institute, which she established in June 1995.

The institute offers to persons in Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean the University of London law degree programme; the United States (U.S.) Bar programme for persons who want to qualify as lawyers in the U.S., a qualified lawyers' transfer test for persons in the Caribbean who wish to practise in the United Kingdom (U.K.), paralegal programmes and immigration consultancy.

determined to fulfil her dream

Her 17-year-old son, Ashley, who works alongside his mother at the institute, describes her as highly motivated, self-confident and one who never gives up, even in the face of challenges.

Born in Spanish Town and educated at St. Catherine High School, her ambition at an early age was to join the police force, but was told she did not meet the criteria: she didn't weigh enough. However, she was determined to fulfil her dream even after migrating to the U.K. to live with her mother in 1983.

Shortly after giving birth to her son in July 1990, she applied to the police force and was admitted in January 1991. She joined the West Midlands Police Force at time when very few minorities were admitted to there. Undaunted by challenges, she decided to sit the Sergeant's examination after only 18 months in the force. Of the 30 persons from her division who sat the examination, only two were successful - and she was one of them.

Though she had qualified to the rank of Sergeant, her passion to accomplish great things stirred within her a desire to do further studies in law. In 1995 she was rearing Ashley single-handedly, she took a leap of faith and accepted a 75 per cent cut in salary and the loss of the benefits she enjoyed, including free accommodation, to enter law school.

Jennifer with her son, Ashley. - Photos by Oliver Wright

making use of faith

"It really wasn't easy. I was now living in a studio apartment with my son and sometimes there was no money or food and I wondered if I had done the right thing. But I kept my focus on the benefit that would come once I completed what I had set out to do. I also had the faith in myself that I could achieve my goal."

In 1998, she graduated from the University of Leicester with an Upper Second Class Honours degree. Her outstanding performance earned her several bursaries, awards and scholarships, including the Duke of Edinburgh Scholarship (awarded to 10 students at the university), the Windsor Fellow, which was awarded to five ethnic minority students for outstanding academic achievement, the Basil Nield Scholarship and an Inner Temple Bursary Scholarship.

In that year, she decided to take on the challenge of entering bar school in order to qualify as a barrister, despite the fact that most barristers in the U.K. at the time were white, upper-middle class males.

"A lot of people were dissuading me from staying, but I wanted to become barrister because I wanted to be an advocate and there were not many black advocates in the U.K. Once again, the numbers seemed set against me, but I just believed that I would make it in. It's all about having a positive attitude and a strong belief in yourself."

She was admitted to one of the top institutions for barristers - the Inns of Court School of Law - and in 1999 she was called to the Bar of England and Wales by the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. She also qualified to practise law in the State and Federal Courts of New York in 2000. In that year, she moved to New York to wed Paxton Rose, a banker and footballer. They met in 1994, while she was on vacation in New York, and they maintained a long-distance relationship while she completed her legal education in London.

unbelievable and terrifying

One year after their marriage, they were planning to have a child, but after undergoing surgery to remove fibroids, she was diagnosed with uterine cancer.

"It was unbelievable and terrifying. We decided that we would forget about trying to have a child as my health was more important and so, in January 2002, I took my doctor's advice and did a hysterectomy."

In March 2002, while she was recuperating and managing her own law practice in Queens, she received a telephone call to come to the playing field where her husband played soccer on Saturday mornings. She was later told that his heart had stopped suddenly and the doctors were unable to revive him.

"Paxton was one of those persons who played football all his life. It was typical for him to play two soccer matches on Saturday mornings and on Sundays. He played for the Bankers' Athletic League and the Jamaican football team in New York, called Real Caribe. He was a very fit person and so I just couldn't understand it. We had been married for only 15 months, and even at this point, I cannot describe how I felt. I felt like it was just too much to bear and I tried to get on with life even though I was so sad."

Two months later, she received a telephone call from son's school in Manhattan. Ashley had been had been run over by a motor car and had sustained head injuries, a fractured leg and arm.

"Everything just felt like it was beyond me and I went into depression. I was not sleeping and I was constantly worrying. I didn't want to get up in the mornings or to do anything. I felt like I wanted to die, and I knew I was suffering mentally and that I needed to get help."

Though still grieving, Jennifer decided to leave New York and opted to return to Jamaica, where she and Paxton had planned to settle in the future. However, her family and friends urged her to return to London. She worked in the area of legal training for two years as programmes director at Central Law Training Limited - the largest provider of post qualification legal training in the U.K. and Europe - before coming to Jamaica in June 2005 to fulfil her dream of establishing a legal training institute.

Dedicated to the teaching of law, she teaches various aspects of law at the Caribbean Legal Institute and is responsible for course and programme development. She is also a part-time lecturer at the Justice Training Institute (training arm of the Ministry of Justice) and has conducted training for about 85 lawyers and non-lawyers who were or wished to become Notaries Public (similar to the Justices of the Peace) in the British Virgin Island.

She is now completing a Master's in Advanced Legal Practice Skills with Staffordshire University, U.K.

Looking back on her journey through life, Jennifer declares without reservation, that her experiences, particularly the death of her husband, have made her appreciate life and the importance of living for the moment and maximising every opportunity in order to accomplishing her goals. Her mission is to live a life of purpose and to make every moment count.

In particular, she said, she gives God thanks for everything she has been through and for everything she has achieved.