The calling to the bar of the inaugural cohort of West Indian lawyers in 1975 marked a historic milestone. The legal community commended the event and expressed their hopes. The newly minted lawyers were resolute in upholding the exceptional standards set by their predecessors. These graduates constituted the first generation to receive legal training in the West Indies, a significant departure from the prior practice where barristers received training in England and solicitors were trained locally but underwent examinations by the Law Society in England.

Published Tuesday, October 7, 1975

First UWI-trained attorneys admitted 

What the Chief Justice of Jamaica, the Hon Kenneth Smith, described as a truly historic occasion occurred in the No. 1 Home Circuit Court yesterday when the first 18 graduates of the Norman Manley Law School were admitted to the bar.

The graduates were the first to be trained in the West Indies. Previously, barristers were trained in England. Solicitors were trained here but sat exams by the Law Society in England.

"This first batch of graduates of the law faculty of The University of the West has attained a standard of excellence which perhaps will follow that the brilliant student will be the brilliant advocate, but it is appropriate that the very high standard that has been attained by these students should be mentioned here today."

He said he felt that this high standard was possible not only because of the quality of the graduates themselves, but because of the quality of the leadership and tuition they had received.

The Attorney General, the Hon Leacroft Robinson, called the graduates the “first truly fused legal practitioners”. He said: “They are not barristers, they are not solicitors, they are lawyers, and they are entirely products of the West Indies".

Robinson said the young graduates were pioneers, and their conduct, their performance, their integrity would set the standard for those who would follow.

“Let us pray they will retain standards that will redound to the credit of all the legal practitioners of this country and of The University of the West Indies (UWI),” he concluded.

Dr Lloyd Barnett, president of the Bar Association of Jamaica, said: “We have high hopes of them.”

The bar hoped that these young lawyers who had trained in a West Indies atmosphere with a syllabus directed towards local problems would help in the establishment of a system of law that would be adapted to the particular needs of the West Indies, Dr Barnett said.

David Muirhead, QC, chairman of the General Legal Council, said he hoped one day to see graduates of the Norman Manley Law School sitting on the bench. He told them that there was no nobler office to which they could aspire.

Cecil Morrison, replying on behalf of the new attorneys, said the ceremony was the end of a long road and the beginning of a new path. Some had referred to them as pioneers. The chief justice had called them a “new breed” yet they felt themselves more like “guinea pigs”. He said.

They all believed, however, that lawyers trained in the West Indies should maintain the highest standards. It was their aim to make their professional lives worthy of those who had trod the path before.

The graduates are: George Aston Belnavis, Jennifer Rowe, Elizabeth Robinson, Maurice Saunders, Denise Hemming, Eileen Boxill, Franz Parke, Stephen Shelton, Ronald Paris, Roy Stephenson, Cecil Morrison, Dawn Paris, Langston Sibblies, Rudolph Smellie, Verletta Green, Angela Marie Hoon, Marie Thompson, and Murrio Ducille.

On the bench for the admission were Chief Justice Smith, Mr Justice Carey and Aubrey Fraser, director of the Norman Manley Law School.

The new attorneys were sponsored by a number of attorneys, including Norman Hill, QC, David Muirhead, QC, Richard Small, Hugh Small, Dr Lloyd Barnett,  Derek Jones, R.N. Henriques, W.A. Scholefield, Lancelot Cowan, and G. M. Miller.

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