FOI FILED ON SILK

An attorney at law is challenging the awarding of silk  and has filed a freedom of Information request listing some 22 queries.

Transcript

00:00Criminal Attorney Wayne Sturge has filed a Freedom of Information request with the Office

00:06of the Attorney General on the issue of granting silk.

00:10In his letter to the AG, Sturge declared he was acting as a public-spirited citizen, exercising

00:16his constitutional right of civic republicanism.

00:20Sturge describes the conferring of senior counsel status to be significant as it is

00:26a recognition of quality and superiority in the field of legal advocacy.

00:32He says it results in an immediate upward change in one's level of fees and generally

00:37results in a change of work towards advocacy rather than paperwork.

00:45The attorney describes silk as a mark of distinction, which in some cases provides a stepping stone

00:51to judicial appointment or consideration for appointment to a higher office in the

00:57judiciary locally, regionally or internationally.

01:01The one-time parliamentarian said awarding silk on factors aside from distinguished work

01:07undermines the status itself and has an adverse effect on public confidence in members of

01:14the inner bar.

01:17Sturge says the post-independence procedure for the appointment of senior counsel suggests

01:22it to be shrouded in secrecy, tainted by inherent political input and responsible for the suspicion

01:30and lack of confidence by the general public.

01:34Sturge notes the public debate over the last two sets of appointments, which he says included

01:40the brother and husband of the sitting president.

01:44The attorney says the present appointees include persons who are sitting members of parliament

01:49of the government, persons who are politically affiliated with the ruling party's friends

01:54and secret financiers.

01:56It also includes some nondescript characters in the legal profession who could hardly be

02:02described as persons who have distinguished themselves at the bar.

02:07Fueling the suspicion, he writes, is the recent disclosure that the president of the Law Association

02:14secretly consulted with a few hand-picked senior counsel.

02:18He says it reeks of bias, favoritism, nepotism and elitism.

02:23In order to remove the secrecy surrounding the reason, facts and circumstances that were

02:29unfavorable and supported the rejection of certain persons for the appointment of senior

02:34counsel, the attorney requests some 22 items be answered, including the names of all persons

02:41who submitted applications, whether the Law Association was consulted and why, a copy

02:47of the list of names submitted by the Law Association, whether the AG consulted with

02:53the Chief Justice if a list of applicants was also supplied to the Chief Justice and

02:59the purpose of the consultation.

03:02He also asks if persons who were appointed senior counsel status, including those who

03:08have criminal convictions.