‘Lady Thunder’ wanted to be a nurse

SHE is referred to as ‘Lady Thunder’ by her male colleagues. She certainly cross-examines witnesses with some degree of thunder. So it came as no surprise after 16 years at the criminal bar that Pamela Elder was appointed Senior Counsel. She is the only female Senior Counsel practising at the criminal bar.

Despite her toughness in court, Elder is somewhat shy and prefers to stay in the background than to have cameras swirling around her. Despite her preference to stay low-profile, Elder is now representing Jamaat Al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr on a conspiracy to murder charge. Elder is a graduate of St Francois Girls’ College in Belmont. While at school, she wanted to do nursing, but decided to pursue her A Levels subjects in Government and Politics, and Economics. “I had a master teacher at Tranquillity Government Secondary. He turned out to be my husband, Herwald Mervyn Elder,” the defence attorney said with a smile. Elder said her teacher was the one who encouraged her to go further. She fell in love with the legal system while doing her A Levels. So, it was off to the University of the West Indies and then to the Hugh Wooding Law School.

Elder graduated from the Hugh Wooding Law School in 1987 — the year when UNC MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar was the top law student. Opposition MP Ganga Singh was another law graduate that year. Since then, she has been teaching A Level Law. She averaged that between 50 and 70 of her students sit the A Level law exam each year. But even before Elder graduated from law school, she was involved in a high profile case. She had done her in-service training with Theodore Guerra SC. In January 1987, while a student at law school, Guerra obtained permission from the principal for Elder to be part of the defence team in the conspiracy to murder trial of the then Commissioner of Police Randolph Burroughs. Burroughs was eventually acquitted on a no-case submission before Madame Justice Jean Permanand at the Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain. When Elder graduated, she approached Guerra. “I was extremely grateful for the trust and faith he had in me, even when clients voiced their opposition to me representing them on the grounds of sex and age. The clients were not happy,” she added.

Elder continued, “I remember one case in particular. One day while at the Magistrate’s Court, a client was loud and crude in his objections. He said in the corridor that he had paid Mr Guerra for ammunition and look what Mr Guerra sent. I did the case, I was happy because I won the case. That case gave me the nickname ‘Lady Thunder.’” In 2002, Elder said she was invited to be a temporary judge of the High Court. “It was a difficult moment. It meant not only leaving my practice, but my clients. I am protective of my students. I thought long and hard about it. I decided that the time had come for me to serve.” Elder spent seven months on the Bench, hearing cases in the criminal courts. She did not want to stay. “My love and passion is for advocacy and teaching. I never felt that I should remain on the Bench. I felt that a decision as important as that, I needed divine guidance. I never got the direction to stay. The pull was always towards practice. I realised that unless I was sure and convinced that being on the Bench was the path for me, then I should not stay. I had to be sure.”

Elder returned to private practice and to her students. She had made promises to her clients. “It wasn’t easy going to the prison and telling my clients that I was going on the Bench. I saw some big men cry. I had a duty to look after my clients,” she added. What has been the most challenging case for her? Elder has always been quick on the draw, but when the question of which was her most challenging case, she paused. She said it had to be the Darrin Thomas murder trial. Thomas was charged with his girlfriend Natasha De Leon with murdering a taxi driver. “I was working against a lot of prejudice, pre-trial publicity. I went to South every day for a month, coupled with the strong prosecution case. It was really a tough case.” Thomas was found guilty and sentenced to death. She continued, “I remember another case. I was representing a client on a charge of murder. The jury failed to agree and a re-trial was ordered. I told my client that I could no longer do anything for him and it may be best to get another attorney. I felt that I had done all I could have for that client. But he wanted none of that. He told me ‘if I have to die, let me die knowing you were my lawyer.’”

Elder said she changed her mind and represented that client and got the jury to find him not guilty at the end of the trial. When did Elder find out of her elevation to Senior Counsel? Elder said she was having lunch at the Chambers of Israel Khan SC on November 28. She said around 2.30 pm, her secretary called “and told me that I had to be at President’s House for 4.15 pm. I was stunned because it was unexpected. I had to put myself together quickly and be at President’s House at the stipulated time in company with the head of chambers. “I am thrilled, it is a great feeling. It shows that hard work could break any barrier. But I hope that more females would be attracted to the practice at the criminal bar. I never thought that after just 16 years at the bar I would have been in this position.” Elder said her goal is to satisfy her clients, not to look for fame. At the end of the day, win, lose or draw, her clients must feel confident that she had represented them to the best of her ability. Despite her new status, Elder said she plans to continue teaching law. “There is a greater drive now, there is a need to properly teach A Level Law. This would allow students not only to have knowledge of the law, but the love of the law.” Elder has three children — Natasha, Herwald Jr, and Petal — but none of them seems interesting in pursuing a career in law.