Judge: Many lawyers involved in crime

“Many lawyers are guilty of defrauding their clients, siphoning money from their trust accounts or are involved in the laundering of illegal drug money.” This stunning revelation was made on Friday by High Court  judge Justice Malcolm Holdip, while addressing scores of graduates being admitted to the Bar to practice law. Seated next to Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma during the admission ceremony at the  Convocation Hall, Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain, Justice Holdip further stated that the public attitude is that lawyers are overpaid, wealthy and obsessed with money. He said: “Many persons believe that lawyers will do anything for their clients as long as money is involved. Lawyers who earn high income are portrayed as unethical and unscrupulous, manipulating complex law for the benefit of their rich clients. The media frequently supports this view and has probably helped or at least supported this perception.”

He noted that a US poll found that the three main criticism of lawyers were that they were obsessed by money, that they manipulate the legal system without any moral concern, and they filed too many frivolous lawsuits. The judge also observed that clients surrender themselves to lawyers who exacerbate this feeling by mystifying the law, using technical and complex language which alienates the clients leaving them confused and emotionally drained. Justice Holdip painted a gloom picture of the present state of the legal profession, and told  the 96 new attorneys who took the oath of allegiance, that he was entrusting them with the transmogrification process of the legal profession. “You must quell the smouldering resentment directed at the profession. A profession that requires ethical renovation from the substructure to the superstructure. You are entering a profession where moral rectitude is on trial. Your inaugural trial is between cardinal virtues and iniquity.”

He told the new attorneys that they were entering the profession at a time when there is deification of decadence, and his admonition to them was that as a litigant ini-quity must be without legal representation. “None of you, class of 2004, must appoint yourselves legal counsel for ‘degeneracy’ “You will guard the guards,” he demanded. In his eyebrow raising address, Justice Holdip announced: “You are called to redefine society’s meaning of success where money is the opiate of the profession and practitioners seem nigh impossible to divorce contribution from exploitation.  You are faced with the tension of opposites where society has pitted money against morality and you are caught in a cusp as which to choose. The materialistic yardstick of money has become the manipulator of our morality and the measurement of our success.” He observed that kindness resides in the heart not in the pocket and while they may not be puritanical about money, they must be true to their core purpose.

He said the evolving cesspool of moral decay and the moral bankruptcy which accompanies it, is threatening the lifeblood of this august profession. Great wealth does not mean great taste. Do not produce minimum efforts and expect maximum benefits. He further advised that if they function with utmost humanity, “those unsavoury behavioural practices would never be part of your modus operandi because your work must last longer than you do. Be fastidious about legal ethics but never fatuous about having arrived. Your life status must be determined by your job position.” He told the massive gathering that as seniors in the profession “we” accept culpability for the derailment of the profession and it is incumbent upon “us” to assist in the task at hand.           

Advising the new attorneys on their advocacy and language,  he told them that language is the dress of thoughts, so each time they talk their minds are on parade. He also advised them to render their addresses pastorally. He said their demeanour in practice must in no way lend credence to the unflattering terms in which lawyers are being described, noting that it takes years to build trust and only takes suspicion, not proof to destroy it. He told them to be resolute in the fact that they hold responsibility for the ethical paradigm shift in the profession. “You must work in the present with a vision of the future, and never become an ornament of time. Beware of professional oblivion.” Justice Holdip went on to lecture  them on the importance of integrity, humility and credibility in the profession,  and adjure them, in the season of Divali, Eid and Christmas, to let the light of the law overcome the darkness of the decadence  with the hope that knowledge triumph over ignorance.