Israel B. Rajah-Khan SC

Many uninitiated and uninformed lawyers of the criminal justice system in TT, including Karen Nunez-Tesheira, a former PNM finance minister and senior tutor of the Hugh Wooding Law School are alluding that Attorney General Reginald Armour SC lied in his affidavit which was submitted to a Miami court when he stated that he was a junior lawyer with senior silk Allan Alexander SC when they represented Brian Kuei Tung et al in criminal proceedings for fraud in TT.

Karen Nunez-Tesheira was quoted by Anna Ramdass Express journalist in the July 18, as saying: “A mess was created when Attorney General Reginald Armour SC stated that he was junior counsel on affidavit when in fact he was a senior counsel...there is no way that he did not know that he was a senior counsel. A senior counsel is a very serious thing. You know how many people want to be a senior counsel and can’t be. That is the height of your achievement as a lawyer."

Anna Ramdass went on to state in her published news article that Nunez-Tesheira acknowledged Armour as her friend and quoted her as saying “I think he should do the right thing and resign and not be asked to resign.”

I myself in a letter addressed to the members of the legal profession in support of AG Armour stated that “no attorney will ever forget the year he was awarded silk. Armour was awarded silk in 2003 and in 2004 he was on record as representing Kuei Tung et al and being led by Alexander.

I opined that what Armour meant, and it could only mean, that he was junior to Alexander even if he carried the rank of silk at the time. And this was a fact – he was Alexander’s junior in the criminal proceedings in which they were defending Kuei Tung.

Support for describing himself as not being a leader or on silk status of the defence but junior to Alexander comes from Rule 29(3) Code of Ethics of the Legal Professional Act which states:“When more than one attorney-at-law appears as an advocate for the same party in the same proceedings, who shall lead the conduct of the party’s case subject to the instructions of the client, be settled by the attorneys-at-law representing the party before they appear in court and shall not be altered during the course of the proceedings and the leader shall have all authority over the conduct of the case.”

So all of this hullabaloo of Armour deliberately misleading the Miami court because he had stated that he was a junior counsel in the matter when in fact his status was that of senior counsel is hogwash. Yes, he carried the rank of SC at the time, but his role in the criminal proceedings was that of a junior to Alexander.

I wish to bring it to the attention of the public at large and the uninformed attorneys on this issue that as junior silk (and at that time 20 years ago, Armour had one year of experience as silk) the leader of the case would permit his junior if he/she is knowledgeable and capable and experienced to actively involve her/himself in defending the client. But if she/he were a novice in the area of law which