NOTABLE LAWYERS PRESENT NEW BOOKS TO LAW SCHOOL
It is often said that Bahamian lawyers do not write about the law. Certainly the lawyers who have been called to The Bahamas Bar far outnumber the pieces of scholarly legal work produced by Bahamian attorneys. However, on Monday 1st December 2015, Simone Fitzcharles (leading commercial litigation lawyer at Lennox Paton) and Tonya Bastian Galanis (eminent Principal of the Eugene Dupuch Law School) presented to the Librarian of the Eugene Dupuch Law School, two new legal books to which they have made written contributions. The book presented by Principal Bastian Galanis is entitled, The Ethical Lawyer: A Caribbean Perspective. Miss Fitzcharles presented a book entitled The Asset Tracing and Recovery Review. The new legal works were graciously accepted by EDLS Librarian, Jeanne Slowe in the presence of Ra’monne Gardiner and Rekell Williams of Lennox Paton, and students and staff of the Law School.
Simone Fitzcharles presented an autographed copy of The Asset Tracing and Recovery Review published in London in September 2015 by Law Business Research. The book is a 3rd edition edited by Robert Hunter, a prominent Fraud and Trust litigation lawyer in London, England. The book, which is primarily useful to lawyers who practice in the areas of fraud, asset tracing and asset recovery, is a concise and business-focused work on the law and procedures relating to these areas.
The Chapter written by Miss Fitzcharles has a particular focus on Bahamian law. The text comprehensively covers legal rights and remedies (both civil and criminal) available to those who have been defrauded and defences accessible to those who are alleged to have committed fraud. The work treats with seizure and obtaining of assets and evidence, and fraud in specific contexts such as banking, insolvency, money laundering and others. It also deals with international aspects of fraud and asset recovery such as conflict of laws issues and enforcement of foreign judgments, as well as current developments in the law.
Miss Fitzcharles’ Bahamas chapter is one of the 30 chapters from countries and legal experts around the world. She comments, “I am hopeful that this contribution will be of use not only to legal practitioners and students in this country but also those in other jurisdictions who have an interest in the subject”. When asked about the future of the law relating to fraud and asset recovery, she indicated that she would like to see reform which encourages greater cross-border cooperation in order to make the legal environment more difficult for those who would seek to perpetrate fraud and to misuse the legitimate respect that The Bahamas has for trusts, company structures and bank secrecy.
The Ethical Lawyer: A Caribbean Perspective is described by the books publisher’s, Sweet & Maxwell, as “a compendium of thought-provoking and analytical discussions of the major ethical issues affecting the legal profession, with special reference to the Caribbean”. Edited by Dr Shazeeda A. Ali, Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Law at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica and course director for Ethics, Rights and Obligations of the Legal Profession at the Norman Manley Law School, The Ethical Lawyer: A Caribbean Perspective, is a collaborative work by contributing experts from academia, public and private practice and the judiciary. The text examines key ethical issues confronting attorneys including negligence, fiduciary obligations, legal professional privilege and confidentiality, fees and costs and money laundering. Ms. Bastian Galanis’ contribution to the work is on conflict of interests.
In her chapter, Ms. Bastian Galanis examines case law and relevant provisions of The Bahamas Bar (Code of Professional Conduct) Regulations as well as Codes of Conduct of other Commonwealth Caribbean States pertaining to attorney/client conflicts. Issues of ‘undivided loyalty’ and the ‘no profits rule’ are explored in relation to fiduciary obligations to existing clients, multiple clients, former clients and attorneys who serve as company directors’. Ms. Bastian Galanis comments that issues of conflict of interests are met regularly by attorneys. Says Ms. Bastian Galanis, “ For instance, attorneys commonly represent both the Vendor and the Purchaser in conveyancing transactions without acknowledging the conflicting situation nor putting in place the necessary safeguards to protect the interest of each client.” She added that The Ethical Lawyer: A Caribbean Perspective, should prove to be a very useful text for judges, practitioners, and law students.
Both Miss Fitzcharles and Ms. Bastian Galanis are graduates of regional tertiary institutions having both attended the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Faculty of Law and Council of Legal Education Law Schools. Ms. Bastian Galanis graduated from the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica in 1985 and was admitted to The Bahamas Bar in October 1985. Ms. Fitzcharles graduated from the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago in 1994 and was admitted to The Bahamas Bar in 1994 and the British Virgin Islands Bar in 2012.