Letter to the Editor
As the debate surrounding the Legal Practitioners Bill unfolds, I cannot avoid reflecting on the gravity of the problem with which we are confronted. I offer the observation that valuable time is being lost due to intransigence, arrogance and contempt on the part of those whose positions of advantage intoxicates them into believing that the status quo will remain forever.
Such elements are quick to accuse Caymanians of a “culture of entitlement”, while remaining uninformed of the fact that in most cases such a phenomenon (“cultural deprivation”) is a response to the Caymanian experience of “relative deprivation”. The stench of hypocrisy and double standard, like a cheap perfume, permeates Caymanian society; while always present in the society, it is especially in the legal profession.
This is particularly so as it relates to the employment of qualified Caymanians. My experience during the years 2000 to 2005, when I was minister of Education, Human Resources and Culture, led me to realise that, while there were many well meaning foreign elements among us, there were an equal, if not larger number, who held us in contempt.
In a society where we should be promoting dialogue, discussion and plurality there is only contempt, derision and ridicule from this latter element who see themselves as our “colonisers”. It is as I have written in The Cayman Islands in Transition, instead of “lighting a candle, they curse the darkness”, and curse those of us who are Caymanian. We are told that Caymanians need to get qualified, yet when qualified Caymanians turn up, they are told that they are not experienced. Well! How does one acquire experience? And what has happened to the obligation to train and prepare Caymanians?
This frustration of Caymanians has continued until now when we have the preposterously untenable request for persons who have never been to these Islands, to practice Cayman Law in some remote but monetarily fertile jurisdiction. When we challenge this sale of our birthright, we are castigated and have become subject to all sorts of opprobrium. Yet no thought has been given to the fact that our objection could only have emanated from our sense of morality and fairness. It is easy for this cabal of “colonisers”, whose position in the society allows them to appropriate the claim of “having made this economy” to the exclusion of those generations of Caymanian seamen, whose skill and expertise laid the economic foundation, long before the first commercial bank arrived, not to mention the arrival of foreign attorneys. Is it not peculiar that there are, or have been Caymanian bank managers and Caymanian managing partners in the major accounting firms, yet to date there has not been one Caymanian managing partner or equity partner in any of the major law firms. This in a jurisdiction that for generations produced sailors and seamen who were captains and chief engineers of the largest behemoths ever to navigate the oceans, not to mention their safety record in transporting the most volatile and explosive cargoes known to mankind, without even one single devastating accident.
History teaches us with unmistakable emphasis that this untenable situation cannot go on ad infinitum. The current impasse reminds me of the old adage, popular among black Americans in the pre- Civil Rights era:
“God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water, the fire next time.”
We shall have to ask ourselves when the chickens come home to roost whether they (the “colonisers”) really believed that educated and deserving Caymanians would forever be content with the so called “trickle down”, or whether they (the “colonisers”) should have heeded the lesson that history so graphically records that there would be a “novus order saeclorum”.
JA Roy Bodden
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While I share a number of the sentiments expressed by Mr. Roy, his claim that there have not been Caymanian managing or equity partners in Cayman law firms is simply not true and dismisses the successes of Caymanians in this sector. It also undermines his arguments. Mr. Roy must have temporarily forgotten Wayne Panton who through hard work rose to the position of managing partner and equity partner at Walkers, one of the largest offshore law firms on the planet. He must also have forgotten about those who rose to the top like Mr. Arthur Hunter and his son Brian and also Andrew Reid and many others. He should look at who are the managing partners of Maples at this very time as well.
Thanks for those observations and insights, Mr. Bodden. While I agree with Jose that he overstates the case when he says that ‘to date there has not been one Caymanian managing partner or equity partner in any of the major law firms’ it is not true that there have been many. Quite to the contrary, these have been few, far between and long time since. The question is whether we should be satisfied with a few token Caymanians who are made up to take the heat from Immigration on behalf of the firm. Obviously it would be folly to count those partners who have acquired Caymanian status as reflecting the progress of Caymanians in the firms.