Criminal defence lawyer Ben Tonner, KC, has been appointed as an acting judge of the Grand Court.
Governor Jane Owen, on the advice of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission, appointed Tonner to the role last week.
Tonner will serve during the court’s newly introduced summer break, from 5-30 Aug.
Tonner is a partner and leading litigator at McGrath Tonner, and brings more than 17 years of litigation experience spanning both criminal and civil cases, including fraud, money laundering, asset-tracing, regulatory enforcement, insolvency and restructuring, and judicial review proceedings.
Tonner has frequently appeared as leading counsel in the Grand Court and the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands. He has also appeared before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the highest court of civil and criminal appeal for many of the jurisdictions in the Commonwealth.
According to a short biography as part of a Judicial Administration press release announcing Tonner’s appointment, he was called to the Cayman Islands Bar in 2005 and to the Inner Bar of the Cayman Islands in 2017. He earned his LL.M. from the University of London (LSE) in 2013 and his LLB from the University of Warwick (Hons) in 1999. He completed his Bar Vocational Course in 2000 before being called to the Bar of England & Wales that same year.
Commenting on his appointment to the Grand Court, Chief Justice Margaret Ramsay-Hale noted that “the Bench is recruited from the best at the Bar” and that Tonner, “a highly
experienced practitioner and the first criminal lawyer at the Cayman Bar to be appointed King’s Counsel, is well-qualified to sit as a Judge.”
Tonner is the current chairman of the Human Rights Commission. Other appointments include membership on the Expungement Board, the Criminal Justice Law Reform Committee, the Legal Practitioners Association, and the Anti-Corruption Commission. He is a founding member of the Criminal Defence Bar Association.
Related Videos
