Members of Cayman’s legal fraternity paid tribute last week to the late acting Justice Michael Wood, who passed away at age 69 in September.
At the official opening of the Grand Court on 10 Jan., colleagues and friends spoke of the loss to the court the passing of the judge had been.
Wood, from the UK, was appointed as an acting judge in the Grand Court in 2015, having appeared in previous years as a leading counsel in Grand Court and Court of Appeal cases.
Colin McKie, KC, said of Wood, “We are grateful for his service. He will be sadly missed.”
He told the gathering at the Grand Court that Wood had been called to the Bar in the UK in 1976, took silk in 1996, was appointed a master of the bench of Middle Temple in 2021, and had “a preeminent practice at the criminal bar in England”.
When sitting as an acting judge in Cayman, McKie said, “It was a pleasure for counsel to appear before him. He balanced the seriousness of criminal proceedings with compassion and, occasionally, well-judged levity. He was unfailingly courteous, especially to defendants.”
He added, “Michael last sat in the Grand Court in Easter of last year and, after a long illness, died on 13th September. Many members of the Cayman Islands legal fraternity were able to attend his memorial in England.”
His memorial service was held at the Temple Church in London in October.
Chief Justice Margaret Ramsay-Hale echoed the sentiments of McKie, and also those of Cayman Islands Legal Practitioners Association president Richard Barton and Attorney General Samuel Bulgin, who also paid tribute to Wood in their speeches.
Noting Wood’s “untimely passing”, she stated that, since he had been appointed to the Grand Court bench in 2015, he had made “an enormous contribution to the work in the criminal division”.
She offered her condolences to Wood’s wife and young son, as well as to local lawyer Nicholas Dixey, Wood’s brother-in-law.
“Justice Wood was particularly fond of the Cayman Islands. I’m not sure if it was because of the work, which he enjoyed, or whether it was because he met his wife here. … I think the latter is the reason he developed such a fondness for the islands. We continue to hold his wife and his son in our prayers,” she said.
Other losses
Tributes were also paid in the Grand Court opening speeches to other members of the legal fraternity who died in the past year. These included former director of legal studies at the Truman Bodden Law School and former managing partner of Conyers, Richard Finlay, who passed away in March; Ogier partner William Jones, who died in June; and Appleby partner Liesl Richter, who passed away in October.
Barton described the passing of Jones and Richter as a “twin devastating blow”.
He added, “Mr. Jones, Ms. Richter, and the others we have named were tremendous assets, not only to the legal community but to our islands overall. Invariably, particularly the legacy that is jointly shared with Mr. Jones and Ms. Richter will continue to inspire us all for generations to come and we will certainly keep their families in our thoughts and prayers.”
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