| Humorist George Ade finished his speech at a dinner party and sat down.The Chairman, a well-known lawyer,Franco Harris Steelers Jersey, shoved his hands deep into his trouser pockets and laughingly enquired of those present, “Doesn’t it strike the company as a little unusual that a professional humorist should be funny?”When the laughter subsided,Brian Poole Falcons Jersey, Ade drawled, “Doesn’t it strike the company as a little unusual that a lawyer should have his hands in his own pocket?”Something even more unusual happened in Trinidad last month.Three lawyers, two males and one female, seem to have got their hands out of their pockets and on one another with very interesting consequences.While lawyers do fight, and there are many headlines like “Female Lawyers Fighting Sexism”, “Consumer Lawyers Fighting Against Legal Tide”, “Lawyers Fighting For Health Care Justice” and “UK Lawyers Fighting For Common Law Relationship Status”, Trinidad lawyers seem to be taking the fighting spirit a little too far.The headline in a local newspaper on May 29, 2009, claimed, “Lawyers In Fist Fight Over Young Attorney.”I was immediately intrigued. Was this young attorney, I asked myself, so pluperfect a prospect that he or she was worth fighting over? Or was the word “over” to be taken literally?In which case, I pictured a rising star of the legal profession, one prone, so to speak, to briefs of sheer brilliance,Le Veon Bell Steelers Jersey, flat on the floor while the other two stood above him or her engaged in trading fisticuffs.It turned out to be neither and to be so sordid that it would have been better if all the protagonists had kept their hands and other anatomical attributes in their own pockets or even,Eddie Lacy Packers Jersey, as is customary, the pockets of their clients.According to the newspaper, “The legal fraternity was abuzz yesterday, when news spread that two male lawyers came to blows over a young female attorney,Devonta Freeman Falcons Jersey, shortly after midnight last Friday in Port-of-Spain…”The report continued, “It started when a lawyer who has strong connections to the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM), went on a lime with other lawyers at a bar on Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook, last Friday night.There were several other lawyers there, including Law Association President Martin Daly, SC, and some of the attorneys who took part in the Uff Commission of Inquiry, which ended that same day.“The lawyer went with one of his juniors to the lime, leaving her boyfriend, another lawyer, to lime with his friends elsewhere.”What followed was interesting. “Hours went by and the boyfriend, who practises in the criminal courts, went in search of his girlfriend… and saw her car and also that of her boss parked on a street in Port-of-Spain, shortly before 2 am…He found the boss cleaning up the room. He beat the boss, who practises in the civil courts.”At that point, if not before, the issue did not only come to a head, but to other body parts and it headed straight into farce when all the parties and other legal luminaries ended up at the Port-of-Spain CID.The report states,Bart Starr Packers Jersey, “The boyfriend and his girlfriend went to the CID and made a report. While there, the boss turned up, suffering from injuries to his head, face and mouth.He, too,Tyson Jackson Falcons Jersey, made a report. While there,Keanu Neal Falcons Jersey, a Senior Counsel and his brother-in-law arrived at the police station…”The episode demonstrates that old lawyers never die,Ray Nitschke Packers Jersey, they just lose their judgment.Some also lose their briefs and others their appeal and maybe some teeth and blood.But they have to stop talking about a legal “fraternity”. It is getting more like a “praternity” or even a “braternity”. |
