–assures AG, despite feasibility study yet to be done

THE feasibility study for the establishment of the Joseph Oscar Fitzclarence Haynes Law School here is yet to be conducted even as Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams S.C. reassures that the school will be opened here.

The APNU+AFC coalition government in January this year announced that the project for establishment of the JOF Haynes Law School of the Americas was launched.
The project comes after some two decades of lobbying for an alternative to the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica, the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago and the Eugene Dupuch Law School in The Bahamas.

The JOF Haynes Law School is being established through a Public-Private Partnership between the Government of Guyana, the Law School of the Americas (LCA) and the University College of the Caribbean (UCC) and will add to the existing options available to holders of a Bachelor of Laws (LLB), and who intend to pursue their Legal Education Certificate (LEC).

A timeline of 2018 was set for establishment of the local institution and according to the attorney general, whether or not the time line is met, a local law school will be established.
“It is a complex issue…we have to have a law school and whether people are putting up obstacles and so, the obstacles will have to be broken down,” Williams told reporters recently.
He explained that Guyanese students are faced with hefty sums they have to pay and along with the small quota of students accepted into the Hugh Wooding Law School, are of concern to his administration.

Guyanese students have struggled with the system that allows them entry to the Hugh Wooding Law School and only late last year Williams was able to secure a collaborative agreement between the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the Council for Legal Education (CLE) and UG, paving the way for the top 25 Guyanese law students to have automatic entry into the Hugh Wooding Law School.
On the feasibility study, Williams said, “Well, we are working on it. I have written the vice chancellor for him to identify the land that Chancellor Desiree Bernard had in early 2001, 2002 identified… the decision was made that we would have the building on the University of Guyana (UG) Campus.”

At the time that arrangement was put in place, current Vice-Chancellor Professor Ivelaw Griffith had been just installed.
“He wasn’t there, so we are informing him…. we have that communication within the Council of LEC,” said the attorney general, who noted that the vice-chancellor has not yet responded to the missive.

“I must note that I see they have given out land to other people and the deputy vice-chancellor is on our committee and they haven’t signed off yet on our land,” said Williams, who noted that progress is subject to the feasibility study that was catered for in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

A LOT OF WORK DONE
“…that’s where we engage with the Jamaicans now. A lot of work has been done. As you know, the Jamaicans sent in an accountant, the counterpart of Christopher Ram and they were engaged and really, that was the last fine-tuning.”
Currently, Dr Morris Odle who is also a member of an established task force looking into the establishment of the JOF Haynes Law School of the Americas has replaced Christopher Ram, since he (RAM) is no longer involved in the process.

“So the thing is we have to identify the land on the campus and move from there,” said Williams, who stressed that the plan to have the Joseph Haynes Law School has not been forgotten.
“We are still pursuing the feasibility study. It is not an easy thing; you have to ensure that we get everything right,” he said, noting that the original timelines remain effective.
Back in July, Williams along with the task force looking into the establishment of the Joseph Haynes Law School of the Americas met to examine the provisions in the Revised Business Plan of the University College of the Caribbean (UCC), one of the Jamaican Partners in the Public/Private Partnership intended to establish the law school.

The business plan was submitted pursuant to a MoU entered into between the University College of the Caribbean (UCC), Law College of the Americas (LCA) and the Government of Guyana (GOG), which contained a provision for a feasibility study to be done to determine the viability of establishing the law school.

As a follow through to the discussions, the task force was required to submit a response to the proposals in the business plan, as well as the said task force would submit counter proposals to the joint venture partners.

The members of the task force present were Professor Harold Lutchman; Professor Rudolph James; Justice James Patterson; Justice Claudette Singh S.C.; Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Dr. Barbara Reynolds;  Economist, Dr. Morris Odle; Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram; Law Revision Consultant Justice Abdullahi Zuru; and Solicitor-General Kim Kyte.