– pledges to bring considerable experience to bear to nation’s benefit

TRINIDADIAN lawyer, Danté Selman-Carrington was on Monday admitted to the bar of Guyana by Justice Sandil Kissoon, and petitioned by Attorney Ronald Burch-Smith.
Burch-Smith told the court that Monday’s admission was quite unusual, since Carrington has already been practising for eight years in Trinidad, but that his aim is to utilise his Legal and Commercial competencies and experience to achieve sustainable commercial value and national development, with a regional and global reach.

The 32-year-old, whose father is a Guyanese, was born in Trinidad, but spent the first five years of his life in Guyana. He moved back to Trinidad at five, but shared residency between the two countries.

In 2005, he enrolled in the LLB programme at the University of Guyana and completed one year of studies, before moving to Barbados to do the other two years at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus.

After receiving his Bachelor of Laws from Cave Hill, Danté went straight for the Legal Education Certificate (LEC) at the Sir Hugh Wooding Law School and graduated in 2010.
After graduation, he started to practise law in Trinidad and served as a State Prosecutor with the Ministry of the Attorney-General’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).

Between October 2010 and February 2014, Selman-Carrington conducted criminal litigation on behalf of the State within the courts of Trinidad and Tobago; initiated Bankruptcy and Asset Recovery proceedings on behalf of the State; represented the office of the DPP at Strategic Planning sessions regarding the control and manufacture of illicit drugs; and represented the Attorney-General on bilateral trade negotiations between Trinidad and Tobago and Guatemala, and CARICOM and Canada.

He then took a break from legal practice, and went to the ESAN Graduate Business School in Lima, Peru where he obtained an International Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a specialisation in International Leadership in Business.

This enabled him to serve as a Senior Associate from August 2015 to March 2017 with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), where he developed strategies for local and international corporate clients on commercial issues; researched and drafted opinions and advised on local and international taxation framework; drafted, reviewed, and analysed international commercial and energy supply contracts; assisted with the drafting and settlement of clients’ tax appeals; and contributed to pre- and post-national budget publications.
He then went on to serve as a consultant for C.L. FINANCIAL, and later into private practice with Caribbean Commercial Law Chambers.

Justice Kissoon said that he was very much impressed with the Curriculum Vitae before him, and has no doubt that Selman-Carrington will be a valuable addition and great influence to others, given his wealth of experience.

And on that note, he was officially sworn in to the bar of Guyana.
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle, Selman-Carrington said: “It is my earnest wish to bring my corporate, commercial and taxation experience, particularly with respect to the Oil-and-Gas industry, to bear at the bar of Guyana to the benefit of the nation.”