-says family, Cane Grove residents are ‘part owners’ of her success

CHANDANIE Dyal from the farming community of Cane Grove, East Coast Demerara, was, on Tuesday, admitted to the local bar to practice law in Guyana by High Court Judge, Nareshwar Harnanan.

Her petition was presented to the court by Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C. at the Demerara High Court.

Dyal attended Cane Grove Primary School and after writing the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) she secured a place at St. Stanislaus College. After graduating as valedictorian in 2013, she continued her secondary education and was able to attain her associate degree in Humanities.

Dyal later went on to the University of Guyana and graduated from the Turkeyen Campus in 2019 with a Bachelor of Laws degree.

Later that year, she commenced the first academic year of the two-year course of studies, assignments, examinations and practical training for her Legal Education Certificate (LEC) at the Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS) in Trinidad. Finally, in September 2021, Dyal was awarded her legal certification and on October 4, was awarded the Miles Greeves Fitzpatrick Prize for Legal Aid.

In granting the petition, the judge advised the young attorney to always remember her oath and to uphold the ethics of the profession. He also told her to “ jealously ” protect her integrity without compromise.

“Stay true to the ethical principles of the profession. It is still a noble one… The sacrifice that you have made to get you this far is worth more than the cost of compromising yourself for the sake of a brief,” the judge told the young attorney.

BITTERSWEET
It was a bittersweet moment for Dyal when she addressed the court for the first time as an attorney.

“I’m not standing here before this honourable court by any stroke of luck. My admission to the bar today is possible by the grace of God, who has never turned a blind eye or a deaf ear to my prayer, or that of my family, friends, colleagues or well-wishers,” she said.

“It is also the result of years of hard work, sacrifice and perseverance not only by myself but also by my immediate and extended family. I’m a simple country girl from the farming village Cane Grove,” she added.

Reflecting on the years of her journey, the young attorney told the court that she remembered the day when she was awarded a place at St. Stanislaus College in 2008.

“My parents were hesitant to send their first girl child who had never even set foot [outside] Mahaica, unaccompanied to the great capital city of Georgetown to study. It was such a grave matter for consideration that my late grandmother even took time off from her stall at Bourda Market to check the school and its environs,” she said.

She recalled that her grandmother reported back to her parents that “there is a police station to the right, parliament building on the left and the Magistrates’ Court over the road. If she is not safe there, she can’t be safe anywhere else in the country.”

“Today I’m beyond grateful that they were brave enough to take that step. Of course, it meant an hour-long bus ride to and from school every day. It meant early hours for my mother to get up and cook lunch. It meant late hours for my dad to pick me up from school after lessons. It meant studying later into the night after an exhausting day and little family time,” she added.

She explained that these “struggles” were rewarded when she was named valedictorian for the class of 2013 and the best graduating Arts student. In 2015, she placed second in the Caribbean for Law – Unit II at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE).

“When I first announced that I wanted to become an attorney-at-law, my parents promptly began finding out what was needed for me to accomplish this. The fees, though scary like Halloween night in the movie Jason Friday the 13th, and the journey, though long like the road [to] Lethem, did not dissuade them,” she emphasised.

For this, the young attorney said that she cannot repay her family for the sacrifices they made so that she could fulfil her dreams and are “part owners” to everything she has achieved.

In addition to her family, Dyal also thanked her neighbours and members of the Cane Grove community who, she said, always took an interest in her academic growth and assisted her in whatever manner and form they could.

“The journey was indeed not an easy one. It was a path that was riddled with obstacles, potholes of fear and uncertainty and speed humps of failure. It was one that at times I was too tired to traverse, but even in the depth of my dreams, I could hear my lecturers saying ‘sleep is for the dead for the law is a jealous mistress’,” she recalled.

PURSUING HER PASSION
According to Dyal, it was a fierce battle to make the top 25 from UG’s Department of Law to gain automatic acceptance to the HWLS.

During the journey, she said, “It is not uncommon for one to forget why they choose to embark on this legal journey in the first place. This is certainly true for me… At my lowest point it was my reason for starting that gave me the will to live after those 24 hours of a robust and comprehensive examination amid a pandemic, the need to excel and the strength to cross the finish line.”

She recalled that a few years ago while a part of the Chancellor’s internship programme, she was questioned about why she chose to study law.

“ I was slightly embarrassed to utter the real reason for my career choice at that time… it would have entail explaining circumstances that were personal to me”

However, Dyal stood tall in court with pride and honour and revealed her reasons for pursuing law.

“I choose law because it is a profession which requires one to know their rights; to know how to exercise them and how to seek remedies for the infringement for those rights,” she said.

Dyal explained that she grew up seeing family members, who may not have been formally educated, misled or taken advantage of by persons in authority simply because they did not know their rights.

The young attorney said that it was for this reason that she chose to study law to protect her family and the rights of other persons in similar situations.

“I choose the law to set a different standard for the girls in my family. I wanted to show them that nothing was impossible. We [women] hold the steering wheel for the direction that our lives take. We are powerful beyond measure and when we use the power, we can accomplish anything that we put our mind to,” she said.

In giving her final reason for choosing the profession, Dyal said she believed that it would enable her to “speak her truth” and speak up on behalf of the voiceless.

“I aspire to be a good lawyer by… building on good practices. I will strive to be worthy of being a legal practitioner. I will abide by the oath that I took today and the code of conduct of the profession,” she said.