- Norman Grindley/Staff Photographer
Jacqueline Samuels-Brown: legal eagle, and single mom.
Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer
ONE HUNDRED warbling budgies (really!) in the Belvedere backyard of attorney-at-law Jacqueline Samuels-Brown fills her stately home with Sunday morning mayhem.
Their mad, yet melodious, music and the basketball at the front of her home are the only signs that a teenage lives in this house. Otherwise, the stately house in the quiet community suits its owner's own reserve.
Like her son, whom we never even glimpsed during this interview, Jacqueline Samuels-Brown does not like the limelight. but, with her headline-grabbingcase load, it very often cannot be avoided.
Jacqueline samuels-Brown came to public notice in the early 80s as one of the legal representatives of the Grenadians who were incarcerated following the murder of Maurice Bishop in that country.
Her particular clients included one of the soldiers who was locked up on the criminal charge, and Phyllis and Bernard Coard who were facing civil and constitutional charges.
Today, in Jamaica, she frequently grabs headlines in matters as diverse as criminal to corporate cases.
Most recently, she has represented the police on the West Kingston enquiry. She is also legal representative of businessman Danhai Williams, and Nicole Fullerton of the collapsed Caldon Finance Group. Chairperson of the Broadcasting Appeals Tribunal between 1999 and 2001, Samuels-Brown also teaches criminal practice and procedure at the Norman Manley Law School in Kingston.
At her home, high-ceiling rooms with cool marble floors are furnished with antiques, testifying to the rewards of her career and the distance travelled in two decades of legal practice.
In 1980, as a young graduate of the University of the West Indies and the Norman Manley Law School, Jacqueline started out as a sole practitioner in Freedom Chambers Place at Oliver's Place (behind the Court of Appeal) in downtown Kingston.
There were some who might have wanted to take advantage of the fact that she was young and female, but mostly, she managed to ignore this.
Even prejudice can be turned to your advantage, she smiles as she states.
At Freedom Chambers, where there was a bias towards criminal law, she was also doing contracts and conveyancing from the very start of her career. Unlike others who moved on to specialising in one aspect of the law or another, the option of sole focus was too boring to be considered.
Challenge
As many have found out, sometimes to their detriment, Samuels-Brown likes nothing better than a challenge. In her own words, "If I am briefed and I feel that I can get the research done," there is very little that will stop her.
Samuels-Brown, the daughter of a Reverend Albert Samuels and Leonie Samuels, reflects that she perhaps inherited her father's gift of the gab, his wit and also his penchant for fairness. The middle child among seven brothers and three sisters, she admits that she is also quite used to fighting to get what she wants. With no tradition of lawyers in her family, mentorship by older lawyers at Freedom Chambers was extremely important. Senior attorneys at the Chambers, Richard Small, Roy Fairclough, Ronnie Thwaites and others took Jacqueline and other young attorneys under their wings.
She remembers one Gun Court issue where she felt the judge was not being fair to her, where Fairclough pointed out that, by throwing up what appeared to be a barrage of criticisms, the judge was in fact doing her a favour. "I went back the next day with a different attitude and was successful," she recalls.
The successes were celebrated, but there were losses in the early days which left her feeling "broken up". Self-doubt was not an uncommon feeling in those early days, but this too was dismissed with the help of her mentors. She also benefited tremendously, she said, by working with the late Ian Ramsay.
"There are some things about advocacy which you can only learn by being in the courtroom with people who have mastered the art and by also sharing in the preparation for their cases."
For many in the legal field Samuels-Brown now epitomises success.
The attorney who at first wanted to be a teacher and then switched to law, is herself satisfied that she has made the correct choices in life.
There are challenges aplenty, but that is no less than she would have it. As a divorcee and single mother, parenting is also a challenge, but like so much else, it works out. At home, there are no hard edges in her countenance and no issues to defend. Sewing, reading, the budgies and her son are a source of happiness. Evenings are for family, she said, and she leaves legal research for when she reawakens in the night.
One colleague in the field of law, who revealed that Samuels-Brown was back to work only one week after having her son, said that she admired her level of commitment.
All out
"If she believes in something, she is going to go all out for it," she said.
Samuels-Brown says that she could not have done many things that she did without the 'formidable' support of her numerous brothers and sisters who frequently baby sat, and her home assistant Marrilin Grant who has been with her since the night Patrick was born 16 years ago.
Samuels-Brown says to younger lawyers who would emulate her, "There are some basic things which you should never forget. Never forget the correct ethics which go with handling property which is not your own. Never forget your commitment to the judicial process. Be persistent and work hard, especially if you are in the field of criminal law.
"Remember, too, that everyone has their own style. Your style might be different from some of those who are most successful, but that does not mean that you will not succeed."
Success also requires bravery.
The West Kingston enquiry (into alleged human rights infringements and criminal conduct of the police during the West Kingston curfew) was accepted with some trepidation, not because of whom she would represent, but because of the public scrutiny that it would involve.
"I knew that I would be subjected to the envy of some and the vilification of others. There was also the matter of partisan politics to be considered," she recalls.
But, once briefed, there was no looking back. Representation is always and no less, than her duty.
