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09th
January 2010
A conversation
with the Registrar of the High Court, Ms. Cybelle
Cenac
It
was a pleasure to interview the Registrar of
the High Court, Ms. Cybelle Cenac. Ms. Cenac
reflected on her first year in the post; compared
being the High Court Registrar to private practice;
and commented on her brief stint in politics.
“My Dad has always been very passionate
about the law… especially for his girls,
he didn’t want us to be dependent on a
husband or employed by someone else. He wanted
us to be independent, so he encouraged us to
do law. It didn’t take much persuasion
as law and politics seems to be inherent in
our family…”
Ms. Cenac comes from a family of lawyers and
politicians. Two of her three siblings, Seryozha
and Sardia are also attorneys. Seryozha is a
Crown Counsel in the office of Director of Public
Prosecutions and Sardia is employed with the
Court of Appeal as a Judicial assistant. Her
father, Mr. Neville Cenac who she admitted has
a passion for law and encouraged his children
to do law because he felt that law was a good
foundation for almost any profession. He is
a well-known politician in Saint Lucia. Ms.
Cenac joined her uncle, the late Winston Cenac,
QC in his chambers for three years before opening
her own chambers.
She did her law degree at Thames Valley University
at Ealing in West London and completed the Bar
Vocational Course at the University of Northumbria
at Newcastle the following year. Ms. Cenac was
then called to the Bar of England and Wales
as a member of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s
Inn in July 2000 and later that year to the
Saint Lucia Bar.
Ms. Cenac stated that when she was in private
practice; she did not do any Criminal law. Even
as a student, she felt, it was a heavy burden
to be responsible for a person’s life.
She sensed that she would be doing a disservice
to her client if she does not believe his or
her version of events, and if she had the slightest
suspicion that the individual she was representing
was guilty, she would be reluctant to proceed.
She enjoyed Civil Litigation and did numerous
matters while attached to her uncle’s
chambers. Ms. Cenac loves Land, Contract and
Constitutional law, which she indicated were
her uncle’s specialties. She admitted
that as a student she did not like Land law,
and developed her interest in this subject while
in practice.
It never occurred to Ms. Cenac to apply for
the position of Registrar of the High Court.
It sounded too restrictive: it would mean being
employed by the government; negating her ability
to litigate; losing the freedom of private practice
and more accountability for her time and work.
Ms. Cenac had been in private practice for almost
eight years and the bulk of the work had required
dealing with the Registry on a regular basis.
Practice was no longer fun, she lamented, and
when she was approached for the second time
to apply to be the High Court Registrar, she
decided to seriously consider the position.
Having been in the position for a year now,
she values her ability to be a positive influence
in so many people’s lives.
As Registrar, Ms. Cenac recognises that she
has more empathy for legal practitioners, and
hopes to make a difference in the Registry during
her tenure.
“What I like about the job are the people.
I know I am making a difference in people’s
lives. It can be addictive like a drug, the
more you help people, the more you want to help
people.”
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Ms. Cenac found
the most challenging aspect of her job was
the management of work on a daily basis. There
were so many interruptions (even during our
interview, the writer was conscious of her
ability to quickly refocus on what we were
discussing after each interruption) during
the day, that could take her off course that
she decided to dedicate two days a week to
seeing lawyers and the public with or without
appointments. She routinely works Saturdays
and some Sundays (because she says, that is
the only way to work without interruption)
to deal with the heavy backlog of work particularly
in default judgments and successions. She
emphasised that she tried to schedule time
for herself, going to the gym and listening
to music helped her relax after a long day.
When asked about her thoughts on the recent
strike action of the Saint Lucia Bar Association,
the Registrar stated that she was happy to
see the Bar Association take a firm position
on an issue for a change. The Bar Association
had always made proposals, but this time they
had gotten to the point of action. She felt
that the issue was not whether their stance
was right or wrong but that they showed it
was an association that stood united for a
particular cause.
She noted that UWI-trained lawyers had a good
background in Caribbean law compared to UK-trained
lawyers. However, she stressed that it really
was a question of the personality and character
of the individual lawyer, and not where he
or she studied law that determined the quality
of the legal practitioner.
The Civil Procedural Rules 2000 provides that
lawyers can do written submissions instead
of making oral submissions for certain matters.
The Registrar considered that this deflected
from attorneys’ ability to perform their
duties as advocates. Ms. Cenac was of the
opinion that being barristers was synonymous
with being advocates, and as such barristers
should not lose the opportunity to practise
their skills in advocacy.
Ms. Cenac was an endorsed candidate for the
United Workers’ Party (UWP). She thought
that her brief political career did not affect
her legal practice as she was in established
chambers and came from a political family.
The Registrar considered law and politics
to be a good mix. They were both about character,
passion and justice.
“If your mission in life is to serve
people then a high integrity and doing it
for the right reason, you must be willing
to stand up for what you believe in and make
your contribution. It is a lot about balance-
politics. Law and politics mix well together,
in terms of the work. One cannot do anything
without the statutes… A lot of politicians
in St. Lucia and throughout the world are
also lawyers.”
The Registrar concluded that she would never
discourage youngsters from studying law. She
agreed with her father that it provided a
good foundation and gave individuals confidence.
She added that there is a lot of honour left
in the legal profession, and the fact that
lawyers still encouraged their children to
study law was evidence of this.
Ms. Trudy O.
Glasgow is a practising attorney at the law
firm Gordon, Gordon & Co., (and has also
taught law at University level in the UK)*.
This column is for general use only, for advice
specifically for your case, please see your
lawyer.
Coming soon an interview with President of
the Saint Lucia Bar Association, Mr. Andie
George
Discuss
Story
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