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BAR COUNCIL EMBARKS UPON REVIEW OF COMPLAINTS AND DISCIPLINARY PROCESS | Turks & Caicos Islands Bar Association
Contact Us

secretary@tcibc.org
(649)-946-4650

Office

TCI Bar Council, P.O Box 260, Regent House West,
Regent Village, Grace Bay, Providenciales, Turks
and Caicos Islands, BWI

Kenisha L. Bacchus

Kenisha L Bacchus is a Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Gold Awardee and Leadership Awardee. She is UK Chevening Scholarship Alumni (2014/2015) with extensive legal, anti-money laundering, and financial regulatory experience spanning over twenty years. She is a lawyer and has been admitted to practice law in the Turks & Caicos Islands Bar and St. Vincent & Grenadines. Mrs. Bacchus is currently the Deputy Managing Director of the TCI Financial Services Commission. She joined the TCI Government in 2001 as Crown Counsel within the Attorney General’s Chambers and the Commission in 2004 heading AML/CFT Compliance. Kenisha regularly speaks and provides training at various local and international supervisory and industry forums. She has also served as an expert assessor for the OECD Global Forum on the Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes and the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF).

Kenisha holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) specialising in International Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation. She also holds a Bachelor of Laws Degree (LLB Hons) and a Legal Education Certificate. She is a Fellow of the International Compliance Association (FICA).

Mark Anthony Fulford

Mark Anthony Fulford is a Managing Partner at award winning law firm F Chambers Attorneys based in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands. He is an organizer and communicator with extensive experience in public administration and policy making and banking. His expertise lies in Inward Investment, Corporate Structuring, Development, Immigration, Employment, Real Estate and also litigation.

He is an outstanding graduate of the University of Buckingham Law School where he served as President of the Law Society in England, and the first Turks and Caicos Islander to receive the coveted Merit Prize Award.

Fulford is sought after in the TCI and indeed the region for his expertise with government relations given the influential network of power brokers, he has been able to amass from his stint in public administration. Mark is experienced in representing clients before executive and legislative branches of government. He has work with senior Government officials on issues of legislative concerns for his clients that stem from inward investment, business licensing, Immigration, Human rights, planning and zoning.

In terms of litigation, Fulford has successfully conducted numerous cases in the Magistrate Court, Labour Tribunal, Supreme Court and Court of Appeal in the Turks and Caicos Islands. He has appeared in the Privy Council in England before the full court of Supreme Court Justices bar one defending the first Premier and his four Ministers’ constitutional right to a trial with a jury.

He was elected to leadership of the TCI Bar Association by his peers as a member of the Bar Council – the Governing body of the Bar Association. He served as the President of the TCI Bar Association Legislative Committee. He is a founding member and Chairman of the Advocates Legal Group, which is the largest group of Legal Aid lawyers that undertake litigation for the indigent. He is a member of the International Bar Association and sits on the Law Firm Management committee. Fulford has served as Chief of Staff to the first Premier of the TCI and as an Advisor to the second Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Mr Fulford has also been Counsel to the Special Envoy to the House of Lords, UK, dealing with the 2009 constitutional crisis following the global economic crisis in 2008 . Mr Fulford has also been General Counsel to the Turks and Caicos/Canada Trade Mission, the aim of which is a Friendship Treaty between Turks and Caicos and Canada under the third Premier.

Mr. Fulford has enjoyed a number of public interest successes, namely preventing the Police from collecting fingerprints for routine police records. He is the vice President of the Premier’s Cup- an annual charity golf tournament that has donated just shy of $500,000.00 from its inception to date. He has served on various statutory Boards and most recently was the Chairman of the National Health Insurance Board where a package of reforms was led by him and approved for implementation.

Fulford is a founding member and Chairman of the Board of 17 Directors for United Way of Turks and Caicos Islands whose focus areas includes: “Yes I Can Read” Intervention Program, roof restoration project of 15 elderly citizens homes, school-based crime prevention programs as well as programs to address the youth employment set backs.

In his spare time if he is not researching the law, he can be found on the golf course lowering his handicap. Fulford is married with two beautiful daughters and his only begotten son.

Shantae Francis

I am currently the Treasurer of the TCI Bar Association. I am a graduate of the University of Leeds where I obtained a Bachelors of Laws LLB (Hons.) I have also attended BPP University where I received a Postgraduate Diploma in the Bar Professional Training Course. I am also an accredited Civil - Commercial Mediator which I obtained from ADR-ODR International. I am also currently completing a Master’s Degree in Law with Business.

I am member of Lincoln’s Inn and was called to the bar in England and Wales in 2017 and in Turks and Caicos Islands in 2019.

SELVYN HAWKINS

Selvyn Hawkins is a proud Turks and Caicos Islander. He possesses a Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science (International/Comparative Government) from Savannah State University; an LLB (Hons) from the University of Buckingham; a Diploma in Professional Legal Practice from the City Law School (London); a Masters in International Law (MIL) from the University of Sydney, Australia (focus on Int. Human Rights/ Int. Negotiation and Conflict Resolution / Law, Justice and Development); and a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies from Alphacrucis College via Hillsong College (Australia). He is currently converting his Master of Arts degree to a Master of Divinity (MDiv) with Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, with specific focus on church planting and growth, missiology, black and contemporary theology. He is also a certified Court Assisted Mediator, trained as such by the University of West Indies.

Selvyn is called to the Bar of England and Wales as a Barrister by the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple and is admitted to the Bar of the Turks and Caicos Islands as an attorney-at Law. He currently serves as President of the Turks and Caicos Islands Bar Council, Deputy Chairman for the Board of Governors for the Turks and Caicos Islands Community College, and Chairman for the Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority.

Tremmaine Harvey

Tremmaine has been practicing as an attorney since 2007 in the areas of corporate and commercial law, real estate law, tourism and resort development, and banking and finance. She advises clients on all aspects of corporate and commercial law, business structure and investments, draft contracts and various legal documents. She acts for clients in high value land transactions and have been involved in tourism development projects from the idea phase to construction to completion, obtaining requisite operational licenses to completion, sales and ongoing daily management legal advice. She has been engaged as counsel to various commercial banks throughout her practice in drafting securitization documents, leading foreclosure and recovery proceedings and providing legal advice. She believes in providing clients with superior service and have earned a reputation for efficiency which manifests in repeat and new clients. Tremmaine has served in various leadership capacities including Chair of the 2012 Electoral Boundaries Commission, Deputy Chairman of the Invest TC Agency (2015-2018), Commissioner of the Turks and Caicos Islands Integrity Commission (2019-present), current Chair of the Turks and Caicos Islands Medical and Dentistry Professions Council and current member of the Turks and Caicos Bar Council.

KERCHELLE E. BAIN

Kerchelle E. Bain is a practising Attorney and Certified Mediator in the Turks and Caicos Islands. She has experience in a variety of practice areas but currently focuses on Family, Property and Dispute Resolution matters. She was appointed Secretary to the Bar Council in 2018 where she served until her election to member in April 2021.

DESIREE DOWNES

Desiree Downes hails from Guyana. She is an Attorney-at-Law called to the Guyana Bar on 22 October 1999.

Ms. Downes holds a Degree in Public Management and av Bachelor of Laws Degree, both obtained from the University of Guyana, Guyana; a Legal Education Certificate obtained from the Hugh Wooding Law School, Trinidad and Tobago; and a Master of Laws (LL.M) in Drafting Legislation, Regulation and Policy from the University of London, School of Advanced Study (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies), United Kingdom.

Desiree is the Principal Legislative Drafter in the Attorney General’s Chambers, Turks and Caicos Islands, where she bears responsibility for the work of the Legislative Drafting Division. She began her legal career in the Attorney General’s Chambers, Guyana as State Counsel in 1999. She also served as Senior Legislative Drafter for a brief period in the Attorney General’s Chambers, Bahamas. In 2013 Desiree received an honorary MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) award from Her Majesty the Queen for her services to legislative drafting in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

She is a Caribbean Financial Action Task Force trained anti-money laundering and prevention of the financing of terrorism assessor.

Ms. Downes serves as the Attorney General’s representative on the Bar Council.

JERWINA TAYLOR

Jerwina Taylor is a graduate of Oxford Brookes University,where she obtained her law degree (LLB Hons) in 2012. She was admitted to the Turks and Caicos Bar as an Attorney in 2014. Jerwina is an Associate at Karam & Missick Attorneys, where her principal areas of practice include debt recovery, personal injury, employment, family and probate. She is an elected member of the TCI Bar Council for the term 2018/ 19. Jerwina also serves as Chair of the TCI Junior Bar Committee.

OREIKA SELVER, LL. B (HONS.)

Oreika Selver, LL. B (Hons.), qualified Barrister & Attorney-at-Law, Member of Middle Temple Inns of Court (2007); Admitted to the Bar of England & Wales (2008) and the Turks & Caicos Bar (2009).From 2011 – 2016 she was engaged as a criminal trial attorney, appearing before the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal with the Director of Public Prosecutions; Ms. Selver has had regular speaking engagements at local high schools and she has lectured at the TCI Community College in Hospitality and Intellectual Property Law. Ms. Selver is currently In-house Counsel/Legal & Compliance Officer at the Invest Turks and Caicos Agency – an investment promotion agency, that is responsible for inward and local investment to the Islands.

In 2017/2018 Ms. Selver served as Acting Deputy Magistrate in the Turks and Caicos Islands and has been a member of the TCI Bar Council from 2012 – 2018. Ms. Selver was elected as President of the TCI Bar Council on 17th March 2018.

BAR COUNCIL EMBARKS UPON REVIEW OF COMPLAINTS AND DISCIPLINARY PROCESS

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Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands. October 12th 2022

The Bar Council of the Turks and Caicos Islands has embarked upon an urgent review of the complaints and disciplinary process prescribed in the Legal Profession Ordinance (LPO). The LPO is the Ordinance which governs the admission of attorneys and the practice of law in the Turks and Caicos Islands, including the handling of complaints against such attorneys.

Presently the LPO prescribes various procedures and timelines which the Bar Council must follow when complaints have been filed against one of the members of the Bar Association. The LPO was first introduced to the Turks and Caicos Islands in 1997 and while at that time the provisions related to complaints and disciplinary actions against members was satisfactory, the Bar Council has now found those provisions to be obsolete and prohibitive to dealing with complaints against attorneys expeditiously.

The Code of Professional Conduct set out in the LPO stipulates that attorneys must conduct themselves at all times with honesty, trustworthiness, accountability, and respect and must refrain from any action which would bring the legal profession into disrepute. The Bar Council’s aim in undertaking the review is to assure the public that their complaints lodged against members are taken seriously and to restore the current reputation of our growing, but small and fragile fraternity which is being tarnished by a small minority of legal professionals.

Speaking of the review, President of the Bar Council Selvyn Hawkins said “The Bar Council is currently reviewing the and will be recommending reforms for expedited implementation in the very near future. In summary, the current provisions do not provide the kind of robust complaints and disciplinary framework and procedure needed to effectively deter misconduct and to hold accountable those who contravene the Professional Code of Conduct.”

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