St Lucia has new Attorney General

At the swearing in ceremony for his Cabinet of Ministers, Prime Minister Kenny Anthony had announced that he would not be appointing an attorney general at that time.
Said the PM: “I have reflected deeply on the position of Attorney General in this new government. Following the general elections in 1997 the then government had established the office of attorney general as a public office pursuant to section 72 subsection 2 of our Constitution. The post was subsequently abolished and transformed into a ministerial post.
“In some quarters this decision attracted understandable criticism. Because it was felt the attorney general is better able to protect the public interest if he or she does not wear a political hat of a minister. I have accepted these criticisms and propose to reestablish the office of attorney general as a public office. An announcement of the holder of this post will be made in due course.”
The announcement came yesterday by way of a press release from the Government Information Service that St Lucia’s new attorney general is Mrs Kim C St Rose.
The statement lists Mrs St Rose’s many qualifications and accolades and explains that she holds a “Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.[Hons]) degree from the University of the West Indies, 1984, a Legal Education Certificate from the Hugh Wooding Law School, 1984, and  Mediation Certificate, from the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Mediation Pilot Project, 2004.  She was admitted to the Bar in Guyana in 1984, St Lucia in 1990 and Jamaica in 1992.”
Mrs St Rose has over 27 years of legal experience having served as State Counsel in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Guyana from September, 1984 to December, 1988, prosecuting a wide variety of criminal cases primarily in the High Court, but also in the Magistrates’ Courts.                  Within that office, she was promoted to Senior State Counsel/Police Legal Advisor in 1988, and was required to teach police and customs officers and other government employees aspects of criminal law and evidence.  She was also required to give advice to police officers with respect to their preferring of various charges in addition to appearing in the High Court and Full Court in criminal matters.
She served on two occasions, first, for one year in 1991, then later, between 1997-1999, as Magistrate in Courts in every district in St Lucia, presiding over all the criminal and civil matters which would routinely come before the courts.
“For five years between 1992 and 1996 she was an associate at Crafton S Miller & Associates, a Jamaican law firm, in which she practiced mainly civil law and represented clients in Court.
“Upon returning to St Lucia in 1997, Mrs St Rose did a second stint on the Bench in the Magistrates’ Court before going into private legal practice, first as a sole practitioner for five years, then for the next seven years up onto the present time, within the framework of a firm.  During that time she took the opportunity to be trained as a Mediator within the Court System and she is currently on the Court’s roster of mediators.”
The statement added that “as a private legal practitioner, Mrs St Rose was involved mainly in civil litigation in the High Court and Court of Appeal.  She also served as Chairperson of the Physical Planning Appeals Tribunal and as a member of the National Housing Corporation Board and has in the past been appointed to the Income Tax Appeals Tribunal. Mrs St Rose is married to well known Saint Lucian doctor, Alphonsus St Rose.  The couple are the parents of one son.”
Efforts to reach Mrs St Rose at her practice yesterday were futile.