(Hons), BVC, LL.M, P.C.H.E
IT was a privilege and pleasure to interview the Chief Registrar of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Mrs. Kimberly Cenac-Phulgence recently. Mrs. Phulgence has been in the legal field for many years and she shared some of her thoughts and experiences with us.
Kimberly Cenac-Phulgence considered studying law as a career option from childhood. She explained that she always liked discussion, analysing and reading. She thought that this would either lead to Teaching, Accountancy or Law. She recalled that she always enjoyed Maths as well. An incident occurred at school that would lead her to the legal profession. There was a teacher who she felt had been unfair in her treatment of children – beating them without good reason. She wanted to be in a position to be able to do something about such injustices.
Mrs. Phulgence completed her legal training at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus in Barbados, and Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad. She also holds a Master’s in Law which she completed by Distance Learning with the University of London. She was called to the Bar of Saint Lucia in 1996.
Mrs. Phulgence was in private practice for less than a year at Anthony & Associates (with Dr. Kenny Anthony and his daughter Michelle Anthony-Desir), when she decided to move into public office, as Deputy Registrar of the High Court, a position she held from 1997-2000. Mrs. Phulgence explained that she had summer placements in the Registry as a student throughout her fourth and fifth form years at secondary school and A- Level College. She had had exposure to every aspect of the Registry from writing receipts to processing Wills and Probates.
In April 2000, she was offered the position of Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property, which was a new registry. She explained that that was her passion and she felt that that was a golden opportunity to navigate new terrain. There was no blueprint, so it would be a major challenge to put all the processes in place. She felt that the experience was very good and very instructive. She recalled that the first team members were very good: dedicated and helpful. This was a different level of management. In that position, she undertook to educate the public on Intellectual Property law. There were exhibitions in the town library, Intellectual Property week, and other activities to give more information to the general public on this area of law. As a result, there was a marked reduction in the piracy of CDs and DVDs. Mrs. Phulgence says that she found it gratifying to help people learn something new.
Her experience helped her in her next position as High Court Registrar from 2004. In 2006, the opportunity arose for her current position and she graciously accepted it. Since then, Mrs. Phulgence has been seeing life from a different perspective. It presented the best of both worlds: lawyers, courtroom and behind the scenes. There is a myriad of matters that she has come across. Her remit is not just Saint Lucia; different registrars have different issues throughout the OECS member states.
Mrs. Phulgence explained that this has enhanced her people’s skills as she had to deal with different judges, registrars, staff and other personnel on different issues at different times. She said that she has really enjoyed and continues to enjoy the exposure to the system itself and managing the system.
Although Mrs. Phulgence completed the Mediation course in 2013, she does not practise as a mediator because it would conflict with her role at the Court of Appeal office. She found the course very useful in enabling participants to be able to handle issues that come up between people of differing views.
She added quickly that she did the course for her own personal development, and tried to use what she learnt from the course wherever possible to deal with issues as they arise. She described mediation as a lovely process that gets people to dig deeper. It affords persons the opportunity to feel that they have accomplished something and goes some way to mending broken relationships which most times is at the heart of a dispute. Mrs. Phulgence said that mediation is helpful in teaching lifelong skills and she uses these even in counselling young people in her church. The skills set learnt at mediation is invaluable.
Mrs. Phulgence commented on the court system indicating that it had a long way to go. Having worked in the system, specifically the High Court Registry, Companies Registry and the Court of Appeal- there was an urgent need for better accommodation of the courts. She did not feel that we had a court-house that we could use in the next ten to twenty years. It is necessary to enhance the image of the justice system in the long run.
According to the Chief Registrar, the Halls of Justice Project needs the commitment from all the stakeholders.
“We have done some minor renovations on the court-house when a problem arises but more will be needed in the future. The issues that we face are no different to what is faced in any other island; the common thread is that we do not have the funds to start this project. There must be a commitment and we must prioritize and place the accommodation of the justice system high on the agenda. We need to stop doing the quick fixes. The court-house needs to stand out in the city centre. It also needs to be fenced for security reasons. It is too exposed as it is.”
Sitting as an Acting Master of the High Court in Saint Lucia and other jurisdictions has given Mrs. Phulgence yet another opportunity to utilise skills that she may not use on a daily basis. She confesses that she has had to learn to multi-task even more, as a wife and mother; her work did not stop-even while sitting as a Master she had to attend to matters associated with her role as Chief Registrar. One solution was to deliver as many judgments as possible orally. Writing judgments took some time, and one had to be in the frame of mind to do so. She would usually set aside a day or two off her vacation to just write judgments.
Mrs. Phulgence said that she has learnt to be firm but to listen to people especially those litigants who came before her unrepresented. It required her to be more patient in assessing the final outcome. She says that she has learnt a lot from the experience so far and looks forward to learning even more and possibly sitting on the Bench one day.
Mrs. Phulgence is married with a four year old daughter who is her priority at this time.
Justice isn’t just about giving a decision. She felt it was equally important for the parties to understand the process. Win or lose, the parties should be in a position to say that the judicial officer was fair.
Mrs. Phulgence said that quality is not determined by where you studied, but your ability to learn, ability to apply what you have learnt to what you are doing and most of all who you are as a person. It is the value system that you were brought up with. She indicated that there were good lawyers who have emanated from both the Caribbean and UK systems. In both systems, the Civil Code is not taught extensively, if at all. Therefore, there is a need for lawyers to undertake to study it.
Mrs. Phulgence’s advice to young persons interested in studying law:
“Law is a good profession, but you need to ask yourself why you want to do law. Your motivation should never be that I want to make money. You have a love for the law and want to know about the law. You have to work hard. Success is not about how much money you make, but how honest you are as a lawyer, how you deal with cases with integrity and how you deal with people fairly.”
Ms. Trudy O. Glasgow is a practising attorney at the law firm Trudy O. Glasgow & Associates, a Court- Appointed mediator and author in Saint Lucia (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.
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