KINGSTON, Jamaica – The legal profession lost one of its most brilliant minds and advocates on Friday evening when Queen’s Counsel Howard Hamilton, one of Jamaica’s most noted criminal defence attorneys-at-law, passed away.

Hamilton, who is also a former public defender, was reportedly ailing for some time.

He enjoyed a wonderful storied partnership with Patrick Atkinson, a former attorney general, where he had 73 consecutive acquittals. He worked on several famous cases such as the ‘Green Bay Murder Trials’ , the Potter’s Row Murder and the ‘Grenada 19 Murder Case’. 

Attorney-at-law Valerie Neita Robertson hailed him as a legal luminary and a true titan of the legal profession.  

“He made many contributions to the legal profession and he gave his expertise and guidance to others. He led the fight for reforms, and was a great advocate for human rights issues, a truly great lawyer. He was very dedicated to his profession and will be greatly missed. He appeared in many famous cases such as the Green Bay Murder trials,” Robertson told Observer Online.

Hamilton died leaving a wife and children. 

Hamilton enjoyed the rare privilege of representing two former prime ministers, Hugh Lawson Shearer and Michael Manley. He also represented former Deputy Prime Minister of Grenada, Bernard Coard, and his Jamaican wife, Phyllis, when they were charged, along with other Grenadians, with the murder of Grenada’s Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and some members of his Cabinet in 1983.

His legal career is the stuff of legend. 

On graduating from Jamaica College in December 1954, he enrolled at Lincoln’s Inn, England in January 1955 and began studying to become a lawyer. He was called to the bar on November 24, 1959.

Hamilton’s mentors were Dudley Thompson, QC, who lectured him in criminal law, and Emil George, QC, who lectured him in contracts.

He went to England in 1957, and after completing his studies, he returned home in 1959. On the advice of Thompson, he joined the government service and remained there for two years. He next worked in Dudley Thompson’s chambers for two years and then joined the chambers of Ian Ramsay where he remained for 20 years before going on his own.

Hamilton recorded courtroom victories in every parish in Jamaica, as well as in The Bahamas, Bermuda, The Cayman Islands, Grenada, St Kitts, The Turks and Caicos Islands and the United Kingdom Privy Council.

He formed a famous triumvirate with Ian Ramsay (now deceased) and Patrick Atkinson, and they often practised as a team in the courts, wowing spectators with their great oratory and brilliant arguments.