The legal fraternity will this morning gather in a special sitting of the Court of Appeal to pay tribute to its former president, Justice Dennis Morrison, who passed on Saturday, February 3, 2024.

Members of the judiciary and specially invited guests will pay respect to the outstanding legal luminary who served the legal profession in several capacities for almost five decades.

Last Saturday, in an immediate reaction to news of Morrison’s passing, former Prime Minister PJ Patterson said “our jurisprudence has lost a giant in its evolution”.

The Jamaican Bar Association, in its tribute, noted that Morrison was admitted to practise in Jamaica in 1975 and was among the first graduating classes of The University of the West Indies and Norman Manley Law School to study law in the Caribbean.

“He was an outstanding advocate in private practice and served as an eminent jurist on several Courts of Appeal in the region, including as president of the Court of Appeal in Jamaica and in the Turks and Caicos Islands,” the association said, noting that he served with distinction as president between 1995 and 1999 and was vice-president of the Organization of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations.

“Dennis was a true gentleman blessed with humility, patience, humour and charm. He was always willing to assist young and older counsel alike and was mentor to too many in the profession to count,” the association said.

His legacy “includes the many students’ professional lives he positively impacted in his two decades at the Norman Manley Law School and his contribution to the region by serving on the Council of Legal Education, including as chairman for seven years between 1998 and 2005, and on the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission“.

Morrison, who retired in 2020, was honoured by the Jamaican Bar Association in 2021 and by the Organisation of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations in 2023.

On being appointed president of the Court of Appeal in 2016, he was invested with the Order of Jamaica, the nation’s fourth highest national honour.

Justice Morrison served as a judge of the Court of Appeal of Belize from 2004 to 2015; acted as a judge of the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal in January 2015; and was a judge of the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal.