Friday’s appointment of veteran attorney-at-law Terrence Williams to the rank of King’s Counsel was “long overdue” according to President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Adrian Saunders, and President of the Court of Appeal in Jamaica, Marva McDonald Bishop.

Both paid tribute to Williams, the former head of the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), during the ceremony at the inner bar in the Supreme Court building which was presided over by Supreme Court Justice Leighton Pusey.

READ: Former INDECOM head, Terrence Williams appointed King’s Counsel

Saunders and Williams crossed paths when Williams practiced in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and had several cases before the CCJ. He was the first director of public prosecutions (DPP) appointed in the BVI.

According to Saunders, who joined Friday morning’s proceedings via video link, the elevation of Williams to the ranks of King’s Counsel was “extremely well deserved”.

“If I could be bold enough to say with all due respect to those who have the responsibility of conferring the order, I thought it was frankly overdue,” Saunders added.

Saunders told the conferment ceremony that his views of the newly-minted KC were shaped when he saw him in action as the DPP in the BVI. He highlighted a memorable case was when Williams won a conviction against the BVI’s financial secretary on fraud charges while going up against the country’s most senior counsel.

For her part, McDonald Bishop told Williams that he had the support of the Court of Appeal, in particular because of the “paucity of King’s Counsel gracing us with their presence at that level in the criminal justice system”.

“I think the King’s Counsel have abdicated their role to lead the younger members of this profession and every day I marvel, we have to commend the younger persons (attorneys) who are brave enough, courageous enough …who’re willing to take up legal aid and to assist us at the appellate level,” she said.

McDonald Bishop acknowledged that Williams was trying to fill that gap which has been left open by advocates of the past. She singled out the late Nancy Anderson who she described as “someone who would take up the fight on behalf of the less visible and powerless in our society. The court of appeal president highlighted Anderson’s work with the mentally ill who had come in conflict with the justice system.

“They’re a forgotten population and I would urge the newly-minted King’s Counsel to fill that gap for the jurisdiction and to take with him the zealous, enthusiastic younger counsel who can make a difference in the sphere. There’s a palpable gap left open with the death of Ms Anderson that I would love to see [filled],” she said.

Williams’ brother Alexander, himself an attorney, said it was his “great pleasure to see my brother take silk. It is an achievement well deserved, fitting and overdue”.

“It is well deserved because Terrence, in his career, has embodied the action and spirit of what I would regard as the true core desire of all who become King’s Counsel, which is the pursuit of the interest of justice in service of others and the state,” Alexander added.

He traced his brother’s career from the time he was a clerk of court, to his appointment as the DPP in the BVI, his tenure as the first commissioner of INDECOM, and as the current head of Public Law Chambers, a firm of attorneys pursuing human rights cases in Jamaica and across the Caribbean.

When he spoke, Williams, while acknowledging the role family and colleagues played in his development as an attorney, singled out his mother, an educator, for her role in shaping the person he has become.

Describing her as his hero, Williams was thankful for the life’s lessons his mother taught him. He recalled the story of a medical doctor who had failed to look after his patient in Lionel Town, Clarendon, about 30 years ago, causing her death. The doctor was reportedly waiting to be paid before treating the patient and Williams recalled that “My mother said to me if any of my sons fail to give service to the needy because of money, she would be ashamed”.

Others paying tribute to Williams included veteran attorney-at-law Richard Small, KC and former DPP Kent Pantry, KC.