Taynia Nethersole

Once you enter her office, you step into a world that is uniquely her. Her walls are tastefully decorated with impressionistic artwork from Jamaica, Haiti, Belgium, Barbados and the Netherlands. Among the neatly arranged assortment of office accessories and bulky law reference books, are countless family pictures. These are proudly displayed between objets d’art collected from her travels around the world.

Taynia Nethersole, Group Legal Advisor for the ATL/Sandals Group has a deep and abiding love for her family, art, music and life. It’s rare to see a frown on her face. The silence of the office is oftentimes punctuated by her robust laugh or passionate discourses. For her, life is good.

“I am a very lucky person,” she said. “I live comfortably in an uncomfortable world.”

And it’s a privilege she does not take for granted.

Born to Leslie and Phyllis Nethersole, Nethersole is the older of two children. For 18 years she lived in Canada, after emigrating with her parents in the late sixties when she was only seven years old. Life in the suburbs was fun-filled.

There were several activities organised for children in her neighbourhood and football held the most appeal for her. She became so good at the sport that she was often recruited to teams. From age 11 through to 23 Nethersole played at the highest level within her city’s football system. Her team was city champion for a number of years and during her time with them she was named most valuable player.

Growing up in Canada exposed Nethersole to a multi-cultural existence. She grew up surrounded by families from Trinidad, Greece, China, Italy, and of course, French and English Canadians. “It was a very comfortable place to live. I lived in a very open, accepting and liberal community,” reminisces the dynamic attorney. “In fact, it is this experience which in part accounts for my ability to interact with and accept people from all walks of life which in itself has been quite an asset throughout my professional and personal life.”

Nethersole ‘s choice of profession came about partly out of love and loyalty to family. Her grandfather always wished for someone in the family to continue the tradition of practising law that began with the brilliance of his second cousin, Noel Nethersole, an accomplished lawyer by profession who was the first minister of finance in independent Jamaica.

After high school, Nethersole decided on a degree in political science and sociology at McGill University. This was in the late 70s early 80s when major trends included a growing disillusionment with government, advances in civil rights, increased influence of the women’s movement, a heightened concern for the environment and increased space exploration. Indeed, the events of the times greatly inspired what Nethersole calls her “leftist period”.

Sporting an Afro – the ‘Black is Beautiful’ symbol of racial pride, Nethersole, though certainly not radical, became aware of and concerned about the injustices taking place throughout the world.

“Though racism didn’t touch me directly, I was against industries investing in South Africa. I was all for women’s rights and equal opportunities for blacks and joined the occasional protest rallies,” declares the now more conservative Nethersole .

“[My parents] allowed me to make mistakes and in this way they were able to guide me the best way they knew how. We always had a close relationship and so they supported anything I did, even if they didn’t agree with my choices,” she added. This support extended to Nethersole’s decision to do the law school aptitude test during her final year of studies at McGill in 1982. Her success allowed her entry into the law programme at the University of Ottawa in the fall of that year.

While on internship in Jamaica in the summer of 1983, working for Crafton Miller in the then Miller, Mitchell and Company, Nethersole decided she wanted to return home for good to practise law.

She had visited Jamaica as a child growing up and really enjoyed herself.The experience with Crafton Miller that summer sealed her fate. As she explains, “It was the year the Commonwealth Law Conference was held in Jamaica. I really enjoyed meeting lawyers from all over the world. During that summer, I was able to attend sessions in many Resident Magistrate’s courts throughout the island and I learnt so much from Mr Miller. My ethical practices today are based on his invaluable teachings.”

She entered the Norman Manley Law School where she prepared to qualify for the Bar and while doing that she spent her afternoons steeped in the law with Crafton Miller. From that experience Nethersole knew she did not want to be so involved in the practice of law. “I did not like litigation and while I enjoyed commercial law I could not see myself working in a firm.

And so, even though Mr. Miller expected me to work with him upon qualifying for the Bar I decided to practise as in-house counsel landing the position of Legal Officer in Claims with ICWI.” Nethersole held this position for one year after which time she joined the Seprod Group as corporate secretary and legal officer.

After seven years with Seprod she was offered the position of Deputy Group Legal Director with the ATL/Sandals Group of Companies in 1995. With the resignation of Ian Phillipson as group legal director in 1996, she was promoted to group legal advisor. Nethersole describes her ten-year tenure as “rarely boring”.

For her, no one day is ever like the other as the legal department (which comprises two lawyers and two administrative assistants) provides service to both the industrial and hotel companies in the group.

This involves, among other things, dealing with the hotels on a daily basis, responding to requests from the company’s worldwide reps, monitoring the intellectual product of the group and processing correspondence from external lawyers while handling group acquisitions, site inspections and training on liability issues.

Nethersole enjoys the position she holds as Chief Legal Advisor to the Caribbean’s leading business tycoon Gordon “Butch” Stewart. “Law teaches you to think a certain way. I truly enjoy the adversarial battle involved in getting the best for my client.

Basically, I have a specialised skill which is used as a tool to benefit the ATL/Sandals Group of Companies and is at the disposal of our chairman to move the company forward.” Though Nethersole did not have any hospitality experience prior to joining the ATL/Sandals executive team, she has profound gratitude to Stewart for allowing her to grow into the job.

She is proud of the contributions she has made in helping the company grow and feels strongly that being female in a male-dominated boardroom has in no way compromised her breaking through the proverbial glass ceiling. “My views are respected like anybody else. My work is taken seriously and Mr. Stewart seeks my advice as part of the collective,” she said.

In an environment where multi-tasking is crucial and mistakes could be costly, Nethersole applies herself, works extremely hard building a reputation for meeting deadlines, giving 100 per cent and anticipating the needs of her client.

Nethersole is very involved in Jamaica Aids Support (JAS) and was recently appointed to the board of governors. She also provides financial support as a means of facilitating access to education and medication for those without the means to do so. In fact, as one friend disclosed, on her 40th birthday, rather than accepting birthday gifts she asked her friends to make contributions to the JAS.

Her altruism is further extended as a trustee of the Earl Warner Trust created in honour of one of the Caribbean’s leading theatre practitioners who died of leukaemia. Through this trust, a scholarship is awarded to a needy student at the Edna Manley School of Performing Arts.

For 10 years nethersole was director of the now defunct TCL (The Company Ltd), which was instrumental in presenting thought-provoking theatre to the Jamaican community. TCL has been credited for introducing to Jamaica the early works of David Heron, Man Talk, I Marcus Garvey and the Captivity of Babylon as well as the Sunday Morning Coffee Series which used to be staged at Devon House and the Phillip Sherlock Centre.

A member of the board of the National Gallery of Jamaica, Nethersole is also an avid art collector She has an eclectic music collection. Known to close friends as DJ Champagne, her dee-jaying skills are often employed for friends’ parties and even as guest deejay on radio and at Red Bones’ renowned World Beat night.

Travel is also high on her list of leisurely pursuits. As she asserts, “Every year I go somewhere that I’ve never gone. It’s all about just doing new things, meeting new people and living life such that each year is slightly better than the one before.”

Nethersole is undoubtedly enjoying life at her own pace and on her own terms, yet she loathes taking it for granted. A doting aunt and godmother to many, she is looking forward to enjoying her retirement years, but for now, has no immediate plans to change her life.