Carla-Anne Harris Roper: Representation matters

IF there was an early indication that Carla-Anne Harris Roper would become a lawyer, it would be her undying love for reading.

Harris Roper told All Woman that, as a youngster, she was always eager to indulge in Nancy Drew novels, newspapers, biographies, and historical content, even if there was poor lighting that put a strain on her sight.

“I started wearing glasses from about 10 years old because when we were supposed to all be in our beds, I was underneath the sheets with a book. My parents used to keep a light on in the corridor between bedrooms. You would be getting some faint light so you know your poor eyes were getting battered. But I used to read everything,” said the 48-year-old who grew up in Ewarton, St Catherine.

Apart from reading, she enjoyed helping others, which made it quite easy to determine her specialisation in the field of labour law.

“Reading was always something that had fuelled this dream, but being in a space where I can help others — employment law — is a perfect place for that. You spend upwards of 70 per cent of your adult life in some form of employment and invariably people have issues, and some of them don’t understand their legal rights or obligations. I am an equal opportunity employment lawyer, so if an employer wants help, I am more than willing to give it, and the same for an employee,” she said.

But Harris Roper had to jump a few academic, social, and employment hurdles to get there.

After proudly completing her secondary education at St Jago High School, where she was deputy head girl, Harris Roper had her eyes set on matriculating to The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus to study law.

Though she was unsuccessful on her first attempt in the law faculty, she decided to try her luck again while she was working at Sagicor. In her favour, she got accepted.

She read for her bachelor of laws degree, then completed her two-year tenure at Norman Manley Law School before being called to the Jamaican Bar in 1997, then moved on to complete her Master of Laws in Employment Law at the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom, after being chosen for the Chevening Scholarship in 2007.

During her pursuit of higher education, Harris Roper started her 18-year stint in the Government. She worked as a clerk of the court at Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court and Portland Parish Court, then as legal officer and director of legal services at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

Eventually, to Harris Roper’s surprise, the chance to work outside of a government job came in an unusual way.

“I was working in the Government this whole time, and I used to teach some short courses. I was teaching a course one day and one of the ladies in the course showed me a Jamaica Observer advertisement for a role called regional director of labour relations for Scotiabank in the Caribbean. She consistently asked me about the job until I decided to send her my curriculum vitae,” she said.

“It took a while, but Scotiabank eventually invited me to an interview and at first they said I wasn’t the candidate. I think God wanted to put me down a peg. I wrote to them and told them thanks for the opportunity. This role didn’t exist before. It was a brand-new role they were doing. It was exciting because you had the chance to make a mark and set up how this thing would work,” she said.

She said she was later contacted for the job, when she least expected.

“I took my mind off it and they called back and invited me to a next set of interviews and then they eventually made me an offer. I started with the bank in 2015. Because it was a Caribbean job, I was travelling like crazy — St Vincent, St Lucia, Grenada, Trinidad, Bahamas, Barbados, Antigua — all of those places where they had unionised locations for the bank, that’s where I would go,” she said.

The mother of two boys, one 17 years old and the other 20, she explained that it was difficult to balance her work and family life due to constant travel, which played a part in her leaving the job.

“It was very hard. That was one of the reasons behind making the decision to pull out. My younger son at that time was going to fourth form, and I recognised that he would need some strong support. My older son appeared to be more organised, and he was pushing himself, but I couldn’t have done it without my supportive husband Paul,” she said.

“He is very supportive. When I got the Chevening Scholarship, the younger one was not yet three and the older one was five, and Paul really managed them. I had to make time for serious things — birthdays, anniversaries. But it really was a big challenge, and as much as you try to manage your time, the obligations of the job loomed very large,” she said.

Now, Harris Roper works as a partner at Karene N Stanley & Co attorneys-at-law and simultaneously manages the consultancy Employment Matters Caribbean.

Harris Roper, who is also the co-author of the ground-breaking book, Commonwealth Caribbean Employment and Labour Law, which is the only publication of its kind in the Caribbean, said the biggest lesson learnt to date is staying humble.

“Don’t ever get so up into yourself that you forget where you are coming from. The attendant, janitor in your place of work has just the same amount of worth, if not more, than the CEO and the managing director. Treat everybody with respect. Know that where you are, many people have gone on before you and provided you with a platform for you to stand on their shoulders and build,” she said.