Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams recently revealed that permission was granted for the establishment of the JOF Haynes Law School in Guyana.
Williams said that a feasibility study and business plan have been submitted to the Council of Legal Education (CLE) for review. The Attorney General, along with the local committee, will be meeting with the Joint Venture team today for discussions in this regard.
The Minister highlighted the importance of the law school and reinforced the need for training of lawyers, at a time when Guyana is on the verge of transformation with petroleum production.
“We obviously have to be able to train lawyers in this area. We have to get ownership of the industry and the sector. We have gas too and we also have a Green State [Development] Strategy dealing with the environment. So, these are all new areas that we have to train lawyers,” the AG stated.
Further to this, Williams said that the establishment of the school in Guyana will significantly reduce student costs which can be as much as $3M annually.
The AG reminded that it was the February 2018 Final Report on Survey of Legal Education in the CARICOM Member States which recommended that Guyana and Antigua establish law schools. He noted that construction is proposed following affirmation by the CLE.
Ten acres of land at the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen Campus has been allocated and funding of US$6M is being provided by the Joint Venture partners for construction.
On January 11, 2017, the Attorney General signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of the Caribbean (UCC) and Law College of the Americas (LCA) for the establishment of the JOF Haynes law school in Guyana.
