Through an elected Bar Council the Bar Association is responsible for matters pertaining to admission to practice law in the jurisdiction and rules of conduct for its members. Bar Council is made up of nine elected members who are chosen annually, as well as the Attorney General (ex-officio).
General responsibilities of the Bar Council include the following (as laid out in Section 4 of the Bermuda Bar Act):
- the maintenance of the honour and independence of the bar
- the encouragement of legal education and the study of law
- the support of the public right of access to the courts and of the right of representation by members of the Bar
- the encouragement of improvements in the administration of justice and procedure
- the promotion and support of law reform
- the furtherance of good relations between the Bar Association and lawyers of other countries
- the issuing, revocation and suspension of practising certificates and such other matters of professional concern to barristers
Parties appointed for the ensuing year 20 April 2022 until the date of next AGM scheduled to take place in April 2023.
Executive Officers: George N.H. Jones (President), Jerome Wilson (Vice President) & Helen Cooper (Honorary Secretary).
Members of Bar Council: Kehinde George, Keith Robinson, Mark Pettingill, Susan A. Moore-Williams and Sara-Ann Tucker with (ex-officio) member the Attorney General The Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons, JP, MP
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President - George N.H. Jones was initially elected to Bar Council in 2015 and currently serves as President. Mr. Jones has since August 2021 been the Managing Partner of Ocorian Law (Bermuda) Limited. Previously he was SVP - General Counsel and Head of Legal & Compliance for the Americas Region of the Argus Group of companies and served as Company Secretary for the Group’s companies within the Americas Region. In addition to a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Masters of Business Administration in Entrepreneurship, Mr. Jones holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB Hons), is a qualified Solicitor and has been a practicing member of the Bermuda Bar since 2006. Mr. Jones was a practicing attorney at Appleby (Bermuda) Limited within the Corporate & Commercial Practice Group. Mr. Jones currently sits on various charitable and other boards. Mr. Jones also previously sat on the Barristers & Accountants AML/ATF Board assisting in the preparing for the island’s peer evaluation in 2018. |
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Vice President - Jerome Wilson is a partner in the corporate department of Appleby (Bermuda) Limited. He attended Leeds University and the College of Law, London before returning to Bermuda to begin his pupillage with Appleby in 2007. Jerome has been an active member of the Bermuda Bar Association for over 12 years. |
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Honorary Secretary - Helen Cooper is a Director in the Private Client & Trust department in the Bermuda office of Conyers Dill & Pearman. Helen joined Conyers in 2001 and became partner in 2009. Helen’s practice covers all aspects of trust and private client law with specialist expertise in private trust company structures, trust reorganisations and international and local estate planning arrangements, as well as providing advice to private banks, charities, beneficiaries and protectors on a variety of trust related matters. She was educated at Colombia University and then at the Inns of Courts School of Law. She was called in Bermuda in 1997. |
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Kehinde George is a Bermudian who started out life in the UK. She obtained her law degree from King’s College, London, and qualified as a solicitor in England in 1985. She has over 30 years’ experience. She practised as a corporate/commercial lawyer in the City of London for six years post qualification, before spending four years in the UK Government Legal Service advising on insolvency law and policy. In 1995, Kehinde moved to Bermuda and was called to the Bar in 1996. She has practised in insolvency and commercial litigation here since then. Kehinde was one of the founding partners of ASW Law Limited and is Head of ASW’s Restructuring and Insolvency Practice. She has advised on most of the major insolvency proceedings which have taken place in Bermuda in the last 20+ years. She has been a member of Bar Council since 2019 and represents the Bar Council on the Mutual Assistance Committee of the Barristers’ and Accountants’ AML/ATF Board. |
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Keith Robinson has practiced in Bermuda for more than 10 years and has been called to the Bar in Northern Ireland (1996), Ireland (2000), Bermuda (2009) and England and Wales (2010). He has two first class degrees in law from Oxford University and two LL.Ms. He has written extensively on Bermuda law and is a regular speaker to audiences both in Bermuda and internationally on Bermuda law. He is an elected member of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law and the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and an active member of the Society of Trust and Estates Practitioners, Bermuda branch. He serves on the Trust Focus Group and the Trust Law Reform Committee of the Bermuda Business Development Agency, and is a member of the Bermuda branch of Restructuring and Insolvency Specialists Association. |
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Mark Pettingill's legal career spans thirty years and includes a number of important and varied positions, landing him perhaps the greatest legal perspective on Bermuda of any member of our estimable association: Early career at the D.P.P.’s office; deserved accolades in private practice as Bermuda’s most “Tenacious Lawyer; landmark public law cases; Shadow Minister for Justice; subsequent Attorney General and Minister of Justice; appointments as a Magistrate and Coroner, and more recently as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He also sits on the Law Reform Commission. Mark holds a Bachelor of Arts ands a Bachelor of Education from Mount Allison University, and is a member of the International Association of Gaming Advisors. Prior to his legal career Mark served as an educator in Bermuda. His dedication to children’s welfare continues through his support of SCARS Bermuda. |
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Susan A. Moore-Williams was first called to the Bar in her native Guyana in September 1991. She was called to the Bermuda Bar in May 2000. She is currently Senior Legal Aid Counsel in the Legal Aid Office, Government of Bermuda with management responsibility for the Office and the Legal Aid Scheme. Ms. Moore-Williams has always had a keen interest in alternative dispute resolution options for clients. She was certified in Collaborative Family Law in 2007 and remained an active member of the Collaborative Law Alliance of Bermuda for several years. Ms. Moore-William has been certified mediator with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) since 2017. She is also a member of the Family Mediation Council. |
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Sara-Ann Tucker is a litigation associate with the law firm Trott & Duncan Limited. She practices in several areas of law but she particularly enjoys her criminal and personal injury work. She was called to the Bar of England and Wales after completing her BPTC at City Law School, London, in October 2013. She is a member of Middle Temple. After Sara-Ann was qualified she obtained pupillage and was called to the Bermuda Bar in March 2015. She currently sits on the Legal Aid Committee and is an active participant in the Free Legal Advice Clinic, which is hosted by the Department of Youth, Sport and Recreation and she volunteers her legal services to the Women Resource Centre and the Centre Against Abuse. Notably, she is an active member of her local community, sitting on the executive of the Devonshire Recreation Club, Inc. where she also hosts a free legal advice clinic annually.
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Attorney General (ex-officio), The Hon. Kathy Lynn Simmons, JP, MP |
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