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Justice Roy Anderson's two reasons to party

Published:Friday | September 2, 2011 | 12:00 AM
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Judges who sat 'en banc' at Justice Anderson's official send-off at the Supreme Court. - Contributed
From left: Dr Carlton Davis, Pat Broderick and Justice Roy Anderson are caught in conversation.
Children (from left): Damian, who lives in San Francisco; Tahirah, the youngest, resides in Jamaica, and Anton, who lives in New York.
Justice Roy K. Anderson gets a congratulatory embrace from Chief Justice Zaila McCalla (centre) as Paulette Francis-Smellie waits to greet him.
From left: Justice Roy K. Anderson is greeted by Ambassador Stewart Stephenson, Bill McCalla and Daughan Stephenson.
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Following his retirement from the Supreme Court, Justice Roy K. Anderson's family and friends fellowshipped with him at the Alhambra Inn and also used the opportunity to celebrate his birthday.

The judge of the Supreme Court, who was also a judge of the revenue and commercial divisions, was retiring after more than 40 years of service to Jamaica and the Caribbean, in both private and public sectors.

His work covered the fields of law, economic development and diplomacy. After graduating with an honours degree in history from the then University College of the West Indies, he was called to the bar at the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn in November 1970, and then proceeded to earn a master's in law, specialising in taxation, from London University.

He served as legal officer in the taxation division of the Ministry of Finance when the first major overhaul of the local income tax law was undertaken.

Moving to the private sector, he was tax manager in the Jamaican branch office of the international firm of chartered accountants, Pannell Fitzpatrick, before practising at the private Bar in the Chambers of renowned Queen's Counsel, Norman Hill. However, he was lured back to the public sector as the main legal advisor to the state entity, then Jamaica National Investment Corporation, (later NIBJ), in providing critical legal advice in the momentous transition from foreign ownership to local/foreign partnership in the bauxite alumina industry, admirably filling the void created by the absence of the late Dr Kenneth Rattray QC, who had been seconded to Air Jamaica as its president.

He was then appointed as a diplomat in the Jamaican Embassy in Washington, where he doubled as the representative of the then Jamaica National Investment Promotion Ltd., later JAMPRO, and succeeded Audley Shaw, now minister of finance and the public service, and as director of JNIP's North American operations. Upon leaving JNIP, he was appointed by USAID as a consultant/ adviser in economic development to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States based in Grenada. After a stint at the private Bar in New York, he returned to Jamaica as a consultant in the major law firm, Myers, Fletcher and Gordon. He was elevated to the bench of the Jamaican Supreme Court in March 2001, the first judge to be directly recruited from the private bar, from which he has fashioned a distinguished career which ended with a joint sitting of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, a fitting tribute to an illustrious career. Members of the bench and Bar alike paid tribute to him as being a judge with transparent integrity, unflinching courtesy to all, and as one who exemplified the highest intellectual traditions of the judiciary. He will be sorely missed, especially in commercial matters in which he had been so prepared by the breadth of his experience before coming to the Bench.