How to Become a BVI Lawyer - Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court

How to Become a BVI Lawyer
The BVI’s legal community is currently regulated by the BVI High Court. Unlike
England and Wales, the BVI has a fused profession (i.e. BVI attorneys are court
room advocates as well as solicitors). This only applies, however, to locally
qualified lawyers. Foreign lawyers who come here to practice from, say, England
& Wales, are still separated into the barrister (or court room advocate) and
solicitor (lawyers who prepare contracts and wills) classifications.
The Territory of the BVI belongs to the nine member jurisdictions of the Eastern
Caribbean Supreme Court. This Court consists of: “…six independent states
(Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and
Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) and three British Overseas
Territories (Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, and Montserrat); and has unlimited
jurisdiction in each Member State. It was established in 1967 by the West Indies
Associated
States
Supreme
Court
Order
No.
223
of
1967.”
(See,
http://www.eccourts.org/aboutecsc.html) The fortieth anniversary of the Court
is to take place on 27 February, 2007.
At the present time in the BVI, there are three ways, generally, in which to
qualify to practice law.
First, upon the successful completion of a qualifying three year Bachelor of Laws
degree (or an L.L.B.) from the University of the West Indies, and a two year
Certificate of Legal Education from the Council of Legal Education of the West
Indies, an applicant may apply to the High Court of the BVI for admission to the
practice of law. Alternatively, an applicant may undertake the required legal
studies at another regional or foreign recognized institution. The essential
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requirements for admission to the practice of law in the British Virgin Islands
may be found in Chapter 80, Part IV of the West Indies Associated States
Supreme Court Act.
Second, legal practitioners in England & Wales (and in Scotland and Northern
Ireland) may also apply to practice law in the BVI. Once an applicant becomes
qualified as a solicitor or barrister in England & Wales he or she may
immediately apply to the High Court to practice in the BVI.
Third, a foreign qualified attorney who is not yet an English lawyer (such as an
attorney from the United States or Canada), may apply to practice in the British
Virgin Islands after he or she has obtained re-qualification before the Law Society
of England and Wales as a solicitor or before the Bar Council of England & Wales
as a barrister. In order to become an English solicitor, this applicant must first
secure a Certificate of Eligibility from the Law Society, which remains active for a
period of three years. Once the applicant has secured the Certificate, he or she is
entitled to sit for the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test (the QLTT) in the areas of
property, civil litigation, and professional conduct and accounts. The jurisdiction
where the applicant is qualified will determine the number of exams which must
be successfully completed by the applicant before he or she may be admitted to
the Roll of Solicitors for England and Wales. For example, American qualified
attorneys must pass exams which cover property, litigation, and ethics and
accounts. Lawyers trained in Canada (with the exception of Quebec), however,
need only take one exam, which covers professional ethics and accounts. Finally,
lawyers qualified in a civil law jurisdiction (such as Quebec) must take an
additional fourth exam which addresses the fundamental principles of the
common law. Such an applicant must then train in an English law firm, or in a
common law based jurisdiction outside of England and Wales, for a period of
two years before he or she may be admitted to the Roll of Solicitors for England
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and Wales. Once admitted in England & Wales, the applicant may seek
admission in the BVI without the requirement of any additional training or
experience.
Alternatively, foreign qualified lawyers wishing to become licensed in the
Caribbean Region (in contrast to being admitted in England & Wales) may
choose to take a six month conversion course regulated by the Council of Legal
Education of the West Indies. This course can be taken at the Norman Manley
Law School in Jamaica, the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad or the
Eugene Dupuch Law School in the Bahamas.
In June 2006, the Attorney General of the BVI proposed a draft Legal Professions
Bill. If the Bill is passed, it will profoundly change the manner in which lawyers
are regulated—particularly in regard to BVI admissions procedures and legal
professional ethics. The BVI Bar Association, which has not yet had the power to
regulate the profession, will play an important role. However, the areas of
admission to practice, professional ethics and the acknowledgement of
�pupillages’ (or young law graduates in practical training), will be governed by a
seven member British Virgin Islands General Legal Council. This Bill has
generated some controversy, in part, because it initially proposed to require
qualified English & Welsh lawyers (and lawyers from Scotland and Northern
Ireland) to have a minimum period of five years of post qualification experience
to be automatically admitted in the BVI (--failing which they would have to requalify in the BVI through an 18 month pupillage or training contract under the
supervision of a local practitioner). In the Draft Bill there does not seem to be a
similar requirement for West Indian trained lawyers. Recently, the draft Bill
apparently has been revised to indicate that the minimum five year post
qualification experience requirement for lawyers from England & Wales,
Northern Ireland or Scotland will not come into effect until 1 January, 2011. In
the interim, such lawyers will be subject to a three year post qualification work
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experience requirement before they may apply for automatic admission to the
High Court of the BVI.
By:
Martin Kenney & Co., Solicitors
Preferred Area of Practice: International Fraud
Road Town, Tortola
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