I have been asked to address three questions:
1. What have you enjoyed most about your legal career?
The answer is simple: advocating for good causes and for justice.
My inspiration, my late grandmother, Georgiana Symonette would read: "But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a mighty stream" (Amos 5:24).
She was saying: I want to see a mighty flood of justice; and she acted upon those words by fighting for universal suffrage and the right of women to vote, for majority rule, political freedom and independence, and for the economic and spiritual revolution or transformation still needed in this country. She inspired my father, her descendants and especially me even to this day. Most of all, she taught me about justice.
The challenges to justice are different every day. I am a business lawyer and never have a dull moment. But, I have had some of the most interesting jobs in the world, and I am actively working on many more. Each victory for justice is the foundation for a better society and for a better future. By helping others in need and protecting their legal rights, I continue to the best of my ability to contribute to the building up of a more just and fair Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
So, when Stone McEwan pointed out to me that our votes in general elections are not secret, I took on the challenge. We lost the battle but I think won the war by making the point emphatically that we should all not take our democratic rights for granted. The first instance decision by Sir Burton Hall is still in my view one of the most eloquent passages of Bahamian constitutional jurisprudence.
When Drs. Bacchus, a husband and wife team of a medical doctor and a dentist, told me that after about 30 years of service in Eleuthera, they were arbitrarily being transferred by the health minister to another island, I took on the challenge.
The Supreme Court quashed the minister's arbitrary decision, and, now retired, they remain a great benefit to the Eleuthera community.
There are many examples big and small.
Leona Neely had arthroscopic surgery on her knee when she slipped and fell because of an air conditioning puddle of water continuously left in the entrance lobby by her employer, the Ministry of Tourism. She was compensated for her pain and suffering, and the ministry finally fixed the faulty air conditioner.
As Acting Justice of the Supreme Court in charge of Freeport for most of 2007, I had the opportunity and privilege to reduce the backlog of civil cases to zero. Hundreds if not thousands of cases going all the way back to the mid-1990s when the court was first established, they were disposed of, and the court was current on the civil side.
Developed countries have public and private institutions for everything from human rights education to food production standards. You name it; there is an institution for it.
So, I have focused a lot on capacity building and institution building - vibrant, sustainable and just institutions to support, promote and strengthen our core values. For example, the Bahamas Bar Association still has a lot of unfulfilled potential that can be harnessed and put to good use.
This year marks the 13th anniversary of the monthly clinics I now call: Empowerment and Legal Aid Clinics. The first was held off Kemp Road at St. Bede's in January 2000. It was followed by clinics here at BFM (Bahamas Faith Ministries) spearheaded by Audrianna Pamela Thompson and others. I held such a clinic just last week at the Macedonia Baptist Church on Bernard Road.
The Bar is threatened from within and without. From within, some 'lawyers' do not really know what it is to be a lawyer, or if they do, they certainly do not apply the core values of integrity and honesty. From without, bad habits die hard. Although we have 1,100 lawyers - many highly qualified and experienced - mortgage institutions have imposed restrictions of inordinately huge amounts of professional indemnity insurance, for no apparent reason but to eliminate a wide swath of lawyers from their arbitrary lists of persons to do mortgage work. This harks back to the oligarchies of the 1950s, instead of looking forward to a vibrant and competitive present and future.
Therefore, to deal with these and other threats, I have decided to take up the challenge again of transforming the Bar Association and to put it on a path to becoming one of the best bar associations in the world. A good start has been made with the recent opening of the Bar buildings on Mackey Street.
Also, among my books, I have co-edited with the former law dean of the University of Windsor Canada, a book coming out at the end of this year on "Promoting Social Justice through the Law". Look for it. I have another one on social justice in the works.
2. What gives you the most satisfaction when you look back on your legal career?
The opportunities for public service, mostly at home, but also internationally in significant ways. I define public service broadly to include all of that part of my work for the public benefit. There is a lot of it.
For example, for more than 34 years, it has been my turn to teach others about justice - teaching and helping others, especially young people, reach their full potential. That gives me a tremendous amount of satisfaction. I am pleased that some are in this audience today.
At Mrs. Margaret Thatcher's funeral the passage was read (Ephesians 6:14). "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness."
I teach them constitutional law, corporate governance, company law and international law. But, the fundamental lesson is integrity, to gird your loins with truth.
I travel a lot - on average two countries a month over the past two years, almost as much as Dr. Munroe, whom I in fact ran into in the airport at least on one occasion. Was it Atlanta?
With Rachel Culmer and others, I revived the Organization of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations, consisting of 17 mainly English-speaking jurisdictions.
We helped our Caribbean brothers and sisters and held conferences not only in Nassau but also in Trinidad, Barbados, Belize, St. Kitts and across the Caribbean.
I wear as a badge of honor that I am persona non grata in Fiji. I was the international observer of a trial there in about 2001 on behalf of the International Bar Association. As a result of that trial and the international attention it attracted, the military marched back to their barracks, democratic elections were held and democratic institutions were restored. But, since then, there have been more military coups, and the military leaders have declared that other human rights lawyers and I are not welcome. But, I wear it as a badge of honor, and hopefully democracy will be restored to Fiji and that will be rescinded.
I was in East Timor helping lawyers to establish a bar association in turbulent conditions; in Swaziland to support independence of the judiciary, the rights of women, and democracy against the most autocratic monarchy in the world; and in Uganda training young lawyers.
These were all public service. I had the privilege to write the international pro bono declaration, adopted unanimously by the International Bar Association in Buenos Aires in 2008, setting out standards for lawyers worldwide to provide services for the public benefit. As I usually do, I involved young lawyers in my work. I worked with Adrian Hunt, among others, on this successful project.
Then, I headed until last year one of two divisions of the International Bar Association (Public and Professional Interest Division) consisting of 40,000 lawyers and more than 200 bar associations. The positive public service impacts were global.
3. What does this recognition by BFM mean to you?
By recognition, you reinforce the actions and behaviors you most want. Isn't that what recognition is? Recognition is most meaningful when it comes from people who benefit from your behavior or have a direct interest in your achievements.
Therefore, I am deeply honored that Rev Dr. Miles Munroe and his team at BFM, notably my colleagues, Audrianna Pamela Thompson, Wence Martin, and Merritt Storr, see some value in my actions, behavior and achievements worthy of being reinforced and repeated.
I am very grateful to you. But I accept this honor with humility and not primarily on my own behalf, but on behalf of my wife of 40 years this year, family, staff, students and all the many persons who have helped to make my actions and behaviors fruitful and effective.
I warmly congratulate the other honorees - Godfrey Kelly, Mrs. Adderley and the family of the Hon. Paul Adderley and retired Justice Rubie Nottage. It is a privilege to be in such distinguished company. This honor was unexpected and possibly undeserved.
But, let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I thank you very much.
o Remarks by Dr. Peter Maynard upon being honored at Bahamas Faith Ministries' Legal Profession Day.

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