Change is needed in the Bahamas Bar Association -- effective, positive change, change you can believe in. My proven leadership can deliver that change. I would be grateful for your support. If I receive your support on Friday, 24 June (today), I will take immediate steps to bring about that change. The Bar is under threat from the outside and from within. From the outside, there are many challenges. For example, mortgage institutions have imposed the arbitrary requirement of an inordinately huge amount 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. A reasonable amount of indemnity insurance is of course justified. But, the required insurance policy is so large, and its cost so high, that it bears no resemblance to the work they might send you, and the requirement is patently a discriminatory, exclusionary, anti-competition measure based not in the slightest extent on the lawyer's competence, skill or acumen in doing mortgages. Therefore, if you give me the opportunity, I will seek to: o Improve access by lawyers to commercial work, notably mortgages, and reduce and rationalize professional indemnity restrictions on such work, by meeting with the mortgage institutions for this purpose, as I successfully did in the past. o Reduce the cost of professional indemnity insurance by requiring insurance companies to bid or compete once again on a policy promoted by the Bar Association. I was hugely successful in the past in using the strength of our numbers in this way, and this should be renewed, in order to make such insurance more affordable. 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 the profession, such as integrity and honesty. The complaints are well known, and sometimes so are the rotten apples.  We must credibly and strictly uphold the obligations of the profession. A greater amount of resources ought to be devoted to institutionalizing, effectively implementing, and refashioning the ethics machinery, even beyond the yeoman efforts of so many persons on the ethics committee and disciplinary tribunal in the past, and providing continuing professional ethics instruction. From within, the threats are the lack of vision, being reactive, uninformed and in a state of drift, and the general failure to be proactive. In some other jurisdictions, at stake is the self regulation of the profession itself. Lawyers are not to be treated as accountants, bankers and insurance agents.  The difference is that lawyers are critical to the existence of the Rule of Law. But, obligations come with the opportunity to be a lawyer, and the profession must be seen to carry out those obligations. For example, in Canada, the Federation of Law Societies has already implemented what I have long advocated for The Bahamas. As regulator, it is the Federation which monitors law firms there, and not a governmental Compliance Commission. Legal professional privilege is preserved, as the Federation monitors firms under the cloak of legal professional privilege. I spoke with the President of the Federation about three weeks ago, and he offered his cooperation. If given the opportunity, I would implement a solution to our long outstanding litigation in the Glinton, Esfakis case, and would propose legislation reflecting much of what has been done in Canada. Therefore, I will: o Take proactive steps to resolve the litigation over legal professional privilege and to support the obligations and self regulation of the profession. o Establish a no-cash rule for lawyers. Lawyers are not bankers. Large amounts of cash, say in excess of $5,000, should not be accepted from clients by lawyers. Again, the useful existing Canadian model would be adapted. o Expand the role of the Ethics Committee and provide a sound, efficient infrastructure for it. From within, it is delusional to believe that generalists alone can properly service a world class financial centre. It is important to have specialists, and additional strategic training opportunities, in trusts, foundations, securities, arbitration, and other specialist fields. Therefore, I will implement: o Practical skills training for lawyers in Nassau and Freeport, e.g., advocacy with the Bar Council of England and Wales, the Inns of Court and other institutions, and in other specialist commercial practice areas. o The practising certificate, completion of amendments to Legal Profession Act regulations and complementary provisions. o Start additional practice sections in addition to the Real Estate Section. I will also take steps to: o Establish a pension plan for the Bar. o Purchase a building for the Bar Association in connection with the pension plan. If an investment of more than $1 million will be made in a building (including consideration, stamp duty, improvements), as suggested at the last extraordinary meeting of the Bar, a viable business plan should be prepared, and there should be clarity on key elements, such as who or what entity should hold the title. It is also important not to be Nassau-centric and to fully involve lawyers in Freeport and the Family Islands in the affairs and governance of the Bar. The Bar must also seriously and systematically take up its responsibility to do pro bono work, and to ensure that the government fully carries out its responsibility to provide legal aid.  People are hurting, and the current economic conditions require an increase in the availability of legal aid.  This year is the eleventh year of the regular empowerment clinics I hold with the support of the churches in the Kemp Road, Fox Hill, and Blue Hill Road areas. We must also support the good work being done by the Eugene Dupuch Law School Legal Aid Clinic. From within, the threat is the failure to see the big picture. The Bar is a major institution in our society and a pillar of our freedom. We are charged to protect the independence of the judiciary, human rights and the Rule of Law. There are no independent judges without independent lawyers. What will and should the Bar look like in 5, 10, 25 years?  What steps should we take now to achieve those goals? I will: o Have more conferences here and closer relations with international organizations, e.g., OCCBA, UIA, IBA, WJA, IABA, CLA, BFSB, STEP. o Use my experience, notably as the Chair of one of the two divisions of the IBA (Professional and Public Interest Division), to help build the Bahamas Bar Association. o Raise the profile of the BBA as one of the leading bar associations worldwide. We used to be the leading Bar in the region; we can regain and surpass that to become one of the leading Bars worldwide. My Action Plan which not only sets out specific goals as a framework to deal with the issues confronting the profession, but also lists the above and additional proposals. The above major challenges face us as a profession. We must be ready to successfully meet and resolve those challenges, and prepare the Bahamas Bar Association for the future. Therefore, I ask for your vote or proxy to elect me as President of the Bahamas Bar Association in the elections on Friday, June 24, 2011.

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