Ger­ard Best

For­mer At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Trinidad and To­ba­go Karl Ter­rence Hud­son-Phillips has died, aged 80.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has of­fered con­do­lences to the Hud­son-Phillips' fam­i­ly, de­scrib­ing him as "a lawyer par ex­cel­lence" and­say­ing his­death "brings to an en­dan era of le­gal lu­mi­nar­ies in Trinidad and To­ba­go".

"He was very ar­tic­u­late and he earned the re­spect of all,the Bench, the Bar, and the gen­er­al pub­lic.He served the State well for sev­er­al years, and al­though he was part of the coali­tion of par­ties which formed the Gov­ern­ment in 1986,he nev­er of­fered him­self for po­lit­i­cal of­fice.

"Even in our dark­est days fol­low­ing the 1990 at­tempt­ed coup, Mr Hud­son-Phillips was­ap­point­ed lead coun­sel for the pros­e­cu­tion against the in­sur­rec­tion­ists.Mr Hud­son-Phillips al­ways of­fered time­ly ad­vice to the le­gal pro­fes­sion. He would sure­ly be missed."

Hud­son-Phillips was Pres­i­dent of the Law As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go from 1999 for four terms. His death has had an im­pact on the le­gal fra­ter­ni­ty.

A state­ment from the As­so­ci­a­tion said,"Mr. Hud­son-Phillips was a pow­er­ful le­gal lu­mi­nary and an out­stand­ing and for­mi­da­ble ad­vo­cate, whose ca­reer spanned over fifty years at the lo­cal and re­gion­al bars. He was a men­tor, friend and bene­fac­tor to count­less ju­nior coun­sel/at­tor­neys around the re­gion. He will be sore­ly missed."

High Com­mis­sion­erthe Trinidad and To­ba­go High Com­mis­sion in Lon­don­al­soex­tend­ed con­do­lences.

"My col­leagues and I in the le­gal com­mu­ni­ty have lost a true stal­wart of the pro­fes­sion, a man who ded­i­cat­ed his life to the tenets of jus­tice. He was nev­er afraid to stand for what he be­lieved in, and strived tire­less­ly for na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment. It is my hope that his lega­cy con­tin­ues to in­spire the cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go."

Phillips, a for­mer judge of the In­ter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court, was a Queen's Coun­sel and a re­cip­i­ent of the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic ofTrinidad and To­ba­go.

As At­tor­ney-Gen­er­al and Min­is­ter of Le­gal Af­fairs of Trinidad and To­ba­go from 1969 to 1973, he over­saw the im­ple­men­ta­tion of sig­nif­i­cant leg­isla­tive re­form.

He was Lead Coun­sel in the mur­der tri­al of Grena­di­an Prime Min­is­ter Mau­rice Bish­op, and­de­fend­ed and pros­e­cut­ed in sev­er­al oth­er high-pro­file crim­i­nal tri­als in the Caribbean.

In 1959, af­ter grad­u­at­ing from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­bridge in the UK, Judge Hud­son-Phillips was called to the Bars of the Unit­ed King­dom and Trinidad and To­ba­go re­spec­tive­ly, and in 1970, he was ap­point­ed Queen's Coun­sel of the Bar of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Hewas a Law Re­form Com­mis­sion­er and­had an ex­ten­sive pri­vate prac­tice in Trinidad and To­ba­go and in the Com­mon­wealth Caribbean, as well as be­fore the Ju­di­cial Com­mit­tee of the Privy Coun­cil in Lon­don.

Born April 20, 1933, Hud­son-Phillips­died peace­ful­ly in his sleep in Lon­don Wednes­day night, where he was re­port­ed­ly vis­it­ing with fam­i­ly.