Resh­ma Ra­goonath­-Grand Cay­man

Trinida­di­an at­tor­ney Resh­ma Shar­ma, now based in the Cay­man Is­lands, has been ap­point­ed as a Queen’s Coun­sel.

Shar­ma, who cur­rent­ly serves as the Cay­man Is­lands So­lic­i­tor Gen­er­al, was among five Cay­man-based at­tor­neys el­e­vat­ed to the dis­tin­guished ti­tle in the le­gal fra­ter­ni­ty of ‘Silks’.

The ap­pointees al­so in­clud­ed the is­land’s for­mer pre­mier and cur­rent MP at­tor­ney Alden McLaugh­lin.

The oth­er three ap­pointees were Mac Web­ster Im­rie, a con­sul­tant with Maples and Calder law firm; Rachael Reynolds, a glob­al se­nior part­ner at Ogi­er law firm; and Co­lette Ann Wilkins, a part­ner at Walk­ers law firm, all of which have bases in Grand Cay­man.

Cay­man Is­lands Gov­er­nor Mar­tyn Rop­er, on the rec­om­men­da­tion of Cay­man Is­lands Chief Jus­tice An­tho­ny Smellie, signed the le­gal doc­u­ments for­mal­is­ing the ap­point­ments, the first to be since 2017.

Speak­ing at the cer­e­mo­ny, Shar­ma said she was ho­n­oured by the ac­co­lade and vowed to car­ry her du­ties as QC with ho­n­our.

Her nom­i­na­tion was made by se­nior at­tor­ney Tom Lowe, QC, who sug­gest­ed that Shar­ma was des­tined for silk as her name Resh­ma—when trans­lat­ed from Hin­di—al­so means silk.

Gov­er­nor Rop­er, in com­mend­ing the ap­pointees and wish­ing them con­tin­ued suc­cess, in a post on his of­fi­cial Face­book page on Sat­ur­day, re­mind­ed that “Our [Cay­man] ju­di­cia­ry has a strong in­ter­na­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion and plays an im­por­tant role in our ju­ris­dic­tion’s suc­cess.”

The for­mal cer­e­mo­ny ad­mit­ting the five new QCs to the In­ner Bar was held at the Grand Court of the Cay­man Is­lands and was presided over by the chief jus­tice and se­nior judges.

Shar­ma be­gan her le­gal ca­reer as an at­tor­ney of the High Court of Trinidad and To­ba­go and holds a Mas­ter of Laws de­gree in Com­mer­cial Law (with com­men­da­tion) from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ab­erdeen; a Le­gal Ed­u­ca­tion Cer­tifi­cate from the Hugh Wood­ing Law School; and a Bach­e­lor of Laws (Hons) De­gree from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies.

She was ap­point­ed Cay­man Is­lands So­lic­i­tor Gen­er­al in 2019.

Pri­or to her first ap­point­ment in the Cay­man Is­lands, Shar­ma held the post of Act­ing Se­nior State Coun­sel in the So­lic­i­tor Gen­er­al’s Cham­bers, Min­istry of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of T&T.

Her key re­spon­si­bil­i­ties there in­clud­ed lit­i­ga­tion be­fore the High Court and Court of Ap­peal of T&T, with par­tic­u­lar em­pha­sis on pub­lic/ad­min­is­tra­tive and con­sti­tu­tion­al law mat­ters. Con­sti­tu­tion­al lit­i­ga­tion in­volved de­fend­ing the State against al­leged breach­es of fun­da­men­tal rights and free­doms.