Lawyer of the Month - May 2007
Our Lawyer of the Month is Anesta Weekes QC.
Anesta Weekes read law at Keele University and completed her Bar Finals at the Inns of Court School of Law in 1980. She was called to the Bar (Grays Inn) in 1981. She is currently a member of Chambers at 23 Essex Street.
Anesta specialises in criminal law and is currently a member of the Crime Team at 23 Essex Street Chambers, where she is the Head of Education and Training. She became a Queen’s Counsel and a Recorder (part-time judge) in 1999 and was appointed a Bencher of Gray’s Inn in the summer of 2003. She also sits as a part-time Chair of the Employment Tribunals.
Anesta was the Vice-Chair of the Bar Council’s Equal Opportunities Committee from 2000 until 2003. She is also a former member of both the Ethnic Advisory Committee for Judicial Studies Board, the Home Office Advisory Committee on race relations, an Arbitrator of the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal.
Highlights of her career include:
- Counsel to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry
- Counsel to the Broadwater Farm Inquiry into the death of Police Constable Keith Blakelock
- Representing those convicted and facing the death penalty before the Privy Council and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
- Member of the Gambling Review Committee
- Morris Inquiry (professional standards and disciplinary matters within the Metropolitan Police Service)
Anesta is a specialist trainer in advocacy skills. She was a member of a team of lawyers sponsored by the UK Government to train South African lawyers in advocacy skills. She has trained lawyers in advocacy skills in The Hague, Jersey and the Caribbean. She was a lecturer and facilitator for Criminal Bar on the Human Rights Act when the Act first came into force. More recently she lectures on confiscation under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Anesta is an occasional judge of the long-running Bar National Mock Trial Competition.
She is board member of the English National Opera, Chair of the British Caribbean Jurist Group, (access to justice projects) a member of the Royal Society of Arts and a trustee of the International Law Book Facility (a charitable organisation which provides legal texts to professional bodies, pro bono groups and Law Schools in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean).
Anesta was The Times runner-up Woman of the Year in 1999. She is a regular speaker and has made numerous appearances on television and radio.
Below is our interview with Anesta:
BLD: Why did you choose law?
AW: I thought it was a good subject; I was interested in Law and thought it would pay well.
BLD: If you were to choose another role/profession other than law, what would it be and why?
AW: The medical profession or music. I have great admiration for doctors who work in difficult circumstances and preserve lives.
BLD: What was the worst career advice you were given?
AW: When I first started at the Bar, I was told by a senior barrister, who has since died, that I would not make it. I am very relieved that I have proved him wrong!
BLD: What career advice would you give to others?
AW: Pick an area of law you are genuinely passionate about, then join an association specialising in that area of law and ensure you attend their lectures and discussions. Also, look at your community where you live and seek out voluntary or paid work in that area of law.
BLD: Who is the person you most admire (dead or alive) and why?
AW: There are three. Nelson Mandela is the first – I know everyone picks him but he’s the best modern day living example of someone who embodies the best attributes of some of our great heroes of the past, such as Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and Malcolm X. He embodies the struggle of the black race, the use of peaceful and violent protest, articulating his views as a barrister, being silenced in prison and then the reconciliation with his oppressors after his release from prison. The second is, Elizabeth I. She became Queen in very difficult circumstances. To remain unmarried and to rule over men was an outstanding achievement for her time. She was ahead of her time. The third is Muhammad Ali, my childhood sports hero. I don’t care much for boxing but I always watch this man. He was the first black man that I saw on TV who could speak so fast and so much but remain coherent and entertaining. His biography “King of the World” is one of my favourite books.
BLD: What do you think are the current challenges facing those joining the Bar now?
AW: Very difficult time for anyone. For those doing publicly-funded work, money is a real issue, and for everyone, getting tenancies to enable them to practice their skills is very difficult.
BLD: What are you most passionate/happiest about?
AW: I am most happy when I am with friends enjoying good food, listening or dancing to music, reading a riveting good book or travelling to unknown parts of the globe.
BLD: What are your dislikes?
AW: Injustice of all kinds.
BLD: What was your worst moment as a lawyer?
AW: No particular worst moment but there are lots of difficulty times.
BLD: Tell us your professional high point(s).
AW: Saving the life of a man who was due to be executed in Jamaica. As a result of being allowed to argue on his behalf at the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights his sentence of death was commuted to one of life imprisonment. This is the best result I have ever had and it remains a memorable one.
BLD: What was the most famous/interesting case(s) you have handled to date?
AW: The case of the Jamaican man that I had mentioned and the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry was the only modern day public inquiry which the entire nation had a view, followed it and resulted in the Government changing a primary statute, the Race Relations Act.
BLD: Any professional regrets?
AW: None.
BLD: If you could rule the world for a day what would you change/do?
AW: One of my priorities would be to do something really different about world debt which so desperately affects a large number of African countries and to have more constructive discussions about what more rich nations can do to help.