Resh­ma Ra­goonath

New­ly ap­point­ed High Court judge Frank Arthur Seep­er­sad has re­signed as pres­i­dent of the As­sem­bly of South­ern Lawyers. Seep­er­sad, who ten­dered his res­ig­na­tion be­fore be­ing el­e­vat­ed as a High Court judge, was serv­ing his sec­ond term as the group's pres­i­dent af­ter be­ing re-elect­ed in Feb­ru­ary. Dex­ter Bai­ley, the as­sem­bly's vice pres­i­dent, has been ap­point­ed in­ter­im pres­i­dent. Bai­ley said as­sem­bly elec­tions are con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly due next year and he will act in the post un­til then.

He said the as­sem­bly's con­sti­tu­tion does not pro­vide for sit­u­a­tions where the pres­i­dent re­signs.

"It is some­thing we would have to look at. This is the sec­ond time it has hap­pened," Bai­ley said. In June 2010, then as­sem­bly pres­i­dent Ted Roop­nar­ine re­signed af­ter he was ap­point­ed a Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Sen­a­tor. Vice pres­i­dent Martha St Hillar­ie-Noel as­sumed pres­i­den­cy. Bai­ley as­sured that the work of the as­sem­bly will con­tin­ue un­in­ter­rupt­ed. The as­sem­bly is cur­rent­ly host­ing train­ing pro­grammes with judges on dif­fer­ent ar­eas of law. Bai­ley con­grat­u­lat­ed Seep­er­sad on his el­e­va­tion.

"It is well de­served. It au­gurs well for the pro­fes­sion be­cause he was one who was al­ways will­ing to as­sist oth­er prac­ti­tion­ers. He served the as­sem­bly quite well with his lead­er­ship. He has as­sured the as­sem­bly that his per­son­al­i­ty would not change." Seep­er­sad is 40 and Bai­ley said his youth is a cred­it to his ca­reer: "It demon­strates that if you work hard in your pro­fes­sion and have a high lev­el of in­tegri­ty and high lev­el of pro­fes­sion­al­ism you can be el­e­vat­ed by 40." Seep­er­sad is the son of for­mer mag­is­trate and deputy Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions Clyde Arthur Seep­er­sad.