Min­is­ter of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Stu­art Young, SC, says he is un­aware of any pub­lic ob­jec­tions to the de­ci­sion to award him “silk”.

Fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment that 16 at­tor­neys, in­clud­ing two sit­ting gov­ern­ment min­is­ters, were to be moved to the rank of se­nior coun­sel silk, there have been calls from mem­bers of the le­gal pro­fes­sion and for­mer Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Tim­o­thy Hamel-Smith for the process to be re­viewed.

How­ev­er, Young, while speak­ing with re­porters af­ter a sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny at his min­istry’s head­quar­ters at the In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Cen­tre in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, said he has on­ly heard com­pli­men­ta­ry and con­grat­u­la­to­ry com­ments about him be­ing be­stowed with the se­nior coun­sel ti­tle.

Asked about the “noise” sur­round­ing his se­lec­tion, Young re­spond­ed, “There’s been a lot of noise? I haven’t heard any noise. I have to say I have been pleas­ant­ly sur­prised by mem­bers of the le­gal fra­ter­ni­ty, I have re­ceived a lot of pos­i­tive mes­sages and I have seen the pos­i­tive com­ments by the head of the Crim­i­nal Bar As­so­ci­a­tion. I am grate­ful, I am hum­bled, and I con­tin­ue to do what needs to be done for Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

The cur­rent process in­volves the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al invit­ing at­tor­neys to ap­ply for the rank of se­nior coun­sel. The ap­pli­ca­tions are then re­viewed by the Chief Jus­tice and oth­er stake­hold­ers be­fore the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al dis­cuss­es them with the Prime Min­is­ter. Ul­ti­mate­ly, it is the Prime Min­is­ter who ad­vis­es the Pres­i­dent on who should be ap­point­ed.

How­ev­er, the process has been crit­i­cised for putting too much pow­er in the hands of the Prime Min­is­ter.