Local silk appointed as acting Grand Court judge
(CNS): Ben Tonner KC has been appointed as an acting judge of the Grand Court and will serve from 5 August to 30 August during the newly introduced Long Vacation between the summer sitting and the winter sitting. Governor Jane Owen made the appointment on the advice of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission.
Tonner, who is a name partner and leading litigator at McGrath Tonner, brings over 17 years of litigation experience spanning both criminal and civil cases, including fraud, money laundering, asset tracing, regulatory enforcement, insolvency and restructuring, and judicial review proceedings.
He has frequently appeared as leading counsel in the Grand Court and the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands. He has also appeared before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the highest court of civil and criminal appeal for many of the jurisdictions in the Commonwealth.
Tonner was called to the Cayman Islands Bar in 2005 and to the Inner Bar of the Cayman Islands in 2017. He earned his LLM from the University of London in 2013 and his LLB (Hons) from the University of Warwick in 1999. He completed his Bar Vocational Course in 2000 before being called to the Bar of England and Wales that same year.
Commenting on Tonner’s appointment to the Grand Court, Chief Justice Margaret Ramsay-Hale said, “The Bench is recruited from the best at the Bar.” Saying that he is well-qualified to sit as a judge, she noted that he is a highly experienced practitioner and the first criminal lawyer at the Cayman Bar to be appointed King’s Counsel.
Tonner is the current Chairman of the Human Rights Commission. Other appointments include membership on the Expungement Board, the Criminal Justice Law Reform Committee, the Legal Practitioners Association, and the Anti-Corruption Commission. He is a founding member of the Criminal Defence Bar Association.
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Category: Courts
Congratulations, Ben. Well selected.
P.S. stay true to the morals and principles which make you KC, the man and Attorney you are, and the Judge you now are.
Note: Without prejudice, native Caymanians, please take your place on a seat or two on the Bench. There are many experienced, qualified and knowledgeable ones of you out there.
The “top local lawyers” are almost all people who benefited from changes to our immigration laws…..2003 staus grants for a start.
Well done Ben
Recognized on Merit, not place of birth.
“local silk”? What does this mean?
Today’s drug slang word of the day is SILK which is a name sometimes given to Heroin!
Someone “being silky” would mean that they that are silk-like somehow, such as being flawless, smooth, or seductive/persuasive.
A Silk or a Queen’s Counsel is an eminent lawyer usually a barrister who is appointed by the Queen to be one of “Her Majesty’s Counsel learned in the law.” The term is also recognised as an honorific and means a “Senior Counsel” or “Senior Advocate”
KIng’s Counsel duffus. The Queen passed away.
Congratulations to Ben. He is fully deserving. What follows should in no way detract.
It is time for us to please have an explanation as to why NO Caymanian lawyers appear to have advanced from their qualification through their careers to judicial appointment or top level positions in the legal department? This despite 50 years of legally mandated training, a good law school (and others overseas) and plenty of potential candidates with the appearance of high ethical standards and academic ability.
Where is this all potentially going so wrong? Is it time to accept that it cannot always be due to some inadequacy of potential local candidates? Is there something wrong with those who actually trained and qualified in local law? The very laws all lawyers are sworn to uphold? Are they not being trained properly?
I am not a lawyer, although I do play one on CNS, and I will proceed to do what my mother always told me not to do; answer a question with a question.
Has ANY Caymanian lawyer ever advanced to a top level position in a private law firm?
If the answer to my question is YES, then surely the answer to your question lies in what is the difference between the Legal Department and the Legal Profession as a whole.
If the answer to my question is NO, then I will invoke the Royal WE and say WE must just be a bunch of dumbasses.
Many Caymanians used to advance to top positions in Cayman Law firms. All, except James Bergstrom, seem to have retired or left the industry.
There is something VERY VERY wrong.
Several Caymanians got to the top. Truman Bodden, Sharon Roulstone, Sophia Harris, David Ritchie to name a few. Not all want to take the mantle on as being a judge.
Thank you Ben for assisting the Grand Court.
They started their own firms, two of them merged their firms because they couldn’t compete with Maples, Walkers, the Channel Islands and Bermuda firms we let in here with no protections, and the other two moved on to other things and retirement. David did serve as an acting magistrate early in his career but back then the money you could earn in the private sector was orders of magnitude higher than you could get in the public sector. Also, yes, we all know that being a judge in this community is not easy. You get put on a pedestal and can’t be yourself. Our current Chief Justice you will know used to be criticised for smoking cigarettes and playing dominoes whilst a magistrate. Our last Chief Justice kept his socialising to other officials, other judges, clergymen and so on, and avoided everyone and everything else. It’s valid to say you don’t want that.
None of the persons you named made it to the top of a firm they did not have to start for themselves. Explain that Chris.
What are you talking about. These Caymanians made it to the top and some are still there.
Stop knocking Caymanians. Chris is right.
Bullshit. And worse, officers of the court appear to have lied to regulators in the process. Do not defend the indefensible. Further, none of those persons still practice law.
It’s a legitimate question about a complex situation, with no simple answer.
Firstly, the Caymanian population is very small, and you can’t expect too many of them to develop into gifted lawyers.
This notwithstanding, there are plenty of Caymanians who do progress to the top of various local firms. However, most of those tend to gravitate towards the corporate side of the profession rather than litigation, and so rule themselves out of judicial appointment.
There are some lawyers who I’d expect to see in contention for judicial appointments in due course. Erik Bodden at Conyers is an obvious example.
You also have to bear in mind that the salary of a Judge will, for most top local lawyers, represent a serious pay cut, which not everyone can afford.
Who are these top local lawyers (Caymanians) that progress to the top (equity) of Cayman firms?
Crickets.
It’s a small club. More men have walked on the moon.
1:12 Wanda Ebanks at Maples. Wayne Panton and Sharon Roulstone at Walkers.
Nope.
There was an ad for a Grand Court judge a few weeks ago. The pay was CI$270,000. That’s US$330,000, all cash, no deductions. Is that not enough? What are the few salaried partner Caymanians around the place making? Most of them are married in two-income households anyway. Does it matter whether they’re making US$400,000 or US$330,000 when their spouse is also earning six figures? Surely not.
Because they’re making too much money in the private sector..?
With respect what you state is impossible. Look at what happens in BVI and TCI where only locals are ever made judges or elevated to high legal positions, nothing is wrong with their systems, there is no failure in their jurisprudence. Cayman is just the most deeply systemically racist and colonialist of all the OTS and probably of any colony currently on the face of the earth.
Yet it is Jamaicans in charge at the judiciary and legal department, and Canadians, Brits, and Australians in the private sector.
Caymanians are screwed.
So @1:29 why was Ramsay Hale in TCI as Chief Justice if it’s only locals there that are allowed to be in high positions? BS alert.
##Clients## decide who makes equity partner.
If you’re such an amazing rainmaker* then your compelling business case for equity partnership writes itself. If you don’t get equity partnership at your current firm, if you are really are as good as you believe you are, you should be able to write your own cheque to be invited to a new firm, where equity partnership awaits.
Stil no? What’s that telling you, then? Clients don’t want to instruct you. That’s on you, no one else.
Law firms are amongst the most meritocratic forms of organisation in the world: they are the distillation of pure capitalism.
There were only about 7,000 people on Cayman back in the 1970s. That’s a very small gene pool from which to develop a financial services industry. Had Cayman not adopted a meritocratic approach, people here would still be in mosquito-ridden mud huts. Stop whinging.
* Colloquial term for an attorney who brings in work.
Arthur Hunter, Truman Bodden, David Ritch, … not capable of competing in a meritocracy?
And mud huts? Allow me to introduce you to an ironwood post one day.