LATE?PRIME?MINISTER David Thompson was regarded as a “constitutional expert”?by some of his Caribbean colleagues and was often sought after for advice in that area.
President of the Barbados Bar Association, Leslie Haynes, told a gathering of the legal profession who met yesterday to pay tribute to Thompson, that Denzil Douglas of St Kitts and Roosevelt Skerrit of Dominica were two such prime ministers who sought constitutional advice from Thompson.
Speaking of Thompson’s legal career, he told the gathering that after forming his law firm – Thompson & Associates – the late Prime Minister focused his attention on corporate and commercial matters and the offshore regime.
He said Thompson also took several young attorneys under his wing and was generous in imparting his knowledge to them, as well as to students of law.
He described Thompson as having the gift of expression.
“He was not aloof nor inaccessible; he was down to earth,” Haynes told the gathering.
Thompson’s former law partner Garth Patterson credited Thompson with helping him to launch his professional career in Barbados.
Patterson, a Jamaican who was Thompson’s partner for five years, also recalled that in 1991 during the turbulent times of the Democratic Labour Party, Thompson entrusted him with his legal practice, giving him a solid foundation to establish himself.
“I?feel like the ex-convict,” Patterson said in relation to Thompson’s gardener, “because I was very much the beneficiary of his generosity.”
He said even though Thompson’s political life often took him away from his legal practice, he could not have asked for a better partner.
“I can say, without fear of contradiction, never a harsh word was ever exchanged between the two of us . . . . The partnership worked because he allowed me to do my thing and he did his.”
He said Thompson was irreplaceable.
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