HOWARD R HAMILTON, CD, QC, JP (1936-2021)

CANDIS CRAIG, BA, MA, JD, PG Dip (HRts)

KELLY HAMILTON, AA, BA

Candis Craig’s lifelong passion for human rights can be traced back to her first “Letter to the Editor” of the Jamaica Gleaner, written when she was just eleven. The letter was an impassioned plea to the government, and her fellow Jamaicans, to create the country she imagined possible: one of equality, wealth, and prosperity, to serve as an example to the region and the world. This sense of altruism only grew with time, becoming cemented during her pre-law years at Howard University and after her admittance to the Florida Bar. Nevertheless, like her father, she instinctively knew her place was at home, helping Jamaicans.

After being admitted to the Jamaica Bar in 2004, Mrs. Craig sought out the best mentorship, and spent two years cutting her teeth under the tutelage of Lord Anthony Gifford, QC, at the law firm of Gifford, Thompson & Bright. She immediately picked up the baton on her father’s humanitarian legacy, concentrating on human rights, constitutional law, labour law, and trade union representation. 

Hamilton & Craig’s newest associate Kelly Hamilton has wanted to be a lawyer since, as the Jamaican saying goes, “her eye was at her knee.” Being regaled with tales of her father’s legal victories from a young age, she grew to enjoy a fierce debate, and harboured her own desires of following in his legal footsteps. Nevertheless, in 1992, life interrupted, sending her on a 30-year detour through Corporate Jamaica, before finally culminating in her long-awaited admittance to the Jamaica Bar in 2018.

A veteran administrator with experience spanning the finance, marketing, and sporting industries, Ms. Hamilton received an Associate of Arts in Business Administration, and quickly followed up with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the West Indies in 1991. In 1992, while working in the financial sector, an ad in the local paper reawakened her old desires and led her to the University of London’s external studies programme.

Her desire to represent underserved communities led her to the St. Andrew Settlement, a community outreach programme of the St. Andrew Parish Church in Majesty Gardens, Kingston, of which she was director. This position was a natural antecedent to her turn as director of the National Youth Service, as well as an unofficial continuation of her father’s advocacy for Jamaica’s youth during his tenure as public defender. Eventually Mrs. Craig’s reputation surpassed the confines of Jamaica, and in 1999 the International Human Rights Law Group came calling. Despite Mrs. Craig’s commitment to serving the Jamaican community, she couldn’t resist the opportunity to have a larger impact and expand her efforts to the region. Stationed in Bluefields, Nicaragua, Mrs. Craig worked tirelessly to provide imperative human rights advocacy and training in service of indigenous and Afro-Caribbean communities. Her work did not go unrewarded and resulted in the enactment of national legislation in Nicaragua granting indigenous and Afro-Caribbean persons equal participation in a government project recognising their right to communal land.

In 2003, she arrived at the apex of her international career when she was recruited by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) to coordinate the Caribbean roll-out of their system of human rights protection. She remained with the IACHR until 2006, when she heeded the call to return to Jamaica and focus on serving her community. Since partnering with her father to launch the firm, Mrs. Craig has concentrated her efforts to the areas of commercial transactions, property sales and acquisitions, leases, commercial law, as well as mortgage financing. She brings her extensive expertise to her role as a Supreme Court mediator. In her continued commitment to human rights and the rule of law, she serves as a member of the Conveyancing Committee of the Cornwall Bar Association, and a director of the Western Regional Health Authority Board of Management, We Care for Cornwall Regional Hospital, as well as her alma mater, the Titchfield High School Board of Management.

Her studies were cut short, however, as the pursuit of marriage, motherhood, and building her own business took centre stage. Yet, she couldn’t leave the corporate world for long, and she became the executive assistant to the CEO, and was eventually promoted to the development and construction division, of the Mechala Group Jamaica Ltd, one of the top conglomerates on the island. Nevertheless, something remained missing, something that got ignited every time her father recounted one of his courtroom stories.

Yet, Ms. Hamilton continued on her corporate journey, moving to Antigua in 2002 to join the West Indies Cricket Board as executive assistant to the CEO. She oversaw the historical 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, the first ever hosted in the Caribbean, serving as host for all presidential functions and VIP suites at CWC hosting events. In 2009, she reentered finance as VP of Group Communications, Marketing & Special Projects at the investment firm Stocks & Securities Ltd (SSL). Yet, like history repeating itself, a year into her tenure at SSL there was another ad in the local paper, calling her to the University of London. She bit the bullet and resumed her law studies.

In 2012, Ms. Hamilton joined Hamilton & Craig as a legal intern and committed wholeheartedly to the law, exiting SSL and the maze of distance learning, and formally enrolling in the Bachelor of Law programme at the University of the West Indies in 2014. While at Norman Manley Law School, she interned at the prominent Jamaican firm Myers, Fletcher & Gordon. Under the direct supervision of Mrs. Sandra Minott-Phillips, QC, Ms. Hamilton provided legal and administrative support to both senior and junior counsels, attending at the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, and the Industrial Dispute Tribunal. Her focus and commitment paid off, as she graduated with honours in December 2018 and was selected out of 150 students to intern at the Caribbean Court of Justice in Trinidad. Upon being admitted to practice, she immediately entered into a six-month engagement at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, as well as becoming a member of the Jamaica Bar Association’s Family Law Committee. In August 2019, she came full circle and rejoined Hamilton & Craig as a practicing associate, a feat 30 years in the making.

His reputation as a bright, determined young attorney eventually caught the attention of Ian Ramsey, QC, in 1963, who invited him to join his famed chambers at 53 Church Street. This venture would lead to a career-defining partnership with another Chambers 53 attorney, the Hon. Patrick Atkinson, QC, and former Attorney General of Jamaica, during which the two achieved an unprecedented 73 consecutive acquittal case run. As Mr. Hamilton’s star rose, so did the demand for his services, and while at Chambers 53, he landed the highest profile case of his career. In 1983, Mr. Hamilton was asked to join the defence team representing Bernard Coard, the former prime minister of Grenada and the man deemed the catalyst of the murder of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and the US invasion of Grenada. The case, which spanned 23 years, from conviction, to appeals, to the eventual commuting of the sentences in 2007, made Mr. Hamilton a household name. It established his reputation as a passionate advocate of the law and defending the wrongly accused.

In the years following the representation of Bernard Coard, Mr. Hamilton earned increasingly high-profile clients, and was even called on to defend, with success, two former prime ministers, The Most Hon. Hugh Shearer, ON, OJ, PC, and The Rt. Hon. Michael Manley, ON, OCC. His reputation throughout the island flourished, and while he eventually ventured away from Chambers 53, his 20 years there laid the groundwork for recorded victories in every parish, as well as The Bahamas, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the United Kingdom Privy Council. In 1984, Mr. Hamilton’s outstanding contribution to law could no longer be denied, and he was awarded the prestigious honour of Queen’s Counsel. This achievement, along with his tireless work on behalf of Jamaica’s marginalised citizens, made him a natural contender for the next phase of his career: appointment by the Governor General in 1998 as Parliamentary Ombudsman of Jamaica. The post was officially retitled public defender, making Mr. Hamilton the first in the island’s history, a position he held until 2006. During his tenure, he implemented numerous public programmes, most enduringly the Street Boys Initiative, which developed resources for young Jamaican men, and promoted HIV and AIDS education and tolerance as chairman of the National Aids Committee. The year 2009 marked Mr. Hamilton’s 50th year at the bar, and he fittingly basked in the recognition with other veteran awardees at that year’s Jamaica Bar Association ceremony. While his over half-a-century career has been marked with stellar highlights and milestones, in 2013 the Government of Jamaica bestowed him with the greatest recognition he had yet to receive, a National Civil Honour in the form of Commander of the Order of Jamaica, for his outstanding service in the field of law and as public defender.

It was the chance event when he was eight years old that cemented for Howard R. Hamilton, QC, CD, JP, that he was destined for a career in law. While playing with a childhood friend in the family driveway, Mr. Hamilton witnessed his aunt rear-end her precious car, only to blame it on his innocent friend, in lieu of accepting her poor driving skills. The incident resonated with the young Hamilton, as he immediately recognised in that moment, “That boy needs a good defence!”

This innocuous event would fuel Mr. Hamilton, as he rose throughout his career to become one of Jamaica’s most eminent criminal defence attorneys. As the son of the first Jamaican general manager of the Jamaica Railway Corporation, striving for excellence was an ingrained trait; it would carry him all the way to Lincoln’s Inn, one of the Inns of Court in London and one of the world’s most prestigious professional bodies of judges and lawyers. Mr. Hamilton was called to the bar in 1959, however immediately returned to Jamaica, knowing he wanted to commence private practice, and be of service to his fellow citizens.