Attorney Gerald Ramdeen is lashing out at Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi’s decision to refer him to the disciplinary committee of the Law Association. Ramdeen said the AG himself may have breached the Legal Profession Act and may himself be taken before the disciplinary committee “for continuing to retain lawyers who he claims to have known to have breached the Legal Professions Act.”
Responding to an announcement by the AG in Parliament on Friday that he intended to refer Ramdeen and former AG Anand Ramlogan to the disciplinary committee of the Law Association, Ramdeen told the GML Enterprise Desk that “the AG must mind that the hole he digs for others less he falls into it himself.”
He said it was interesting that it took a motion of no confidence for the AG “to realise that he had a desire to refer lawyers acting against Malcolm Jones to the disciplinary committee.”
He said “it is amusing to note that every problem that Al Rawi discovers he is quick to report to the Law Association.” He went on to make reference to the President of the association Reginald Armour being a former business partner of the AG and the former attorney for Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.
In fighting form, Ramdeen described the vice president of the association Gerry Brooks as “the new Calder Hart of the PNM,” since he has been appointed to serve on several state boards and is being paid a stipend for each appointment. The Government said the stipend earned by Brooks is actually in the region of $69,000.
Ramdeen said it had become apparent that when the AG “cannot match the legal acumen of another he resorts to personal attacks.”
The AG, in making the announcement of the matter to the Law Association, told the Parliament that Ramdeen was paid $32 million in legal fees for the Petrotrin and other matters, but Ramdeen told the GML Enterprise Desk “the AG has a penchant for quoting ridiculous legal fees and I merely wish to state these figures are inaccurate and incorrect.”
Ramdeen said he does not have an exact figure on what he has earned from state briefs, but he said “the figures are far less than what is being quoted by the Attorney General.”
He said “the last time that the figures were totalled they double counted my fees and arrived at a figure of $15 million. The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of the Attorney General had to write and apologise to me.”