J'Ada Mergeaux Finch-Sheen is a U.S. Virgin Islands lawyer and businessperson who served as the territory's first female Attorney General and acting Governor.
J'Ada Mergeaux Finch-Sheen completed a bachelor's degree in 1975 at the College of the Virgin Islands. She earned a J.D., cum laude, from Howard University School of Law in 1978. [1]
Finch-Sheen became an assistant attorney general in the United States Virgin Islands Department of Justice in 1979. In early 1982, she became chief of the criminal and family division. In 1982, she became the first female Attorney General of the United States Virgin Islands. She served as acting Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands in December 1983, becoming the territory's first female Governor. She resigned as Attorney General in 1985. [1]
In 1998, Finch-Sheen became the chief executive officer of the Daily News Publishing Co. [2]
In 1985, Finch-Sheen moved to Santo Domingo. Her husband, Albert Sheen, is a federal bankruptcy court judge. [1]
The politics of the Falkland Islands takes place in a framework of a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary representative democratic dependency as set out by the constitution, whereby the Governor exercises the duties of head of state in the absence of the monarch and the Chief Executive is the head of the Civil Service, with an elected Legislative Assembly to propose new laws, national policy, approve finance and hold the executive to account.
His Majesty's Government of the Virgin Islands is the democratically elected government of the British Overseas Territory of the British Virgin Islands. It is regulated by the Constitution of the British Virgin Islands.
Sir Charles Michael Dennis Byron is a former president of the Caribbean Court of Justice. He also serves as President of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute, and is former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and former Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. He was born in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Ruth Dancia Penn, is a British Virgin Islands politician and former Deputy Governor of the British Virgin Islands from 20 September 2004 to 1 April 2007. She also formerly served as the Attorney General of the British Virgin Islands from 1992 to 1999.
The state attorney general in each of the 50 U.S. states, of the federal district, or of any of the territories is the chief legal advisor to the state government and the state's chief law enforcement officer. In some states, the attorney general serves as the head of a state department of justice, with responsibilities similar to those of the United States Department of Justice.
Cherno Sulayman Jallow is a Gambian lawyer and judge who serves as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Gambia. He previously served as Attorney General of the British Virgin Islands from 1999 to 2007.
The Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS) is a law school in Trinidad and Tobago.
The Attorney-General of the Turks and Caicos Islands is the legal adviser to the Government and House of Assembly of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Previously administered indirectly via Bermuda, Jamaica and the Bahamas, the islands received their own governor and became a separate autonomous British Overseas Territory when Bahamas became independent in 1973.
The Constitution of the British Virgin Islands is a predominantly codified constitution documented primarily within the Virgin Islands Constitution Order, 2007 a statutory instrument of the United Kingdom. The 2007 Constitution was the fourth written constitution of the British Virgin Islands, and superseded the 1976 constitution. In addition to the constitution itself, a number of the constitutional powers of the British Virgin Islands government are specified a "letter of entrustment" from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which delegates powers to the British Virgin Islands government to represent itself in certain external affairs.
Dame Sandra Prunella Mason is a Barbadian politician, lawyer, and diplomat who is serving as the first president of Barbados since 2021. She was previously the eighth and final governor-general of Barbados from 2018 to 2021, the second woman to hold the office. On 20 October 2021, Mason was elected by the Parliament of Barbados to become the country's first president, and took office on 30 November 2021, when Barbados ceased to be a constitutional monarchy and became a republic.
The Honourable Attorney General of Montserrat, usually known simply as the Attorney General, is the chief legal adviser to The Crown and the Government of Montserrat. In addition to providing legal advice to government departments and various statutory boards, the Office of the Attorney General is responsible for the drafting of all of the government's legislation, and also handles all civil litigation matters for the government.
Sylvia Judith Bertrand was a Dominican civil servant who went on to earn a law degree in Dominica and serve as the Director of Public Prosecution. She served as Solicitor General for Dominica and later as High Court Judge for Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the British Virgin Islands on the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.
The attorney general of the United States Virgin Islands supervises and directs the Department of Justice. In 1962, the Virgin Islands Department of Law was established as an executive department in the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands pursuant to the Virgin Islands Code. With the passage of Act No. 5265 in 1987, the department was now referred to as the Virgin Islands Department of Justice. Additionally, the passage of Act No. 5265 placed the Bureau of Corrections under the jurisdiction and administration of the Department of Justice—remaining there until October 1, 2009. The department has the following divisions:
Prior to the 20th Century, there were few women in law in the United Kingdom. Prior to the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, women were not permitted to practice law in the United Kingdom. By 1931 there were around 100 female solicitors. The first female-only law partnership was founded in 1933. In 2010, a report by The Lawyer found that 22 percent of partners at the UK's top 100 firms were women; a follow-up report in 2015 found that figure had not changed. Since 2014, a number of large corporate firms of solicitors have set gender diversity targets to increase the percentage of women within their partnerships. By 2019, 51% of British solicitors were women.
Paula Frances Beaubrun was a Grenadian-born, Saint Lucian barrister, who was the first woman to be appointed to the post of Attorney General of the British Virgin Islands.
Raymond Lawrence Finch was an American judge. He served as a judge of the District Court of the Virgin Islands from 1994 to 2018.
Carol Thomas-Jacobs (1968/1969) is a judge on the United States Virgin Islands Superior Court. She was the acting Attorney General of the United States Virgin Islands in from January to April 2023.