Paul B. Dennis of O’Neal Webster is newly appointed Queen’s Counsel
March, 2013 - Tortola, British Virgin Islands
The partners of O’Neal Webster are very pleased to announce that litigation partner, Paul Dennis, has been elevated to the rank of Queen’s Counsel. His appointment took effect on March 18, 2013.
Appointments to the rank of Queen’s Counsel (QC) are made by Her Majesty the Queen through her local representative, the Governor, upon the recommendation of the Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, and is an honour traditionally reserved for senior barristers who have distinguished themselves through exceptional leadership, professional integrity, and excellence in advocacy, at the Bar.
Paul joined O’Neal Webster in 1993 as a litigation associate, on secondment from the Jamaican law firm of Myers Fletcher & Gordon, and quickly rose to become a partner of the firm in 1997. He served for many years as head of the firm’s litigation department, and was its Managing Partner from 2006 to 2010. The breadth of his experience as an advocate since first being called to the Bar in his native Jamaica in 1984, includes a two-year tenure as Acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions in that country.
Since joining O’Neal Webster in 1993, Paul’s practice has focused mainly on commercial litigation, corporate insolvency, and shipping & admiralty law. He has appeared in many leading international commercial cases at all levels of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, and before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London - the BVI's highest appellate court. He has also recently served as a judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, on temporary assignment to the twin-island Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis.
A past President of the British Virgin Islands Bar Association, and a former Council Member of the Eastern Caribbean Bar Association, Paul has served on numerous advisory committees concerning the law, the legal profession, and the administration of justice in the Territory and the Eastern Caribbean. He is a graduate of the University of the West Indies (UWI), and the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica, and has served for many years as a tutor and lecturer in law at the BVI (Paraquita Bay) campus of the UWI’s School of Continuing Studies.
With Paul’s appointment as one of Her Majesty’s Counsel, O’Neal Webster now boasts the distinction of being the only law firm in the Territory with two QC’s. The firm’s Senior Partner, Paul Webster, was appointed QC in 2003.
