Being a lawyer’s a tough job – HoSang

Managing partner in the law firm Murray and Tucker, Dr Leon HoSang, is lamenting the tough professional decisions lawyers have to make.

Speaking to The Gleaner on Saturday at the thanksgiving service of murdered lawyer Sashakay Fairclough, who spent two years with the law firm and was killed in September by gunmen, HoSang said lawyers and doctors are sworn to render service to anyone, even criminals, as part of their professional duties.

HoSang was reacting to public comments that the 31-year-old lawyer was killed by criminals who are often represented by lawyers.

“Some people do not realise the difficult job that attorneys have,” HoSang said. “This is one of our associates of the firm, but we (as lawyers) are obliged as professionals to defend anybody charged with her murder. That’s the nature of this profession.

“It’s not easy, but the constitutional right that our citizens have to legal representation is one that we have to honour. It’s part of the duty and the burden of the profession, ... just as a doctor can’t refuse to treat a gunman who is brought to him with his life at risk,” Hosang added.

Fairclough was interred at the Beecher Town cemetery in St Ann.