Double delight!

WESTERN BUREAU:

Still basking in the afterglow of calling her two sons to the Bar at the Supreme Court ceremony last Thursday, Queen’s Counsel Sandra Minott-Phillips says she has not taken the double delight for granted.

Jacob, 27, and 28-year-old Luke Phillips were among more than 200 Norman Manley Law School graduates ready to sign the roll of attorney-at-law today.

Luke said that the honour was the fulfilment of a long journey, while his brother spoke of how emotional the moment was to be called by the woman they affectionately dub SMP.

“We have the mother-son relationship, but as a student of the law I am a fan of hers as an attorney. Based on what I’ve seen, I’ve read judgments that she’s done. I’ve tried to learn as much as I can from her,” he said.

Minott-Phillips has witnessed one other lawyer who called his two sons to the Bar on the same day – Derek Jones - “so we are a close second,” she quipped.

Alumni of Mona Prep and Munro College in Jamaica, the young Phillipses studied at Lawrence University in Wisconsin and Macalester College in Minnesota, respectively, before both changing course. Neither of them knew they would have followed in the footsteps of Minott-Phillips, a partner in the highly respected law firm Myers, Fletcher & Gordon.

“I didn’t decide to get into law until I was in my 20s, but having seen my mother from birth to now, watching her interacting professionally, being a role model and being a guide, ... made me feel that this was where I was supposed to be at the time when it happened,” said Luke.

Jacob pursued law after an initial foray in the languages, English literature, Spanish, and history.

He did a year in the Dominican Republic as a Princeton Latin America Fellow before entering law at Cave Hill in Barbados.

Inspired by his mom, Jacob said he was impressed with her prowess. An internship at Myers, Fletcher & Gordon sowed seeds that germinated when the time was right.

Luke started in the sciences, reading for a first degree in chemistry before returning home. But various job opportunities set him on a different track.

“So I ended up shifting a little bit out of hard chemistry into more special project management for different organisations, different people, and in doing that, I was encountering a lot of quasi-lawyer work, like researching legislation, finding out what you need to do to consult this,” Luke told The Gleaner.

With his interest in law piqued while at a crossroads professionally, he abandoned plans for an MBA and was nudged in conversations, including with his mother, to “just apply and if he gets in, then he can cross that bridge when he gets there”.

Luke chose law at the Faculty of Law at Mona.

Two years ago, Jacob moved back to Jamaica after getting his LLB at Cave Hill, entering Norman Manley at the same time as his brother.

The brothers shared classes, seminars, and tutorials for about eight months in their first academic year but were split up when classes moved online.

But having Jacob in the same house, Luke said, was a great benefit. He could easily walk into his brother’s room and say: “What do you think about this question, or I’m working on this particular problem. What are your thoughts? And it really helped - sort of like having a study partner”.

Luke doesn’t do a lot of work directly with his mom because he is not yet in the litigation department, while Jacob is at Nunes, Scholefield, DeLeon & Co.

Although Minott-Phillips never foresaw her son taking up the same profession, she never ruled it out as a possibility.

“Life is such that I have learned over the years to not expect anything. Life truly is stranger than fiction,” she said, describing last Thursday as a fulfilling day for the family.

Her husband, Dr Peter Phillips, former opposition leader and finance minister, could not be more proud.

Mikael Phillips, Luke and Jacob’s brother and Manchester North Western member of parliament, was among the first to tweet the family calling.

And grandmother Margaret Minott is on cloud nine!

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com