National honours for attorney-at-law M. Georgia Gibson Henlin

Attorney-at-law M. Georgia Gibson Henlin has a long string of letters behind her name, a glorious testament to her academic and professional achievements. She got called to the Jamaican Bar in 1993, the New York Bar in 2018, the Bar of Ontario in Canada in 2002, and the Bar in the British Virgin Islands in 2022. In 2015, under the age of 50, she was appointed Queen Counsel (now King’s Counsel).

And come Heroes’ Day, the holder of a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Bachelor of Laws degree, a Master of Laws degree in innovation law and policy, and a Certificate of Legal Education, will have CD added to her credentials as her name is on the list of the 2023 national honorees. She is being recognised with an Order of Distinction Commander Class for her contribution to the legal profession and the public service.

Gibson Henlin said given that her master’s is in the area of technology, she had also pursued some certificate courses in technical areas to enable her to better understand and communicate with technical people and engineers. Thus, she is a certified computer hacking and forensic investigator, and a certified computer forensic examiner. She is also a certified information privacy professional (European Union Privacy – General Data Protection Regulation), and a certified information privacy manager.

She is the managing partner of Henlin Gibson Henlin, managing director of Privacy & Legal Management Consultants Limited. In brief, she is a complex legal issues and commercial litigator who focuses on public and constitution law, technology, data protection, corporate governance and anti-money laundering compliance, as well as intellectual property, finance and taxation law.

In addition to her legal duties, Gibson Henlin has served many boards, organisations and committees in capacities such as chair of the Jamaican Bar Association’s Continuing Legal Education Committee, and conference co-chair of the said committee. She was instrumental in leading the team that raised the profile of, and generated interest in, continuing legal education and innovation, including online and on-demand delivery of continuing legal education.

Gibson Henlin is also an international arbitrator, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a member of ‘The Arbitrator’ panel of arbitrators, which is based in St Kitts & Nevis, and has served in arbitration matters in the Caribbean. She, the founder and managing director of Women in Law Foundation, was recently appointed chair of the Independent Anti-Doping Commission, of which she was previously a member.

In reflecting on her journey from humble beginnings in St James to being accorded national honours, Gibson Henlin, married to Michael Henlin and the mother of two sons said, “My family was always there; from them I learned many things – humility, kindness, service and independence. I learned that there is a balance, and, above all, I learned that it takes hard work to achieve and maintain that achievement.

“There is some truth to the old adage, ‘the only reward for good work is more work’ … It was surreal, overwhelming and humbling. I served because I was asked or because I volunteered. It was not for reward, so I was literally blown away, and at a loss for words, as I had not seen it coming.”

Gibson Henlin is seldom at a loss for words, and she has seen many a national award ceremony, as a regular viewer and as a visitor, “when invited”. “I always like the pomp and circumstance, and the stories of service, gallantry and bravery, but I never pictured myself up there, actually terrified of the thought,” she shared.

But, terrified!? For, Gibson Henlin is fearless, forthright, and formidable. She has taken on and won many much-publicised legal fights, such as Clark v Scotiabank, in which she successfully challenged the constitutionality of the composition of the court for the purpose of hearing procedural appeals. It is to date the only civil case that has been heard by a five-member panel, she told The Gleaner. The panel usually comprises three judges.

When she was a student at Montego Bay Infant School learning her alphabets, Gibson Henlin did not for a moment envision that in October 2023, she would have a long string of them, moreover CD, attached to her name. Or, did she?