Anesta Weekes QC

BA Joint Honours Degree in Law and English at Keele University

Called to the Bar in 1981

Took Silk - April 1999

Assistant Recorder - 1999

Recorder - 2000

Areas of Practice

Criminal law, Defence and Prosecution. (Customs and Excise and CPS)

Employment Law and Discrimination (Current work includes representing mostly employers on unfair dismissals, redundancy, sex and race discrimination.)

Membership of Committees

1996-1998: Member of Bar Council’s Professional Standards Committee

2000: Vice-Chair of Bar Council’s Equal Opportunities Committee

Member of:

The Commonwealth Society

Industrial Relations Society

Employment Law Bar Association

Discrimination Law Association

Criminal Bar Association

Experience in General

1990-1992 Member of the Home Office Advisory Committee on Race Relations

1991-1993 Member of the Ethnic Advisory Committee to the Judicial Studies Board

1990-1992 Home Office Special Conferences on Sentencing

1994 Speaker at a “Justice” Conference on Criminal Law

1996 Participant in BBC Radio Programme on Criminal Law Issues

1996 Member of team of lawyers form UK to conduct teaching workshops in advocacy for the South African Bar

1994 to Advocacy teacher and trainer for Grays’ Inn

Present

2000 Member of advocacy team teaching advocacy skills to lawyers in the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague

1995 BBC Television – “The Right to Reply” – representing the Bar on its criticisms of a programme dealing with the role of lawyers when representing those charged with a crime

1997Speaker at Bar Annual Conference in Workshop for Advocacy Skills

1999 Runner-up for The Times “Woman of Achievement in the Law Award”

August 2000 BBC 2 “Hypothetical” on Medical Ethics. Presenter and Facilitator of a discussion programme on issues related to patient consent

Recent Cases and Work Related Experience

Counsel to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. (Preparing the evidence for the Inquiry, advising the Chairman and Advisors, presenting witnesses to the Inquiry.)

Prosecuting Counsel for the Attorney General of Montserrat WI on a bank burglary involving laundering of money through various bank accounts in different islands.

Pro bono work on capital cases – March 1999. A successful application before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in case of Dixson (prisoner on death row suffering from intermittent mental illness: death sentence commuted to one of life imprisonment.)

Speaker for the Local Government Lawyers Group on the Human Rights Act.

1999-2000 – Co-Director of Bar Council’s Course on Human Rights Act for Criminal Practitioners. (Lectures and facilitating).

September 2000 – Speaker on the Race Relations (Amendment) Bill. (For employment lawyers arranged by the Industrial Relations Service).

April 2000 – Appointed Member of the Governments Gambling Review Committee. (To deal with specific recommendations on the need for a revised statute and governing body for all areas of gambling.)