“It was my love for investigation” – new lawyer on admission to Bar

By Feona Morrison

A legal career can be a wonderful calling as it offers numerous job opportunities and satisfaction. For 29-year-old Marisa Alana Edwards, a mother of one, it was her love for investigations, her desire to make a difference, and the need to be successful which inspired her to become an attorney-at-law.

Her petition to practice law in, and before the courts of Guyana was presented by Senior Counsel Andrew Pollard before Chief Justice Roxane George, SC, last Wednesday. She is among several Guyanese who graduated from the Hugh Wooding Law School this year with a Legal Education Certificate (LEC) – a prerequisite to practice law in Guyana and the Commonwealth Caribbean.
Edwards explained that she decided that she wanted to become a lawyer while she was attending St Stanislaus College. “A decision had to be made for streaming and I decided that I wanted to become an attorney-at-law. This decision stemmed from the fact that I knew that I could not venture into the sciences due to my fear of dissecting anything.”
Moreover, she added, “It was my love for investigation, my interests in the law, my desire to make a difference, and the need to be successful.” She deviated from studying law for a few years and went into banking but found her way back after some introspection. Apart from a LEC, Edwards is the holder of a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Guyana.
She attained 10 and eight passes at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), respectively. Her in-service training for law school was done at the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU). She worked as a research/administrative assistant for Professor Justice Duke Pollard whom she referred to as her mentor.
Prior to pursuing legal studies, Edwards worked at the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry.

Sacrifices, perseverance
Like many others, Edwards shared that her journey to the Bar was one of sleepless nights, sacrifices, anxiety, faith, hope, and perseverance. For her, it was more so a leap of faith as she was a new mother who was resigning from her job to pursue legal studies “without a manual on how to do anything.”
She said that throughout this journey, she viewed her various adversities as minuscule elements to the bigger picture, and would usually face them head-on. The new lawyer described her first year at law school as the “test of all tests”. She recounted that she was filled with immense joy that she would be completing her first year at law school upon completion of a final examination.
That happiness was, however, short-lived when her computer went blank and refused to start when it was time for her to submit her examination. “After having spent almost 20 hours to complete a 17 plus pages examination with the remaining edits to be done for submission, my computer went blank and refused to start. After numerous attempts to have the computer up and running which were to no avail, I could no longer stay calm and was flooded with tears.”
“I contacted the school but was duly informed that a failure to submit was a failure to write the examination. For the first time, it felt like nothing made sense. I questioned everything. I felt like giving up, as I could not make sense of the situation,” she added.
However, as time went by, she prayed about it as she had no intentions of quitting. “I told myself that if I quit now, I will only have a degree and I did not become unemployed to just have a degree, but if I continue, regardless of what happens now, when I’m finished, I will be an attorney-at-law.”

Advice
Asked what advice she would give to someone who wants to become a lawyer, Edwards said, “You are embarking on a noble profession, and one should always remember that whatever you do, do so with integrity. When it is said that the law is a jealous mistress, it really is. It simply means that above all, it requires your dedication, commitment, time, you must put in the work and keep persevering”.
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t walk then crawl but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward,” she said as she quoted Martin Luther King Jr.
While she endeavours to have exposure to both civil and criminal law, Edwards said that her interest is in the latter as she finds it “interesting and exciting.” She, however, does not intend to limit herself and plans to pursue her Master’s degree in international law and oil and gas management.
The young woman expressed gratitude to her family for their unwavering support, telling them that “I am a product of your many sacrifices and for this, I dedicate this milestone to you.”