Georgetown: Former Attorney General (AG)and Senior Counsel Bernard De Santos died Friday evening at Balwant Singh Hospital after complaints of feeling unwell.
The 80 year old served for five years as Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs in PPP government. After resigning as AG, De Santos returned to private practice.
Born on April 27, 1938, to proud parents Bernard Celestino De Santos Sr. and Hilda Beatrice De Santos, this legal standout spent his first 50 years in the village of Plaisance on the East Coast of Demerara.
His family wasn’t rich, but was relatively well off compared to some of his friends’. His mother Hilda, who he loved dearly, was a prominent seamstress in the Plaisance area.
His father on the other hand was an astute businessman, who owned a grocery shop.
De Santos began his primary education at the St John’s Roman Catholic School, in 1943.
At St John’s he was tutored by one of the country’s renowned teachers, J. Henry Thomas. Thomas also tutored former Chancellor of the Judiciary, Desiree Bernard.
In 1952, De Santos successfully gained entry into Central High School. Upon completion there, he was awarded 7 “O” Level and Cambridge subjects.
He then began working at the Guyana Revenue Authority as a Customs Officer. This was a job he did for almost five years.
After years of hard working De Santos, in 1962, he was finally able to pursue his dreams of becoming a lawyer.
Through tireless work and perseverance De Santos managed to complete his law degree at the Inns Court School of Law of the Honorable Society of the Middle Temple London England, in 1965.
He and his wife returned to Guyana and took up residence a short distance from his parents’ home at Prince William Street, Plaisance.
Upon his return to Guyana he took up a job with the legendary law firm of “Luckhoo and Luckhoo”. However his tenure there was brief, he moved on to his own private practice and was lucky to come into contact with Joseph Oscar Fitzclarence (JOF) Haynes, a former Chancellor of the Judiciary and a Judge in the Caribbean.
In 1968, De Santos accepted a job offer to become an Acting Magistrate at the Georgetown Magisterial District. He spent one year on the bench, and he remembered it as a very enlightening experience. De Santos went back to private practice in 1969 and he started his own law firm, and he named it after his prominent legal inspiration JOF Haynes. The name was “Haynes House of Legal Practitioners.”
In 1991, then President Desmond Hoyte appointed De Santos as a senior counsel.
In 1991 Dr Cheddi Jagan requested that De Santos join the civic component of the People’s Progressive Party. In 1992 he was put forward as a candidate in the party and helped campaign. After the PPP/C’s victory in October 1992, De Santos was appointed Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs.
He gave five years to those positions. After becoming AG, he held several appointments which included Member of the Constitutional Reform Commission, Member of the Sub Committee on Governance, Member of the United Nations Permanent Court of Council, Member of the Sectoral Committees on Constitutional Reform and Foreign Relations.
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