Donaldson-Honeywell new Court of Appeal judge

JUSTICE Eleanor Joy Donaldson-Honeywell was on September 27 made the newest member of the Court of Appeal.

In a news release on September 27, President's House said Donaldson-Honeywell was sworn in as a member of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago at a ceremony at the Office of President Christine Kangaloo.

It said, "In accordance with the advice of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission, Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo, ORTT, President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, appointed Justice Eleanor Joy Donaldson-Honeywell as a Judge of the Court of Appeal today, Friday September 27, 2024 at a ceremony held at the Office of the President. The Honourable Chief Justice Mr Justice Ivor Archie ORTT, also attended the ceremony."

Prior to presenting Donaldson-Honeywell with her instrument of appointment, President Kangaloo made brief remarks about Donaldson-Honeywell's accomplishments.

Donaldson-Honeywell was admitted to practise at the Trinidad and Tobago Bar in 1989 and at the Jamaican Bar in the following year.

After a short stint at the National Commercial Bank Trust in Port of Spain, she became an associate attorney-at-law at Clinton Hart & Company in Jamaica, then the legal officer at the Fair-Trading Commission in that island before entering into private practice for a short period in 1995.

In that year, she became the director of legal services and enforcement at the Securities Commission in Jamaica before being appointed as the resident magistrate in the Kingston Corporate Area Criminal Division in 1999.

Justice Donaldson-Honeywell returned to Trinidad after four years and joined the Divestment Secretariat at the Ministry of Finance before being appointed as a member of the Industrial Court of Trinidad and Tobago.

In 2006, she became the chairman of the Essential Services Division of the Industrial Court and in 2010 was made solicitor general of Trinidad and Tobago.

Donaldson-Honeywell returned to private practice at the beginning of 2014 before being appointed a puisne judge in June 2015. Since 2019, she has also served as a part-time judge of the United Nations Dispute Tribunal.

She is a published author, winning the NALIS First Time Author prize in May 2015 for the biography of her father entitled Sailor Dance – John Stanley Donaldson- The Story.

She serves as a trained volunteer with the Adult Literacy Tutors Association.

On August 30, Justice Geoffrey Henderson was appointed to the Court of Appeal.