Dr Lloyd George Barnett, OJ
Dr. Lloyd George Barnett is a citizen of Jamaica. He attended Greenwich Primary School between 1939 and 1944, following which he obtained his secondary education at Calabar High School in Kingston (1945-1950).
Dr. Barnett holds the B.A. (1954), the LL. B. (Honours, 1957); the LL.M. (1960) and the Ph. D. (1966), all of the of the University of London. He was admitted to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in December 1960.
Dr. Barnett began his distinguished career as a Jamaican jurist as an Administrative Officer in the Government of Jamaica (1957-1962), subsequently taking up a post as Crown Counsel in the Chambers of the Attorney General and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (1962-1967). Thereafter, he entered into private practice, in which he is still active.
Over the years, Commissioner Barnett has served in a multiplicity of capacities on various councils and boards, including: member of the Caribbean Council of Legal Education (1971 to present); as a member of the Jamaican Bar Council and the Rules Committee of the Supreme Court and of the Law Committee (1958-1962). He has served as President of the Jamaican Bar Association (1967) and as Chairman of the Jamaica Council on Human Rights (1967-1978). In 1972, he sat as a member of the Committee on Integrity of Parliamentarians, and in 1976 as Chairman of the Advisory Council on National Security. From 1976 to1984, and then from 1984 to 1992, Dr. Barnett served as Vice-President and President respectively of the Organisation of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations (OCCBA). He also sat as a Senator in the Jamaican Parliament from 1983 to 1989.
Between 1991 and 1996, Dr. Barnett was Chairman of the Council of Legal Education Law Schools’ Review Committee, and member and Chair of the Constitution Commission of Jamaica from 1992 to 1994. In 1993, he sat as a member of the University of the West Indies Law Review Team. From 1995 to the present, he has been Chairman of the General Legal Council of Jamaica. He was named member of the Police Service Commission in 2003.
In 1999, Dr. Barnett was awarded the Order of Jamaica for his outstanding contribution to jurisprudence and legal education in the Caribbean region. He was appointed to the Regional Judicial & Legal Services Commission on 21 August 2003 and reappointed as of 20 August 2010. He was nominated jointly with Commissioner Joseph Archibald by the Organisation of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean Bar Associations.
Dr. Barnett is married, with three sons, Donald, Lloyd and Colin, and one daughter, Maxine.