Jan. 20, 2008 — Thirty years ago, the old Sheridan Hotel, now the site of Yacht Haven Grade, was playing host to the National Bar Association Board of Governors and Judicial Council’s first-ever conference to be held outside the continental United States.
Theodore Newman, the former Chief Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and now a St. Thomas resident, was then chairman of the Judicial Council and the 1971 conference. And he was panicked.
"I booked, I think 50 or 70 rooms in that hotel, and on the cut-off date for reservations, we had three reservations." Newman recalled. "I knew my members and knew they were last-minute kind of people in those days, so I guaranteed the rest of our block on my own personal Diners [Club] card."
"And then I got down on my knees and started praying — in hopes I did not personally bankrupt myself!" Newman laughed.
In the end, Newman had to find overflow rooms for those attending his conference, which is returning to St. Thomas Wednesday, marking the 30th anniversary of its first visit to the Caribbean.
The National Bar Association Board of Governors and Judicial Council’s mid-winter conference will run through Jan. 27 at the Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort and is expected to draw some 200 jurists. As part of the conference, the public is invited to the traditional Judicial Council Convocation from 5:30 to 7:15 p.m. Thursday at the Memorial Moravian Church on Norre Gade.
The special service features a processional of the jurists, as well as a guest speaker from Texas, Rev. Tyrone Gordon, and steel pan music from the Rising Stars.
The National Bar Association was founded decades ago when black legal professionals were denied the same opportunities as their white counterparts. "So in order for them to meet and exchange ideas like the American Bar, they formed their own organization," explained Eileen R. Petersen, co-chair of the conference and a retired Virgin Islands Territorial Court (now known as Superior Court) judge. "Now, the members of the National Bar Association are also members of the American Bar Association and the issues they deal with are the same as the American Bar Association.
"They may look at it from a different perspective, but their goals are primarily the same – to resolve differences in a proper manner," said Petersen, who is personally delighted to be welcoming her colleagues to St. Thomas.
"I, being a Virgin Islander, look upon them as tourists," she admitted with a chuckle. "They spread the word about what a beautiful place the V.I. is and about our hospitality, and they love to shop. Many of them have returned time and again for vacation, and that's what we want — people who are willing to return and spend more time."
Her colleague, Judge Newman, is a great example. He fell in love with St. Thomas when he visited in 1971 after organizing the first conference here.
"When I retired from the D.C. Court of Appeals in 1991, I called Judge Petersen and asked her to put me in touch with a real estate agent so I could buy a condo in the V.I. She insisted it be in St. Croix, and I insisted it be in St. Thomas," he said. "For once in her life, she lost."
Newman continues to work in Washington, planning his schedule around the weather. "I am here from the first week in January until the end of July, and then hurricane season runs me back to D.C. and I sit as a senior judge, part time, on the D.C. Court of Appeals," he said. "And while I'm here I do nothing. I'm unemployed. I enjoy the weather, the sun and the sand, and," he acknowledged with a laugh, "I do pick on local lawyers from time to time."
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