Office of University Legal Counsel

As the University broadens its global presence, the Office of the University General Counsel continues its primary function to provide legal services to the Vice-Chancellery and other clients within the University. We also continue to interface with other Legal Officers on all the campuses to ensure the University is legally protected. We have been instrumental in facilitating the negotiation and completion of key agreements with other educational, non-educational and financial institutions. As the University strives to achieve its mission under the 2017–2022 Strategic Plan with the three key performance indicators of Access, Agility and Alignment, we continue to play our legal role in ensuring this mission is realised.

Access

The University continues to establish new relationships and deepen existing ones and the Office of General Counsel (OGC) continues to facilitate and enable this process. As we facilitate these collaborations, focus is primarily placed on certain fundamental areas of concern. These include but are not limited to intellectual property rights, publication, data privacy, and insurance. Some of our major engagements include:

• The UWI and Brock University – Finalisation of the Canada-Caribbean Institute (CCI) Constitution, which authorises the establishment of additional CCI Bylaws (“CCI Bylaws”), as agreed by the CCI Members. The OGC is using this model as a basis for harmonising other consortia of which The UWI is a party.
• The UWI and Collabzo Solutions Limited – to establish a Virtual Centre of Excellence and virtual social business incubation centres to offer academic and continuing professional education programmes and capacity building.
• Heads of Agreement – The UWI, Teachers’ Colleges of Jamaica and The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information Jamaica – for the delivery of programmes by the participating colleges within The UWI’s framework to enhance the quality of teacher education in Jamaica, and the award of the degrees under the aegis of the University.
• Franchise Agreement – The UWI and Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College: The UWI has now recognised CFBC as an Associated Institution and both parties recently entered into a new formal agreement which authorises CFBC to continue the recruitment of students based on agreed quotas with The UWI.

ALIGNMENT

The OGC continues to engage in negotiations and making recommendations with respect to research collaboration agreements, grant agreements, clinical trial agreements, material transfer agreements and other forms of MoUs to ensure the strategic positioning of the University especially with respect to research and publications. The upshot of the thrust is to ensure the cementing of the University’s position as the leading research institution within the Caribbean and to maintain its competitive edge globally. Further, we also aim to ensure that a business model is incorporated in agreements and staff members who are parties to these agreements are accorded the level of intellectual property rights to afford them the opportunity to meet their publication aspirations. The OGC has been integral in facilitating the following collaborations:

• The UWI and European University Institute (EUI) – to promote policy-relevant research and to disseminate knowledge in relation to regional integration processes and international cooperation to tackle transnational challenges in the Caribbean Region and Europe.
• The UWI and the Caribbean Court of Justice to collaborate in hosting a number of workshops/seminars on subjects pertinent to Caribbean jurisprudence.
• Research Collaboration Agreement—The UWI, University of Bristol, The National University of Colombia, and the Universiteit Antwerpen—to conduct research on food insecurity at the time of climate change, and sharing and learning from bottom-up responses in the Caribbean region.
• The UWI, Norwegian University of Science and Technology and University of British Columbia – Office of General Counsel engaged in discussions for the formulation of this tripartite MoU which aims to facilitate further cooperation in research and education on marine life.
• Clinical Trial Agreements—The Office continues to negotiate terms relating to intellectual property rights to enable staff members to benefit from the research conducted on behalf of other institutions. Further, of paramount importance, we continue to identify insurance risks and ensure that these agreements are compliant with the University’s insurance provisions and also that information on data subjects are protected. These include:
• The UWI and NEWLEAF Inc.
• The UWI and Veeva Vault Monitoring System Agreement
• The UWI through CAIHR and National Health Fund
• The UWI through UWI-CAIHR and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine collaborative agreement.

AGILITY

Policies

The harmonisation of policies took to new heights. Along with the Cross Campus Legal Team, we engaged in strategic discussions with our heads of subsidiaries to facilitate alignment with The UWI Data Protection Policy. Discussions included dialogue with the University Hospital of the West Indies to align their policy with The UWI’s. Discussions are continuing and key decisions have been reached.

We continue to facilitate the implementation of the Data Protection Policy and establishing associated Governing Framework documents. In light of the current pandemic, we have also prepared a COVID-19 Policy and continue to advise on new developments. Other key policies we have spearheaded include:

• Whistle Blower Policy: a mechanism whereby members of staff can report suspected violations of law and/or breaches of internal regulations.
• Alternative Work Arrangements Policy: Provides a system for employees to work outside of the University location whilst maintaining efficiency and productivity.
• Intellectual Property Policy: We initiated the review of the original policy to facilitate greater inclusion and developments in Intellectual Property management.

Governance Framework

We completed a comprehensive review of the governance structure and operation of The UWI and provided responses to the recommendations of the Chancellor’s Commission on Governance.

The UWI’s Internal Appellate System

As we are aware, the University is equipped with a fully functioning Appellate system to determine petitions from staff and students by a judge within the Caribbean, originally held by the Privy Council. In 2018, the Privy Council had delegated their visitorial jurisdiction to The Honourable Mr. Justice Paul Harrison (now deceased), who would have continued the adjudication of matters that were before the Privy Council. In May 2019, another University Visitor, Honourable Mr. Justice Rolston Nelson, was appointed to determine matters that were not before Justice Harrison, which was facilitated by the amendment of the Royal Charter, led by our office. During the period August 2020 to July 2021, a total of five petitions were determined and judgments made by Justice Nelson, and all except one was in favour of the University. They are as follows:

a. Randolph Drakes v The UWI
b. Orville Taylor v The UWI (1)
c. Orville Taylor v The UWI (2)
d. Riad Hosein v The UWI
e. Ian Raghunanan v The UWI

There were six petitions before Justice Harrison; however, judgment is yet to be made in those petitions. Based on our strategic objective to ensure agility and accountability in our service delivery, the OGC spearheaded a successful application process to the Privy Council for a further amendment to be made to Article 6 of the Royal Charter to enable Justice Nelson to determine outstanding petitions that were before Justice Harrison. Our office continues to defend the University.

Endowment Fund

The Office also engaged in key discussions concerning the development of an Endowment Fund towards the sustainable financing of The UWI. This engaging process sought the intervention of the Chair of the Caribbean Court of Justice Endowment Fund who has secured his commitment to our process.

Reprographic Rights Licence

The OGC continued to engage in discussions with its regional and international partners to have the University’s Reprographic Rights aligned with international and regional standards. We intend for this instrument to be tabled before Council at the next F&GPC meeting.

Insurance

As the legal custodian of the University’s welfare, the matter of insurance is a fundamental aspect of our daily tasks. We continued to identify and engage in discussions with relevant persons on this matter.

UWI Subsidiaries

The Legal Unit continued to provide legal and secretarial services to:

• LUMIN Consulting Inc.
• UWItv
• UWIREF
• Rex Nettleford Foundation – in addition to ordinary legal and secretarial services we facilitated the legal proofing of the proposed construction of a building for the company. We also continued our engagement with the Tax Office for a proper tax assessment to be done.

Review and amendments to governing instruments: Ordinance 8

As the OGC continues to assist in the transformation of the Human Resource system, we have spearheaded the review of Ordinance 8 to include provisions to ensure greater equity and transparency. This instrument had garnered the input from all internal stakeholders and is in its final stage of review.

Public Service

The General Counsel and other Legal Officers of the Legal Unit continue to serve on internal, national, regional and international bodies including The UWI’s IP, Naming, Data Protection, Ethics and Voices of the Vice-Chancellery Committees, National Council on Reparatory Justice, CARICOM Reparations Commission, Forestry Department, Alligator Head Foundation, UNESCO, The Code Project, Caribono, etc.