MILTON J. SAMUDA, Esq.

Mr. Samuda is the Managing Partner of the law firm and heads its Commercial, International Trade, and Finance Departments. His practice includes Tourism, Corporate, and Hotel Financing, trade and Transportation, mining and Energy, and maritime law. He has represented international and local financiers in major lendings for various hotel and other projects and has acted for significant local and international hotel interests. 2009 Mr. Samuda was appointed a resource person to the Jamaica Tourist Board.

In his corporate practice, Mr. Samuda has acted in major divestments, public offers and private placements. Mr. Samuda is one of the few attorneys in Jamaica with a practice in Mining and Energy and he represents major international and local players in that sector.

He holds a Bachelor of Laws (L.L.B.) Degree with honours from the University of the West Indies and was admitted to practice in Jamaica in 1982 having completed successful studies at the Norman Manley Law School where he obtained the Certificate of Legal Education.

He is a Director of Berger Paints Jamaica Limited, a publicly listed company, a Director of National Outdoor Advertising Limited, Chairman of the Institute of Law and Economics and the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Management of the Technology Innovation Centre, University of Technology, Jamaica, Mr. Samuda is a member of the Advisory Board of the Spanish Jamaican Foundation (a foundation established by Spanish Investors in Jamaica) and also serves as the Foundation’s Secretary. Mr. Samuda also serves as Chairman of the Trust his alma mater, Wolmer’s Boys’ School and is a member of the Board of Management of the Wolmer’s Trust Schools. Mr. Samuda is the former President of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, former Director of the RJR Communications Group, a major, publicly listed communications group and served as the Chairman of that Group’s television subsidiary, Television Jamaica Limited (TVJ).

Mr. Samuda’s practice also includes entertainment and sport. He has represented recording and publishing companies, artists and songwriters, producers and actors, sports agents and sports organizations. He has also represented the West Indies Cricket Board and was, for several years, its Lead Attorney. He is the Chairman of Sabina Park Holdings. In his entertainment practice, Mr. Samuda is a member of the Competent Authority in respect of the Co-Production Film Treaty between the United Kingdom and Jamaica. He is also a Member of the Advisory Board of the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office.

Mr. Samuda is a Director of OMS Associates Limited, a private construction and property management company; a Director of Great House Omni Media Limited, a marketing communications firm engaged in advertising, public relations and publishing; a Director of Movements Dance Company of Jamaica; and serves as a member of other boards of private companies.

Between 1993 and 1995, Mr. Samuda lived and practised in the British Virgin Islands where he was admitted to the Bar in 1993 and that experience has given him particular expertise in the use of off-shore vehicles for private and business interests. In 2007, he was appointed to the Government’s International Finance Centre (IFC) Advisory Committee, a committee established to advise the Minister of Finance on establishing an IFC in Jamaica.

In 1997, Mr. Samuda led Jamaica’s Bureau Negotiating Team to the Midem music conference in Cannes, France and again later that year, to the Midem Conference in Miami, Florida. Additionally, he has represented recording and publishing companies, artistes and songwriters, producers and actors, sportsmen, sports agents and sports organizations. He is a former member of the Industry Advisory Council to the Government of Jamaica on the Entertainment Industry.

A past Commissioner on Jamaica’s Anti-Dumping and Subsidies Commission, Mr. Samuda is also a former Chairman and Director of both the Young Men Christian Association (YMCA) and of the Jamaica Save the Children Fund, a former Director of the Voluntary Organisation for the Upliftment of Children (VOUCH), the University Hospital of the West Indies, the UHWI Private Wing Limited, GSB Credit Union Limited and Jamaica Gypsum & Quarries Limited, and a former member of the Board of Governors of St. Hugh’s Preparatory School, Mr. Samuda was also a member of the Jamaican Coalition on the Rights of the Child.

CHRISTOPHER L. SAMUDA, Esq.

Christopher Livingstone Samuda is an Attorney-at-Law by profession and was admitted to the Jamaican Bar in 1986 having gained a Bachelor of Laws Degree with Upper Second Class Honours from the University of the West Indies in 1984 and the Certificate of Legal Education from the Norman Law School in 1986.

Legal Practice

He is a founding partner of the Law Firm, Samuda & Johnson, where he is the Marketing Partner and heads the firm’s Housing & Real Estate Department and the Intellectual Property, Patent & Trademarks Department.

His legal practice and areas of expertise include Civil Litigation and Dispute Resolution; Commercial and Corporate Transactions; Sport and Entertainment; Intellectual Property and Copyright; Patents and Trademarks; and Real Estate. He has acted in major hotel and business acquisitions, represented and advised many insurance interests and developers in major projects and acts for major local and international interests in the Music and Entertainment Industry.

A company adviser and consultant with a successful career spanning over twenty (20) years, four(4) continents and innumerable industries, Mr. Samuda is a former Council Member of the Jamaica Bar Association.

Public Service

Committed to public service, Mr. Samuda devotes much of his time to voluntary service in the roles of Chairman of the Fair Trading Commission (FTC); Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Creative Production & Training Centre Limited (CPTC); Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Media Technology Institute(M.T.I); President of the Jamaica Paralympic Association(J.P.A) and Jamaica's delegate to the International Paralympic Committee Congress; President of the Jamaica Paralympic Foundation(J.P.F.); President of the Jamaica Disabled Cricket Association (J.A.D.C.A.); Secretary General of the Jamaica Olympic Association; and a member of the Board of Wolmer's Boys' School having served previously as the student representative from 1976 to 1980.

Mr. Samuda is also the Chairman of the Legal Committee which is assisting the Jamaican Government in the current rationalization of the Public Sector.

He also is a member of the National Council of Sport, an advisory body to the Government of Jamaica concerning all sports matters, and is the Chairman of the Athletes Development and Well Being Committee.

Corporate Profile

Mr. Samuda is lead adviser to several Jamaican and Caribbean commercial entities and serves as Chairman of St. Khrisstopher Music Limited and the Chairman of Strategic Corporate Interventions Limited.

He has presented on topics such as corporate governance; the business of sport and entertainment; management of talent and intellectual property; financial products and services of credit unions; and the value of the creative industries to a developing society.

Mr. Samuda has had the honour of being the featured speaker at various events in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean.

Education

Mr. Samuda is a member of the Board of his alma mater, Wolmer's Boys' School, one of the oldest high schools in the Caribbean. He is also a member of the Board of Hydel University College.

Positions Held

Mr. Samuda is a past President of the Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions (C.C.C.U.), from 2004 to 2007 which apex body had oversight responsibility for all credit unions in the Caribbean region and also Guyana and Belize, former Director and First Vice President of First Heritage Co-operative Credit Union Limited. By virtue of that office he also served as the Caribbean's delegate to the World Council of Credit Unions from 2004 to 2006.

He also assumed the office of President of the Jamaica Co-operative Credit Union League Limited from 2004 to 2007.

Mr. Samuda also had the privilege of serving GSB Co-operative Credit Union Limited, arguably one of the oldest credit unions in Caribbean, as its President from 2000 to 2006. This credit union merged with another to become First Heritage Co-operative Credit Union.

To date, Mr. Samuda has the distinction of being the only Jamaican and indeed Caribbean co-operator to have served simultaneously as President of the governing bodies of the Caribbean and Jamaica and his local credit union.

He was also Co-Chair of the Peoples’ Energy Vision Programme, sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Deputy Chairman of the Jamaica's Copyright Tribunal.

An Anglican, Mr. Samuda holds the conviction that a man's value and statue lies not in the depth of his pocket or the lining thereof but in the fabric of his soul.

DAVID A. JOHNSON, Esq.

Mr. Johnson heads the Litigation & Dispute Resolution Department and is a founding partner of the Firm. He holds a Bachelor of Laws, LLB, with honours from the University of the West Indies, and was admitted to practice in 1989. His legal education was completed at the Norman Manley Law School.

Mr. Johnson attained his FCIArb.(Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators) in 2012. The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators is a London-based membership organization for arbitrators created to foster the promotion and facilitation of dispute resolution, particularly of a commercial nature. A Fellow is an individual assessed by the Institute to have undergone the requisite training and have the necessary experience to serve as a professional arbitrator.

A seasoned and respected litigator, Mr. Johnson has a specialist practice in advocacy which includes both Civil and Criminal Litigation. He has successfully represented an impressive list of corporate and individual clients in a variety of cases in the Supreme Court and at the Court of Appeal. Concurrent with his litigation practice, Mr. Johnson also enjoys an extensive practice in Labour & Employment, Property; Family and Probate & Estate Administration.

Mr. Johnson’s sterling contribution to the Bar was recognized when he was invited to sit as a Member of the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council.

Mr. Johnson served as the Secretary of the Board of the MSME Alliance, an organization established to serve the peculiar needs of micro, small and medium enterprises.

Mr. Johnson is a former Member of the Council of the Jamaican Bar Association.

DE-ANDRA F. BUTLER-GORDON, Esq.

Partner – De-Andra F. Butler-Gordon, LL.B. (Hons.)

De-Andra F. Butler-Gordon holds a Bachelor of Laws, LL.B. (Hons.) degree from the University of the West Indies.  Having completed her legal education at the Norman Manley Law School, De-Andra was admitted to practice in 2009.

She was a member of the Norman Manley Law School’s Principal’s Honour Roll 2009 and was the recipient of the Honourable Mr. Justice Courtenay Scipio Orr Memorial Prize, the Vaccianna & Whittingham Prize, the Victor Robinson Memorial Scholarship, the Sir Henry I.C. Browne Memorial Prize, the Samuda & Johnson Prize, the Courtenay Coye & Co. Prize and the Principal’s Special Prize.

 Mrs. Butler-Gordon has worked on major commercial transactions and has provided advice and legal representation as well as documentation support for transactions in the financial services industry, particularly for leading international and local banks. Her reputation as a practitioner of intellect and insight has gained for her a loyal clientele in banking, corporate and commercial financing, insurance and pensions.

A member of the Firm’s Litigation, Commercial, Trade and Finance Departments, De-Andra also represents several local insurance companies in civil litigation and dispute resolution matters. 

Previously a lecturer in Dental Jurisprudence at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies, De-Andra is currently the Assistant Honorary Legal Counsel of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce.

AMBASSADOR GEORGE ANTONY HYLTON, CD, Esq.

Ambassador George Anthony Hylton is an accomplished Attorney-at-Law and Public Servant with an earned reputation as an exceptionally skilled negotiator. He holds a B.Sc. (Political Science & Chemistry) from Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland; a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University, Washington D.C.; a Diploma in Air and Space Law from the London Institute of World Affairs; and an LL.M in Aviation and Shipping from the University of London.

Ambassador Hylton practised in the United States, in Baltimore, New York and Washington DC, specialising in Aviation and Shipping, before returning to Jamaica to attend the Norman Manley Law School, from which he obtained the Legal Education Certificate in June 1990 and was subsequently called to the Jamaican Bar.

 In his Public Sector career, he has served variously as Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade; Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade; Minister of Mining and Energy; Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade; and Minister of Industry, Investment & Commerce. He achieved an Ambassadorial Rank with his appointment in 2002 as Ambassador/Special Envoy. His service in the arenas of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade has given him specialist skills in International Trade and a deep understanding of Regional, Hemispheric and International Trade Treaties and Trade Relations. The architect of the Government’s Global Logistics Hub Initiative (GLHI), Tony has a deep understanding of Logistics and Supply Chain issues.

A sitting Member of Parliament and holder of both Benin’s highest National Honour for negotiating the Cotonou Agreement with the European Union, and a Presidential Award: Lifetime Achievement for Voluntary Service from President Obama, Ambassador Hylton also has extensive corporate experience having served on the Board of major companies.

Ambassador Hylton is the Partner in charge of the Firm’s International Trade Practice.