On Saturday October 4, 2025, Her Excellency Christine Carla Kangaloo, O.R.T.T., President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago delivered the Feature Address at the Hugh Wooding Law School Ceremony for the Presentation of Graduates.
See full text of the speech below:
Permit me to begin by thanking the Council of Legal Education for its kind invitation to address our graduates this evening, on what must surely be an occasion of enormous pride, not just for them, but also for their families, their teachers and instructors, and for the entire eco-system that has supported them along the way.
The truth about graduations, though, is that pride isn’t the only emotion that they bring; often, they also bring anxiety. I remember being anxious about my own life and what lay ahead for me as an attorney when, forty (40) years ago, I sat where you sit today, in my graduation ceremony from the Hugh Wooding Law School in 1985. Just as your parents and educators are tonight, my parents and educators were immensely proud of me, then. But, in the midst of all of that justifiable pride, I was anxious about the next steps in my life, as I left Law School and awaited the presentation of my petition for admission to the Bar. I expect that some of you must be feeling that same, nagging anxiety tonight.
Your anxiety isn’t assisted by your being told that the profession is saturated. Your anxiety isn’t assuaged by your being told that, as a result, good jobs are few and far between and increasingly hard to come by. And your anxiety isn’t mitigated by your being told that although there’s always room at the top, that room is becoming increasingly crowded and the price of admission into it, is becoming increasingly high. These were the very things that were said to me, forty (40) years ago, on a night just like this one, when I graduated from Law School. Forty (40) years later, these challenges have not gone away; to the contrary – they have multiplied geometrically.
And so, while your graduation marks the completion of an exceptional journey in your lives, on the conclusion of which you should all be justifiably proud, I do think that it is important for you to know that those of us who have gone before you into the practice of law, understand, perhaps more than you will ever appreciate, that it can also mark the beginning of some degree of anxiety.
Because everyone’s path in life is different, the way that each of you chooses to deal with this anxiety, will be as unique as the proverbial snowflake, or – if, as I do, you prefer more local content – as unique as your Caribbean fingerprints. Only you can determine your path through the promise that lies ahead of you, and through the anxiety that lurks at its fringes.
One of the things that helped me find my path through my own anxiety, was to understand the critical role that the profession plays in society, and the many opportunities for professional fulfilment that flowed from that role. It is a role that is often misunderstood, particularly by those who take delight in disparaging the profession. You will hear – in fact, I am sure that you have already heard – many unkind things said about lawyers. Not only do we defend the guilty and get wrongdoers off, but we charge for providing these dubious services and we actually profit from doing so. This was at least one view of the profession that was held by its detractors when first I entered it. That view persists to today. In some ways, it has worsened – what with the proliferation in recent times of keyboard bullies who spew offensive comments against lawyers, behind the cowardly cloak of their assumed anonymity. Many such commentators advance views of us without any attempt to look beneath the surface of what we do. They gravitate to the words spoken by Shakespeare’s rebel leader, Jack Cade, who, in Henry VI Part 2, famously said “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers”. Those who espouse such views do themselves an injustice, I think. Jack Cade’s statement was not an endorsement of anti-legal sentiment. Cade was plotting a rebellion against the government and the social order. His goal was to destroy order altogether. Lawyers, as upholders of law and order, were seen by Cade and his followers as threats to their anarchic goals. Shakespeare wasn’t criticizing lawyers. He was pointing out their role as defenders of law and order. He used the words of a lawless rebel to emphasize the critical role that lawyers and the legal system play in protecting individual rights and maintaining a just society.
When I understood the critical role that the profession played in the world of 1985, I became less anxious about the pressure to land a ‘good job’ after I graduated. I began to understand that, for as long as there are human beings, there would never be a shortage of work in the areas of advocating for justice, or protecting individual rights, or upholding the rule of law, or challenging unfair practices, or empowering communities to become aware of their rights. In many ways, the world today is arguably in greater need of lawyers in these areas, than the world of forty (40) years ago. And so, after my graduation, I allowed myself to rest – a little less uncomfortably than I had felt during my graduation ceremony – in the knowledge that the profession into which I was about to enter had a vital role to play in the affairs of mankind, and that, as a lawyer, there would always be a role for me to play in those affairs. If I can put the same point differently: because of the very nature of the profession, there will always be important and fulfilling work available for each of you, as defenders of law and order, and as architects of justice.
I am, of course, not suggesting that the antidote to anxiety is to simply kick up one’s heels and to expect that, because the profession will always have a vital role to play in democratic societies, the profession will eventually drop the perfect job into everyone’s lap. But I am saying that, when we appreciate that lawyering isn’t only or always about finding employment, but that it is about serving our society in very fundamental ways, we can begin to imagine new paths for ourselves, as social engineers, that perhaps do not require us to find a job at all, but that might propel us instead to design our own jobs, for ourselves, and on our own terms.
This is not a new or a novel proposition. “Blue Ocean Strategy” is a book published twenty (20) years ago, in 2005, by two business theorists, one South Korean and the other American. It advocates a business approach that focuses on creating new market space – which the authors call a “blue ocean” – rather than competing in an existing, saturated market, which the authors call a “red ocean”. The idea is that, instead of fighting over existing customers, you redefine the industry boundaries. I am suggesting that, because of the nature of the legal profession, there is no shortage of blue oceans to be created and in which to find deep professional, and even great financial, fulfilment.
Whatever the individual paths you ultimately select for yourselves after tonight, I believe that certain principles are immutable. I am a huge fan of tennis. One of my idols is Rafael Nadal. One of his greatest rivals was Roger Federer. Against each other, they produced some of the most spectacular tennis ever seen, like the 2008 Wimbledon Championship, which is regarded by many as the greatest tennis match ever played. In terms of the legal profession, I suppose Nadal and Federer are probably like the late, great Silks, Frank Solomon and Michael de la Bastide, squaring off in the courtroom. Against each other, Frank and Michael produced some of the greatest advocacy ever seen. Two different arenas, to be certain: sport and law. But the keys to their individual greatness were, I believe, strikingly similar. Just over one (1) year ago, on June 9, 2024, Roger Federer delivered the feature address at the graduation ceremony at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in the United States. He shared three (3) key life lessons drawn from his illustrious tennis career, emphasizing effort, resilience and perspective.
The first lesson he shared was that “Effortless is a myth”. Roger Federer was perhaps the most graceful tennis player of the modern era. His movements were more akin to those of a professional ballet dancer than to a hard-hitting striker of a tennis ball. Even when I was rooting against him when he came up against Nadal, I couldn’t help but gasp at the fluidity and the sheer poetry of his movements. Federer told his audience that there was no such thing as his “effortless” movements on the tennis court. He explained that behind his smooth performance was immense dedication, sheer discipline, and excruciatingly hard work. He revealed that he had had to work extremely hard, in order to make how he played, look easy.
The second lesson he shared was that “Perfection is impossible”. Reflecting on his career, Federer noted that despite winning nearly 80% of his 1,526 singles matches, he had won only 54% of the points played – just barely over half. He explained that this statistic underscored the importance of resilience and learning from setbacks. Perfection, he reminded his college audience, is unattainable. All that there was for him, was bouncing back from losing points, each and every time.
The third lesson he shared was that “Life is bigger than the court”. Federer acknowledged that while tennis was his passion, life beyond the sport offered broader experiences and challenges. “A tennis court is a small space”, he explained. “I knew that tennis could show me the world” he said, “but I also knew that tennis could never be the world”. And so, he encouraged graduates to look beyond their academic degrees and qualifications, and embrace new opportunities and perspectives as they moved forward in life.
I believe that if Frank Solomon and Michael de la Bastide were here with us tonight, they would both tell us that “Effortless is a myth”; that “Perfection is impossible”; and that “Life is bigger than the courtroom”. They certainly were the kind of lawyers who embodied these philosophies. Frank would often tell younger lawyers that the key to his legendary eloquence was to “read everything” – which is a reflection both of the principle that “Life is bigger than the courtroom” and that “Effortless is a myth”. Frank didn’t develop his astounding vocabulary by anything other than the effort he put into expanding it, by reading voraciously. And Michael would often say that it was in his losses that he learned the most about being an effective advocate – his life was a stunning example of the application of the principle that “Perfection is impossible”, which led to him becoming the supreme advocate of his time.
It seems to me that, no matter where each of you – the deservingly proud members of the graduating class of 2025 – lands professionally, any anxiety which you might understandably feel about the future, can be cushioned by two realizations. The first is that you are about to enter a profession that will always perform a critical function in the affairs of nations, and in which there will therefore always be important and fulfilling work available for each of you – including such opportunities as you might create for yourselves. The second is that by understanding that “Effortless is a myth”; that “Perfection is impossible”; and that “Life is bigger than the courtroom”, you can each reach the very highest rungs of the profession and, in so doing, chart your individual pathways to professional success and to personal fulfilment.
Tonight, you are, as I was forty (40) years ago, at the cusp of entering a profession that is both ancient and noble, bound by centuries of tradition, rules and expectations, and by duties that transcend personal ambition. Much has changed, both in the profession and the world that it serves, over the last forty (40) years. But I believe that the fundamental principles for achieving success in the profession are the same, in 2025, as they were in 1985. To quote from the Code of Ethics, we must all maintain our integrity and the honour and dignity of the legal profession. We must all encourage other Attorneys-at-law to act similarly both in the practice of the profession and in their private lives. And we must all refrain from conduct which is detrimental to the profession, or which may tend to discredit it. If you do these things; if you build your career on the foundations of effort, resilience and perspective; if you commit yourselves to the protection of law and order, then I can assure you that success will follow, as night follows day.
I have complete and absolute faith that you, the next additions to the Bar will overcome anxiety with confidence, and that you will set about the good work and noble service to which you will soon be sworn. And, I have complete and absolute faith that, forty (40) years from now, our profession will be all the better for your having done so.
Many congratulations, once again, to you, to your families, your teachers and your instructors. Best of luck ahead. And may God Bless you all.
