Bar.

In a Call to the Bar session before acting Chief Justice Norma Wade-Miller, Barbadian Graveney Bannister was admitted to the Bermuda Bar yesterday morning.

Recently having graduated from the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica, Mr.

Bannister was admitted to the Bar in Barbados on October 8.

Sparing no time, he applied to join the Bermuda Bar. And thanks to swift effort on the part of his former employer and mentor, lawyer John Cooper, his admittance was arranged within two weeks.

Attending the session were Bermuda Bar Association president Richard Hector, Crown counsel Khamisi Tokunbo, who appeared on behalf of Attorney General Dame Lois Browne Evans, Mr. Bannister's current employer Patricia Harvey-Burch, and several members of his former places of work, the Police Service, and the Anglican Church.

Educated at St. Anthony's High School in Barbados, Mr. Bannister came to Bermuda in 1980 hoping to find a career with the Police.

He did this and, after staying with them for four years at the Somerset Division he decided to go back to school.

At Morehouse College in Georgia he obtained a degree in mass communications, with a minor in international relations.

After winning the National Association of Black Journalists Award, presented by none other than Oprah Winfrey, Mr. Bannister came back to Bermuda, where he married his wife Deeanda and joined St. James' Church, in Sandys Parish as the Lay Church worker.

All through this time, he had been harbouring an interest in a career in law.

While studying law as an undergraduate at the University of Buckingham in the UK, Mr. Bannister took summer jobs at local law firms, including Appleby, Spurling & Kempe and Hallett, Whitney and Patton.

Graduating from Buckingham University in 1996, Mr. Bannister began a two-year course in legal education in Jamaica.

Finishing there this summer, he took advantage of his time before being admitted to the Bar by working as a reporter at The Royal Gazette .

Yesterday, Mr. Bannister thanked all those who "helped me arrive at this juncture in my life''.

He will be practising law at Harvey & Associates on Brunswick Street in Hamilton.