Attorney General Dame Lois Browne Evans is to be honoured this week with a lifetime achievement award at the Seventh Annual Women of Great Esteem Awards ceremony at the Millennium UN Plaza hotel this weekend.

A Government press statement announcing the Premier's immediate travel plans, said that Dame Lois will be honoured along with ten other women, including Dame Pearlette Louisy, St. Lucia's Governor General, Commissioner Dolly Williams, from Trinidad and Tobago and Dr. Marlene McKetty of Howard University Hospital.

"Bermuda's own indomitable Dame ... is to receive a lifetime achievement award in recognition of her contribution to the legal profession, politics and the community in this her fiftieth year of practice at the Bermuda Bar," the statement said.

Premier Jennifer Smith and her Chief of Staff David Burch will attend the ceremony and then jet off to give the keynote address to an insurance conference in Arizona.

Ms Smith is also scheduled to open the 41st annual Risk Insurance & Management Conference & Exhibition (RIMS) in Chicago next week.

Works Minister Alex Scott will act as Premier in her absence.