WE once noted that there is always something awe-inspiring about the ceremony of calling new lawyers to practise at the Bar in Bermuda. Certainly that was the case on Friday a week ago when Mrs. Maxine Binns, a mother of three grown-up children, and a much younger Miss Anita Hewey were called before Mr. Justice Kawaley.

Supreme Court No. 3 was packed to overflowing with family and well-wishers of the two women. Someone occupied every conceivable space in the court, besides the chandeliers. Some sat in the prisoners' dock, while others stood along the sides as well as outside. It was extraordinary.

All were engrossed in the ceremony, the presentation of Mrs. Binns by barrister Shawn Morris, the partner-in-charge of the Shipping and Aviation Division of Appleby, Spurling & Kempe law firm and Miss Hewey's presentation by Christian Luthi of the law firm of Conyers, Dill and Pearman.

They were followed by the sometimes witty and emotion-filled responses of the central personalities; a welcome by barrister Leighton Rochester on behalf of Bermuda's Attorney General, and the rather interesting comments of Mr. Justice Kawaley about the role the two new barristers can play in the changed Bermuda, or should we say the New Bermuda.

Justice Kawaley counselled them not to be overawed by the magnificence of the building and offices in which they would be working, respectively at CD&P and AS&K. Thirty years ago the thought of a black lawyer working in those firms was remote; and he reflected on the small building on Reid Street that was the head office of AS&K, which had a staff of six or more, in contrast to the hundreds it now employs.

We listened with more than passing interest to the remarks of Leighton Rochester and will digress here to give some background pointing up their pertinency.

Earlier that week, on the Monday, to be exact, we had what the Hon. Arnold Francis, QC, CBE, called a "providential" meeting outside his office. His first remarks were, "Let's go to lunch." We readily agreed, not so much for the food but rather for the fellowship.

It gave us a golden opportunity to reminisce about a whole range of things, including our days at the Berkeley Institute, where he was very much my senior; how he played for the one and only time in Cup Match; about the stormy times we had with Wilfred (Mose) Allen during the birthing of the Progressive Labour Party and how he became President of the Legislative Council or Upper House.

Somehow or the other we got on the subject of how Mr. Francis and his late former partner Walter Robinson went off to London to study law in the late 1940s; and how they returned in 1950. Their call before the Bermuda Bar was almost like a national event, which we covered for the now defunct Bermuda Recorder newspaper.

It was significant because in the previous 30 years there had been no other black Bermudian admitted to the local Bar, and only one before that in the whole history of Bermuda. Of course, several distinguished barristers from the West Indies had been called after having settled in Bermuda.

Arnold, a Queen's Counsel, is now Number One, senior-most, heading the list along with barrister Peter Smith, of the hundreds of lawyers now licensed to practise in Bermuda.

Having regard to the foregoing, it should be understandable why my ears pricked up when Leighton commenced his welcome to Mrs. Binns and Miss Hewey by telling Justice Kawaley that the calls of the two ladies brought the total number of barristers and attorneys in Bermuda to 344.

Of that number, 213 are men and 131 women, Mrs. Binns being the 130th and Miss Hewey 131st since the first call of a woman, in the person of the country's very first female Attorney General, Dame Lois Browne Evans. She was called in December 1953.

Mr. Rochester noted in passing that when Mr. Justice Kawaley was called to he Bermuda Bar on April 20, 1980, he was the 38th person to have been called, and there were only six female barristers at the time.

Also, said Mr. Rochester, the ceremony was the second occasion on which Justice Kawaley had presided over a "call", and on each, females were being called. The first, two weeks ago, was of Miss Kristie Rayner of Smith and Company. It was evident, he added, that the two ladies before the court possess the determination, zeal and ability to surmount any and all obstacles in their legal quest.