Bermuda has become home to the very first recipient of the Institute of Legal Executives' (ILEX) top honour, the President's Award, after it was awarded to Mello Jones & Martin legal executive David Addington

The award, which is given at the discretion of the ILEX president and sponsored by MCA Legal, a specialist recruitment service for legal firms, recognises the legal executive who has given outstanding service to ILEX and the legal community and represents the ILEX values and ethos.

In addition to winning the award, Mr. Addington won a commemorative trophy along with a cheque for £500.

Mr. Addington has had a long and distinguished career in the legal profession, working as a legal executive for more than 35 years, 30 of which were in Bermuda.

Besides being an established litigator and litigation manager, he is a qualified mediator, a Fellow of the Institute of Arbitrators and a member of the Chartered Management Institute. He has worked tirelessly to promote ILEX in Bermuda, establishing the ILEX Bermuda branch in 1986, becoming chairman in 1990, and has been instrumental in paving the way for ILEX courses on the island and has for several years acted as a lecturer at the College of Bermuda.

He has been determined in his aim to have the Legal Executive (Registration) Act passed into Bermuda law, which would officially recognise legal executives on the island and it looks as if this long-held ambition will be achieved shortly, possibly this year. Formal recognition of legal executives as a branch of Bermuda's legal profession would open the way to a career in law for many who would not otherwise have considered one.

"David has been a leading light in Bermudian legal circles for many years," said ILEX president Lesley Graham. "Promoting legal executives at every opportunity whilst continually demonstrating skill and exceptional commitment to his job, often at personal cost. I cannot think of a more fitting tribute to a long and successful career in law that epitomises what ILEX stands for."

"I feel very blessed to have been given the ILEX President's Award," said Mr. Addington. "The date on my Fellowship's Certificate, is 1st November 1972. Before then, I had learned at the feet of the old managing clerks who included such luminaries as the Barrington twins, who were known respectively as Chancery Barrington and Divorce Barrington.

"I inherited Chancery Barrington's chair and it is on their behalf and all the others who were working at that time to bring the Institute of Legal Executives into being that I can gratefully and fondly accept this award."