Frith-Delisser Kimberley R

Frith-Delisser Kimberley R

Description:

Livingston Alexander & Levy began its existence on the 10th February, 1911 making it the oldest law firm in Jamaica. The Firm of Attorneys delivers a wide range of legal services to local corporations, multi-nationals, Governments and individuals ranging from Conveyancing, litigation, company and commercial law, dispute resolution, employment law, estate planning, wills and trusts, pensions, real estate, securities, intellectual property and taxation.

On the 20th of February 1911, Kingston solicitor, Noel Brooks Livingston (later Sir) advised his clients that I have this day admitted Harold Vincent Alexander of Kingston, solicitor, into partnership with me. The name of the firm will be Livingston & Alexander.

The firm underwent a name change in 1915 when Mervyn T. King, a newly admitted solicitor, joined the team and they became known as Livingston, Alexander & King. The partnership was dissolved the following year by mutual consent and Livingston & Alexander continued to practise under their old name.

Another young man, Aston Theodore Ivanhoe Levy, joined Livingston & Alexander as an articled clerk in 1922. Once Levy qualified as a solicitor, he remained with the firm and became a well known figure in the field of trademark legislation and patent law. When he was made a partner in 1945, the firm changed its name to Livingston, Alexander & Levy.

Throughout that era, there were two separate and distinct branches of the legal profession – solicitors and barristers. All this changed in 1972 when the professions were fused and lawyers became known as attorneys-at-law. That year, Livingston, Alexander & Levy enlarged the scope of its practice by inviting one of the region’s leading Queen’s Counsel, the Hon. Roald N.A. Henriques, to become a partner and in the ensuing years the firm established a formidable litigation department.

As a result of the political, social and economic upheavals of the 1970s, Jamaica experienced the mass migration of some of its most talented citizens. Between 1975-77, Livingston, Alexander & Levy lost no less than twelve attorneys-at-law, eight of whom were partners. Could the firm continue with its legal complement so substantially diminished? For answer there was a merger in 1976 with A.E. Brandon & Company and Douglas Ian Brandon and Cecil B. Lopez came on board as partners. Another merger took place in 1979 with Hanna, Cooper and Associates, resulting in Paul Cooper being made a partner.