VSO needs recruits for Caribbean posts

VOLUNTARY Service Overseas has launched a drive to find lawyers willing to work in the Pacific and the Caribbean.

There are vacancies in the Solomon Islands for a solicitor in the Public Solicitor's Office to handle land and logging cases, a customary land registrar, and a legal adviser for the provincial government. A vacancy in Dominica requires a legal draftsperson for the Ministry of Legal Affairs.

Paul Barber, who was in private practice in Hampshire before going to Tuvalu in the Pacific through VSO in 1990, practiced for three years as the "People's Lawyer". His work included visiting the smaller atolls by boat with the local magistrate to hear cases.

He describes his experience there as "like being a legal aid lawyer but without the disadvantages of a bureaucratic legal aid system".