The Distinguished

58 / 64

“THE PHRASE ‘family is every-
thing’ really resonates with me.
Family has been integral to all
my successes.” Those are the sentiment
shared by 29-year-old Kamille Adair-Mor-
gan, whose village raised her as a child to
become one of the leading game changers
in the field of law.
Adair-Morgan did not always aspire to
be a lawyer. In fact, she initially wanted to
be an accountant. Working assiduously to
make her dreams a reality, she achieved
straight A’s during her years at Ardenne
High School. Aside from being an avid
student, she would pivot on the courts,
making her mark as a netballer.
It wasn’t until the end of high school
that she realised that she wanted to give a
career in justice a fair trial. “I worked on
an independent project on women enfran-
chisement in Afghanistan in lower sixth
form and gained tremendous insight into
how law touches and concerns every
aspect of life and its power to transform
social constructs. I also began then to
appreciate law in its international dimen-
sion. By the time I completed high school,
I had no doubt that I wanted to pursue a
career in law,” she told Flair.
In her first year of law school, she
realised right out the gate that a great
measure of maturity and self-discipline
was required, and she was a bit daunted by
the challenge. “Studying alongside
colleagues who were more advanced in
age and stage of life, some of whom had
already successfully completed degrees at
UWI, assisted me greatly with meeting
that challenge,” she said.
Fast-forward to Norman Manley. Before,
Adair-Morgan would not only bury herself
in her books, she would hide behind them
too, letting her work speak for itself. But
those last two years of school, she had to
move from behind the scenes and
take centre stage,
since effective advocacy, a requirement,
now included writing and speaking to fre-
quent evaluation and scrutiny. When she
was selected to be the valedictorian, she
was honoured.
Since graduating with first class honours
from the law programme at Norman Man-
ley Law School, she went on to become
Jamaica’s Rhodes Scholar in 2012, earning
a master’s in international economic law.
She won the Winter Williams Prize at the
University of Oxford and was lauded in
New York for her achievement. Dubbed
the moot queen, she has entered and won,
judged and even hosted several competi-
tions overseas. She returned home where
it all started, giving back to students as a
lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the
University of the West
Indies, Mona. She is also
reading for the Doctorate
of Philosophy in Law at
Mansfield College,
University of Oxford,
online. When she
doesn’t have her head
in the books, she
spends quality time
being a devoted
Christian, loving wife
and amazing mother.
krysta.anderson@glean-
34 THE GLEANER’S FLAIR MAGAZINE • MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2018
LIONEL
ROOKWOOD/
PHOTOGRAPHER
Distinguished
THE
Law
Kamille
Adair-Morgan
gracing justice
Studying alongside colleagues
who were more advanced in age and
stage of life, some of whom had already
successfully completed degrees at UWI,
assisted me greatly ...
“
”