Attorney M. Georgia Gibson Henlin has a long string of letters after her name, a glorious testament to her academic and professional achievements. She was admitted to the bar in Jamaica in 1993, to the bar in New York in 2018, to the bar in Ontario in Canada in 2002 and to the bar in the British Virgin Islands in 2022. In 2015, aged under 50, she was appointed Queen’s Counsel (now King’s Counsel).
And on Heroes’ Day, the holder of a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Laws, a Master of Laws in Innovation Law and Policy, and a Certificate of Legal Education, as she is known, will add a CD to her credentials on the 2023 national award winners list She is awarded the Order of Distinction Commander Class for her contributions to the legal profession and public service.
Gibson Henlin said that given her master’s degree in technology, she also took some certificate courses in technical fields to enable her to better understand and communicate with technicians and engineers. Thus, she is a certified computer hacker and forensic scientist as well as a certified computer forensic scientist. She is also a certified Data Protection Specialist (European Union Data Protection – General Data Protection Regulation) and a certified Data Protection Manager.
She is Managing Partner of Henlin Gibson Henlin, Managing Director of Privacy & Legal Management Consultants Limited. In short, she is a complex corporate attorney and litigator specializing in public law, constitutional law, technology, privacy, corporate governance and money laundering compliance, as well as intellectual property, finance and tax law.
In addition to her legal responsibilities, Gibson Henlin has served on numerous boards, organizations and committees, including serving as chair of the Jamaica Bar Association’s Judicial Education Committee and co-chair of that committee’s conference. She was instrumental in leading the team that raised the profile of and generated interest in legal education and innovation, including the online and on-demand delivery of legal education.
Gibson Henlin is also an international arbitrator, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a member of The Arbitrator, based in St Kitts and Nevis, and has practiced arbitration in the Caribbean. She, the founder and executive director of the Women in Law Foundation, was recently appointed chair of the Independent Anti-Doping Commission, of which she previously served.
As Gibson Henlin, married to Michael Henlin and mother of two, reflected on her journey from humble beginnings at St. James to winning national awards, she said: “My family has always been there; I learned a lot from them – humility, kindness, helpfulness and independence. I’ve learned that there is a balance, and most importantly, I’ve learned that it takes hard work to achieve and maintain that success.
“There’s some truth to the old adage ‘The only reward for a good job is more work’… It was surreal, overwhelming and humbling. I have served because I was asked or because I volunteered. It wasn’t a reward so I was literally overwhelmed and at a loss for words as I didn’t see it coming.”
Gibson Henlin is rarely at a loss for words, and she has witnessed many national awards shows as a regular viewer and as an invited visitor. “I always like the pomp and circumstance and the stories of service, bravery and bravery, but I never imagined myself up there, actually I was scared of the thought,” she said.
But fear!? Because Gibson Henlin is fearless, direct and impressive. She has taken on and won many high profile lawsuits such as: B. Clark v. Scotiabank, in which she successfully challenged the constitutionality of the composition of the Court hearing procedural complaints. It is the only civil case so far that has been heard by a five-person panel, she told The Gleaner. The jury usually consists of three judges.
Learning her alphabets as a student at Montego Bay Infant School, Gibson Henlin had no idea that in October 2023 she would be putting her name on a long line of them and a CD. Or is it?
