July 2004

Rolande Pryce was recently named a recipient of the prestigious British Chevening Scholarship. In September, she will take a year sabbatical from her position with the Jamaican government to pursue an LL.M. in international law in the United Kingdom.

One of her recommenders for the scholarship, Richard Williamson, was a professor of hers at the University of Miami. "This isn't the first time that he has had an impact on my career. During my third year of law school, I went to him for advice when I was weighing job offers between a large law firm in Miami and a position working in antitrust law for the Fair Trading Commission, a newly created government agency in Jamaica."

Professor Williamson, a former foreign service officer for the State Department, encouraged her to take the position in Jamaica because it offered her an opportunity to serve her country and to contribute to the island's development. "Looking back on it today with eight years of public service experience, I realize what a pivotal moment in my life that was and I'll always be indebted to him for his wise words."

After a year with the Fair Trading Commission, Rolande was offered a position with the Jamaican Embassy in Washington, D.C. and from October of 1997 to May of 2001, Rolande served as the legal advisor to the Jamaican Embassy and the Jamaican Mission to the Organization of American States (OAS). In her role as the First Secretary of Legal Affairs, Rolande was responsible for interpreting and negotiating international agreements, treaties, and conventions on a breadth of issues, such as terrorism, drug abuse, telecommunications, intellectual property, international trade, immigration, and human rights.

When she returned to Kingston from D.C. in 2001, Rolande worked as legal counsel for the Antidumping and Subsidies Commission for a year before assuming her current position as Crown Counsel for the Attorney General's Chambers.

In 2003, Rolande was selected by the World Trade Organization (WTO) for an assignment with the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States Secretariat (ACP) in Switzerland. Rolande spent six months in Geneva, conducting research and preparing reports on a broad range of policy issues including dispute settlement, trade remedies, regional trading arrangements, and intellectual property. She was also involved in drafting the ACP Declaration of the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference in Mexico.

In addition to her work as legal counsel for the International Division of the Attorney's General Chambers, Rolande is currently teaching Law and Politics of the Sea for the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies and she is a dancer for the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica. In April, she was in the U.S. with the Dance Company for performances in New York and Miami.