$151M PNM legal bill

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie says on as­sum­ing of­fice, he met out­stand­ing in­voic­es left by the pre­vi­ous Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment gov­ern­ment for le­gal fees to­tal­ing $151,611,135.22, of which $82,393,780.12 has since been paid - and those paid the high­est in that sum in­clud­ed four for­eign law firms as well as Is­rael Khan, SC, and cur­rent House Speak­er Jagdeo Singh.

And at­tor­neys hired by the cur­rent Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress ad­min­is­tra­tion over May 1 2025 to Jan­u­ary 1, 2026, in­clude Khan, Anand Ram­lo­gan, SC, Free­dom Law Cham­bers and Ker­wyn Gar­cia, SC.

The in­for­ma­tion is con­tained in a re­ply from the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al to a ques­tion filed by Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment MP Stu­art Young.

The re­ply - and a re­ply on an­oth­er ques­tion from Young on the Cli­co Com­mis­sion of In­quiry - had been de­ferred pre­vi­ous­ly.

Both were pro­vid­ed yes­ter­day af­ter Young com­plained to House Speak­er Jagdeo Singh about Je­re­mie’s de­lay. An­swers were sub­se­quent­ly cir­cu­lat­ed.

One of Young’s queries had ref­er­enced the at­tor­neys-at-law who were briefed and/or re­tained by the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al (in­clud­ing the So­lic­i­tor Gen­er­al’s De­part­ment) for the pe­ri­od May 1, 2025, to Jan­u­ary 31, 2026.

Young had asked the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al to pro­vide the num­ber of mat­ter/s each at­tor­ney was briefed and/or re­tained for; the mat­ter each was briefed and/or re­tained for; and the amount paid to each at­tor­ney for each mat­ter.

The At­tor­ney Gen­er­al’s writ­ten re­ply to Young’s three ques­tions was pref­aced with the fol­low­ing state­ment, “Up­on as­sum­ing of­fice on May 1, 2025, the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al met out­stand­ing in­voic­es to­tal­ing $151,611,135.22. Of this amount, $82,393,780.12 has since been paid.”

A break­down of the in­for­ma­tion showed that a to­tal of 58 lo­cal at­tor­neys and for­eign firms were owed the $151.6 mil­lion as at April 30, 2025.

The to­tal num­ber of peo­ple to whom lo­cal fees were owed com­prised 49 at­tor­neys. Their fees to­talled $30.1 mil­lion.

The high­est fig­ure among those list­ed was for Singh ($2.8 mil­lion) and the low­est to Joel Gob­in ($15,000).

Out­stand­ing fees were al­so list­ed for five for­eign firms. Their fees to­talled $49.5 mil­lion.

Fees were al­so owed to three lo­cal and one for­eign firm un­der the DPP’s of­fice. Their fees to­talled $71.8 mil­lion.

Of the to­tal of 58 for whom fees were out­stand­ing as at April 30, 2025, some 18 were paid sums to­talling the $82.3m paid since then.

Four for­eign firms were paid the high­est sums - Charles Rus­sell Speechlys ($27.0m), Step­toe In­ter­na­tion­al (UK), LLP ($18.7m), De­loitte & Touche ($15.4m) and White & Case LLP ($7.6m).

Among at­tor­neys paid were Khan ($3.4m), Singh ($2.8m), Ul­ric Sker­rit ($2.2m), Ian Ben­jamin,SC ($1.2m), An­tho­ny Bul­lock ($1.2m).

Re­tained in last 9 months

In re­sponse to Young’s ques­tion ref­er­enc­ing at­tor­neys who were briefed and/or re­tained by the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al (in­clud­ing the So­lic­i­tor Gen­er­al’s De­part­ment) over May 1, 2025, to Jan­u­ary 31, 2026, the AG’s re­ply showed 37 at­tor­neys were briefed and/or re­tained over the pe­ri­od in ques­tion.

They in­clud­ed Khan, SC, Ker­wyn Gar­cia, SC, Anand Ram­lo­gan, SC, Free­dom Law Cham­bers, El­ton Prescott, Renu­ka Ramb­ha­jan, Ul­ric Sker­rit, Seenath Jairam, SC, Avory Sinanan, SC, Mar­tin Daly, SC, Rishi Dass, SC, Fyard Ho­sein, SC.

Al­so in the num­bers were for­eign at­tor­neys Robert Strang and Si­mons Mair­head Bur­ton.

Ram­lo­gan ad­vis­es

Govt on SoE mat­ters

On the num­ber of mat­ter/s each at­tor­ney was briefed and/or re­tained for, the doc­u­ment stat­ed that Free­dom Law Cham­bers was re­tained by the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, “for Anand Ram­lo­gan, SC, to ad­vise and rep­re­sent the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty on any le­gal is­sues and mat­ters that may arise as a re­sult of the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency.”

Ram­lo­gan was al­so re­tained in the mat­ter in­volv­ing for­mer Cen­tral Bank Gov­er­nor Dr Alvin Hi­laire ver­sus the Cab­i­net and At­tor­ney Gen­er­al; and an­oth­er mat­ter.

Jared Ja­groo was al­so re­tained to ad­vise and rep­re­sent the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty on any le­gal is­sues and mat­ters that may arise as a re­sult of the on­go­ing SoE

The doc­u­ment fur­ther stat­ed that Lester Chairah was re­tained “for Le­gal Team to Ad­vise and rep­re­sent the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty on any Le­gal Is­sues and mat­ters that may arise as a re­sult of the on­go­ing SoE.”

Khan, SC, was re­tained for four mat­ters.

For­eign at­tor­neys Strang and Charles Rus­sell Speech­leys were re­tained on mul­ti­ple mat­ters, in­clud­ing the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al ver­sus Ja­son Jones and the Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Com­mis­sion; the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice and Towfeek Ali and Firearms Train­ing In­sti­tute mat­ter and an­oth­er con­cern­ing ex-CBTT gov­er­nor Jawala Ram­baran.

Ramb­ha­jan was re­tained to ad­vise the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice on the is­suance of Pre­ven­ta­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders con­cern­ing the SoE in 2025.

Daly was re­tained for the case of Austin Jack Warn­er ver­sus the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al.

Sums paid so far to those re­tained/briefed ranged from a min­i­mum of $60,000 to a max­i­mum of $3.2m.