Nationality Barbadian Occupation lawyer and judge Other name Sandra Prunella Mason | Other names Sandra Prunella Mason Years active 1975- | |
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Born 17 January 1949 (age 68) ( 1949-01-17 ) Saint Philip, Barbados Alma mater University of the West Indies Previous office Acting Governor-General of Barbados (2012–2012) | ||
Sandra Mason (born 17 January 1949) is a Barbadian lawyer and judge. She was the first woman admitted to the Bar in Barbados. She served as chair of the CARICOM commission to evaluate regional integration, was the first magistrate appointed as an Ambassador from Barbados, and was the first woman to serve on the Barbados Court of Appeals. She was the first Bajan appointee to the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal and served briefly as the Governor General of Barbados. She has been called one of the 10 most powerful women in Barbados.
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Biography
Sandra Prunella Mason was born on 17 January 1949 in Saint Philip, Barbados. After completion of her education, she began teaching at the Princess Margaret Secondary School in 1968. The following year, she went to work at Barclay's Bank as a clerk. Mason enrolled in the University of the West Indies (UWI), earning her Bachelor of Laws. Mason was one of the first graduates of the Faculty of Law from UWI, Cave Hill, completing her education in 1973. She was admitted to the bar to begin her practice on 10 November, 1975, becoming the first woman member of the Barbados Bar Association.
Career
Beginning in 1975, she worked in Trust Administration for Barclay's and transferred to several different posts within the Barclay's company until 1977. In 1978, Mason began working as the Magistrate of the Juvenile and Family Court and simultaneously tutoring in family law at UWI. She stopped tutoring in 1983 and continuing as magistrate. In 1988, Mason completed the Royal Institute of Public Administration in London's course on Judicial Administration. She served on the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child from its 1991 the inception until 1999, holding the vice chair from 1993 to 1995 and chair from 1997 to 1999. Between 1991 and 1992 she served as chair and was one of the two women appointed to the 13-member CARICOM commission charged with evaluating regional integration. Mason left the family court in 1992 to serve as an ambassador to Venezuela and was the first woman magistrate from Barbados to serve in that position. Upon her return to Barbados in 1994 she was appointed as Chief Magistrate for Barbados and then in 1997 became the Registrar of the Supreme Court.
In 2000 Mason completed studies on Alternative Dispute Resolution at the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario, Canada and then completed a Fellowship with the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2001, as well as a course in Advanced Dispute Resolution at UWI. She continued to serve as Registrar of the Supreme Court until 2005, when she was appointed as Queen’s Counsel to the Inner Bar of Barbados. In 2008, Mason was sworn in as an Appeals Judge becoming the first woman to serve on the Barbados Court of Appeals. For three days in 2012, she became the acting Governor General and the following year was the first Barbadian appointed to membership in the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal (CSAT). The Tribunal operates among members of the Commonwealth of Nations to resolve issues concerning contract disputes. With that appointment, Loop News named her one of the 10 most powerful women in Barbados.