From 3A

moved to the United Nations; his contractual arrangement with the government came to an end in 2009 and he migrated to the US.

He remained at the Permanent Mission for a while, then had a brief stint with an immigration law firm.

Hard to find a job

Even though he found it difficult to find a job at that time, Judge Singh said, he volunteered a lot as if it was a full-time job which saw him in the housing court, civil court where he helped people with consumers’ debt issues and he was also in the family court.

“Mind you, this was the first time I was going into an actual courtroom,” he recalled.

Following numerous applications he was successful at joining the Administration for Children’s Services and he loved it. The family courts deal with everything that concerns a family except for divorces.

“Practising in New York was baptism by fire but I ran with it. One of the things coming from Guyana is that you don’t back down when there is a fight but you roll with the punches and you learn and co-exist or try to super exist,” he said.

He did ‘super exist’ as he moved on to become a trial supervisor at the administration and was later hired as a court attorney for one of the judges he had appeared before as a trial supervisor. He worked in this position for about six years and he described his responsibilities as being a gatekeeper for the judge; he managed the cases and the ones that go before the judge are those that have to be tried where the attorneys would not agree on anything.

It meant that he met with attorneys and their clients and he negotiated.

“I really liked it… It just happened that family court deals with so many of the human rights issues that I also had a passion for, that I studied for so it was an intersection of those two main interests, litigating and litigating human rights-based issues,” he shared.

He later became the supervising court attorney in Queens as his judge was about to retire. He supervised all the other court attorneys but also played a part in running the court house itself.

Always aspire

Judge Singh said he always aspires to do better at whatever field he is in and for him the next step was being on the bench. It is done through appointment or being elected and he angled to get there by either means. He joined the Bronx Democratic Party and became very involved with his community board in the Bronx where he lived and he was also politically involved and at the same time he was also angling to be appointed.

When he put in his application, Judge Gilbert Taylor was one of his mentors and he guided him through the process. After being prepped for the interviews he was shortlisted and then appointed.

“Sometimes I still turn around when somebody says judge, like, ‘are you referring to me?’” he said, adding that it had been in the making ever since he became a court attorney.

Looking to the future, Judge Singh does not rule out returning to Guyana but he said whatever he does he will be working with people and continuing his public service.

“I say that to say Guyana is my home, Guyana is where I am from and so I am not saying I may never return to Guyana,” he said.

Judges are appointed for ten-year terms and they retire at 70. Judge Singh is currently completing the term of someone who reached the age of retirement, following which he will seek to be appointed for ten years. The appointment is not automatic; there are constant reviews of judges and if one comes up for reappointment and doesn’t have a good track record, the reappointment may not occur.

Singh is the fourth of five children, he has three older brothers and a younger sister who is also an attorney and lives in the US. His parents live in the US as well and his older brothers live in other countries.

He encourages especially the young to always maintain respect and never pretend to be better than anyone else.