Charming, eloquent and incredibly articulate, our Young Professional Kamika Aisha Forbes is a practicing barrister with Forbes Hare and also served previously as past President of the Leo Club of Tortola. Photo: VINO

Kamika is also very gifted in the field of music as well and is able to play several instruments, including the piano, clarinet and flute. Above, Kamika plays the clarinet. Photo: supplied

Our young professional also served previously as past President of the Leo Club of Tortola. Photo: supplied

As a new mother, Kamika has a new appreciation for persons who balance a full time career with parenthood, without the assistance of nannies and caregivers. Photo: supplied

At Forbes Hare, Kamika works in the Local Business Group where she undertakes all civil matters. Photo: VINO

Charming, eloquent and incredibly articulate, our Young Professional Kamika Aisha Forbes is a practicing barrister with Forbes Hare and also served previously as past President of the Leo Club of Tortola.

Kamika’s skill set does not simply extend to her work within the legal profession however, as she wears many other hats. She is also very gifted in the field of music as well and is able to play several instruments, including the piano, clarinet and flute.

Our Young Professional also tutors others in the art form of ‘tickling the ivories’, as piano playing is sometimes referred, and has doubled as a Spanish language tutor as well at Potential Unlimited, a business founded by her mother, Ms Evelyn Fraser-Forbes.

The immense value placed on her education was something embedded at an early age from the example set by her doting parents, “Growing up, for me education was always important,” Kamika explained.

She lived briefly in Virginia in the United States but returned to attend school at the now Elmore Stoutt High School where she eventually graduated as Valedictorian, a feat she shares with the elder of her two siblings. Kamika counts the achievement as one of her greatest accomplishments before attaining her law degree and the birth of her daughter.

Recalling her formative years as a young girl growing up in the Sea Cows Bay area of Tortola with her two sisters, Kirima and Kinisha, Kamika said she never led a life that was much different than her peers. Rather, with the guidance of her parents, she was able to have what she described as a well-rounded childhood – complete with piano lessons.

“We were never spoilt, I don’t think anybody could say that,” Kamika related, “…there was a time and place for everything so from a young age we appreciated the importance of working hard and the fact that when you worked hard there would be rewards.”

It is a principle she continues to be inspired by and still holds true to this day.

After leaving high school, Kamika attended George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia where she completed a Bachelors degree in Psychology before coming home to the VI to work in the Social Development Department (SDD) as an Intake Officer. She explained that Psychology was in fact her first love, before pursuing law.

At SDD, she was able to interact first-hand with the many cases that came to the Department’s attention – it was a humbling experience for the young, naive graduate. “I appreciated that persons were of different means, I understood that completely. But I didn’t understand the level of poverty that we had, and destitution that we had in the BVI until I started to work there,” she recalled.

It was an overwhelming experience that made her realise that she needed to do more, both individually and professionally, in order to offer more substantial assistance to persons in need. She decided to study law in the United Kingdom (UK) and was admitted to the Bar of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in 2010 after previously being admitted to the Bar of England and Wales a year earlier.

Her goal at the time was to become an in-house Counsel within one of the government Ministries, where she felt clients could better be served by a more beneficial system that offered near immediate solutions. Unfortunately, this was not be realised for various reasons beyond her control.

Instead, upon her return in 2009, she began working as an Associate with Forbes Hare and has not looked back since.

Since that time, Kamika sought to extend her legal qualifications by returning to the UK where she completed a year of Pupillage in London and Liverpool. Completion of a full year’s pupillage after her legal training in the UK entitles Kamika to exercise full rights of audience in courts within the United Kingdom and Wales. However Kamika expressed a preference to practise law within the VI.

At Forbes Hare, Kamika works in the Local Business Group where she undertakes all civil matters. Kamika shared her preference for Family Law practice through which she advocates on matters of guardianship, divorce, child maintenance, separation ,drafting of wills, and probate among other things. She also gets an opportunity to incorporate her training in psychology while working in this field.

It is through exercising her passion here that her altruism becomes most visible, “In a way, I get an opportunity every day to make somebody’s day just that much better. That’s how I feel about my job,” she buzzed happily.

One of her current aspirations is to see changes in the practice of Family Law in the VI, beginning with the amendment of the current legislation and development of the Family Court. “That’s where I would like to see myself… working in a functional and effective Family Court in the BVI,” she stated.

Our Young Professional readily admits that her work comes with its own share of challenges and expressed optimism that things would be easier with changes to existing legislation in the Territory. But she has also been proactive in presenting at co-parenting sessions on behalf of the SDD. Kamika was also very instrumental in the Domestic Violence Act Sensitisation Campaign which was spearheaded by the Office of Gender Affairs. She made presentations throughout the community and via media on the legal implications of the new act and the protection which it offers.

Kamika’s willingness to serve is evident through her numerous civic contributions. She currently sits as Deputy Chairman of the Non-Profit Oranisation Board and member of the Planning Appeals Tribunal.

As a new mother, Kamika has a new appreciation for persons who balance a full time career with parenthood, without the assistance of nannies and caregivers. She understands fully the challenges faced by many of the Territory’s young persons today and advised that youths should never remain stagnant in looking towards the future. “The greatest disservice you can do to yourself is to remain stagnant,” she offered, “I think you should always set goals and never stop dreaming.”