Delroy Duncan KC

Director (Litigation)

Specialises in Litigation
(441) 295 7444
dduncan@td.bm
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I was honoured to receive the appointment as Queen’s Counsel in a ceremony at Westminster Hall in London, but my overriding sentiment is one of deep gratitude for the people whose contributions and example helped to shape my personal and professional life trajectory.

Delroy is a Director and Founding Partner of Trott & Duncan. In March 2020, he was appointed Queen’s Counsel in England in recognition of a distinguished international career that began when he was called to the Bar of England and Wales in London in 1984. Delroy has been extensively involved in litigation arising out of company and commercial disputes, public law and constitutional law cases and human rights issues.

Delroy is highly regarded for his extensive public law experience, advising and appearing in the leading constitutional, judicial review and labour dispute cases both for and against the Bermuda Government, as well as governments in the Caribbean including BVI, Turks and Caicos Islands and Antigua.

Delroy has appeared in over 100 reported cases in the Supreme Court of Bermuda, the Court of Appeal of Bermuda, the Court of Appeal of the United Kingdom and Her Majesty’s Privy Council.

Delroy has been a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators since 1997 and sits on local and international arbitrations both as a sole arbitrator and as a member of a panel of arbitrators. He is certified as a trained mediator (Notre Dame Law School, Indiana, 2008), Social Justice Mediator (Social Justice Mediation Institute, Bermuda 2013) and Human Rights mediator. Delroy’s extensive human rights experience has resulted in him acting for the Bermuda Human Rights Commission in various cases and being regularly appointed as a Human Rights mediator.

In January 2016, he was appointed as an Assistant Justice of the Supreme Court of Bermuda.

Delroy is an Associate Member of Cloisters Chambers, which is an esteemed public law set where he completed pupillage and secured tenancy, former President of the Bermuda Bar Association, and a Member of the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn.

Education

  • London Metropolitan University
  • London School of Economics and Political Science

Publications

Offshore Commercial Law in Bermuda Second Edition- Contributor of the chapter Enforcement of Judgments in Bermuda.

Latest Judgements

Employers’ Innovative Network, INC v Bridgeport Benefits, INC & Capital Security, Ltd

In the Matter of an Arbitration Pursuant to The Bermuda International Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1993
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Employers’ Innovative Network, INC v Voluntary Benefit Specialists, LLC & Universal Risk Intermediaries, INC

In the Matter of an Arbitration Pursuant to The Bermuda International Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1993
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Notable Cases

Albert Brewster and Others vs The Premier of Bermuda SC (Bda) 45

Application for an interim injunction restraining the implementation of COVID 19 mandatory quarantine regulations for unvaccinated residents on the ground that it infringes the Applicants’ fundamental rights under the Constitution; test to be applied in relation to the grant of interim injunction involving constitutional rights; role and obligations of an expert witness in court proceedings.
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Jardine Strategic Holdings Limited

Directions in relation to appraisal of fair value of shares under section 106 of the Companies Act 1981; scope of discovery to be provided by the company to the dissenting shareholders and whether it is necessary to provide for a meeting between the expert valuers and the management of the company.
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Bermuda Prison Officers Association vs Labour Dispute Tribunal and Minister of National Security

Representation of Bermuda Prison Officers against the Government of Bermuda concerning the validity of a tribunal decision taking away their GEHI medical contributions. Constitutional rights of employees and their legitimate expectation to retain their GEHI benefit.
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Albert Brewster and Others vs The Premier of Bermuda SC (Bda) 57

Whether COVID 19 regulations imposing mandatory quarantine in a government approved hotel for unvaccinated travelers at their cost amounts to a breach of the Applicants’ fundamental right to freedom of movement.
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Jardine Strategic Holdings Limited II

Representation of shareholders seeking appraisal of the fair value of their shares under section 106(6) of the Companies Act 1981; whether a shareholder who acquired shares after the notice of amalgamation has the locus standi to make the application; whether such an application is an abuse of process; whether the fair value to be assessed on an objective or subjective basis.
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Raymond Davis Myron Piper v The Premier of Bermuda and the Commission of Inquiry

Representation of the Commission of Inquiry into Historic Land Losses in Bermuda in the Supreme Court of Bermuda. This first in a series of four separate but related cases before the Supreme Court involved the test for leave in an application for judicial review challenging decisions made by the Commission of Inquiry, interpretation of the terms of reference issued to the Commission by the Premier of Bermuda; interpretation by the Commission of its own procedural rules for the conduct of the inquiry and holding portions of the inquiry in camera. Whether on an application for judicial review, the Commission could be ordered to call specific witnesses and disclose documents.
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Corporation of Hamilton v Attorney General and Governor of Bermuda [2022] CA (Bda) Civ 6

Delroy Duncan KC and Ryan Hawthorne were instructed by the Attorney General and Governor of Bermuda in the Court of Appeal. The Corporation of Hamilton was represented by Sir. Jeffrey Jowell KCMG KC. The appeal involved a number of significant constitutional issues such as: (1) the enforcement of section 1 of the Constitution; (2) the scope of protection of the law within section 1 of the Constitution; (3) the significance of the rule of law when applying the Constitution; (4) the scope of the right to freedom of expression and whether it incorporates the right to vote in a municipal election; and (5) the scope of the deprivation of property provisions in section 13 of the Constitution.
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Active Equity Holdings Ltd & 4 Ors v The Registrar of Companies [2022] SC (Bda) 64 Civ (31 August 2022)

Delroy Duncan KC and Ryan Hawthorne were instructed by the Registrar of Companies. The case involved judicial review proceedings against the decision of the Registrar to register certificates of cancellation and issue certificates of deposit in relation to limited and exempted partnerships under the Limited Partnerships Act 1883 (LPA) and the Exempted Partnerships Act 1992 (EPA). The Judgment considers the interplay between statutory interpretation and public law.
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CI2 Aviation Bermuda Limited v Permanent Arbitration Tribunal [2022] SC (Bda) 26 Civ

Delroy Duncan KC and Ryan Hawthorne were instructed by the Bermuda Public Service Union (representing the former employees of CI2) to intervene in these judicial review proceedings, which were an appeal against a decision of the Permanent Arbitration Tribunal in relation to its interpretation of section 23 of the Employment Act 2000 (the Act), namely whether severance pay is payable to an employee where he is offered “re-employment by the employer”.
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What Delroy thinks

On what sets Trott & Duncan apart

We have a strong litigation department at all levels and a long history of doing both local and international work. We maintain a substantial local practice, while still earning a noticeable presence in international work for trust, insolvency and company law. We have a strong commercial practice, we are also the preeminent firm on the island for labour relations, constitutional law and judicial review. On the transactional side, the firm has a niche clientele for probate and conveyancing because we have an attentive and caring private client team. We are very much embedded in the community. People come to us because of our history; they remain with us because we value our clients.

My pupillage and tenancy at Cloisters had a profound influence on me. At the time, it was the one of the top ten sets of Chambers in London and David Turner-Samuels, who became Head of Chambers, had represented Bermudians charged in the BELCO riots in the 1960s. Cloisters was producing many of the leading public lawyers of the generation and I was privileged to work alongside them. Those experiences inspired me to take on a lot of public law cases when I came to Bermuda.

I was honoured to receive the appointment as Queen’s Counsel in a ceremony at Westminster Hall in London, but my overriding sentiment is one of deep gratitude for the people whose contributions and example helped to shape my personal and professional life trajectory. Taking silk in England is a rare designation, especially in Bermuda, and having Jerome Lynch, KC working with Trott & Duncan makes us the only firm on-island with two Queen’s Counsels on staff.

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