While for­mer Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie’s near­ly two-decade tenure was marked by oc­ca­sion­al con­tro­ver­sy, col­leagues and staff yes­ter­day re­mem­bered him as a trans­for­ma­tion­al leader who mod­ernised Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Ju­di­cia­ry.

Ap­pel­late Judge Char­maine Pem­ber­ton, who served along­side Archie in the Court of Ap­peal, ad­dressed a spe­cial court sit­ting at the Hall of Jus­tice in Port-of-Spain to com­mem­o­rate his re­tire­ment.

She ac­knowl­edged pub­lic crit­i­cism of his tenure, ref­er­enc­ing a news­pa­per re­port that de­scribed it as “dogged by con­tro­ver­sy.”