Kaushalya Nawaratne to contest for post of President of BASL 2023/2024

Kaushalya Nawaratne has declared his intention to contest for the post of President, Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) at the election to be held next year.

Mr Nawaratne completed his primary and secondary education at Vijaya College and St Thomas’ College, Matale respectively, where he was a senior prefect and captained the First XI cricket team.

He entered Law College in 1993 and functioned as an active member of the Law Students’ Buddhist Brotherhood and was the Vice Captain of the cricket team.

On graduating from Law College, he joined the Chambers of Kandiah Sivanantham, Senior Attorney-atLaw, the founder of Sivanantham and Associates where he successfully completed an internship.

Mr Nawaratne was called to the Bar in June 1997 and devilled in the chambers of Kushan D’ Alwis, President’s Counsel.

With over 25 years of experience as a counsel, Mr Nawaratne heads a chamber and has produced many juniors who have become successful practitioners both in the Official and Unofficial Bar.Mr Nawaratne, appears in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, Civil Appellate High Court, Commercial High Court, Labour Tribunals, Rent Board, Land Acquisition Board of Review, Industrial Court, Debt Reconciliation Board, Administrative Appeals

Tribunal and Waqf Tribunal.

Mr Nawaratne has served the legal fraternity in many capacities for several years. He was the Secretary of the Colombo Law Society (2014/2016) and thereafter was elected as the President of the Colombo Law Society (2016/2017). He served the Bar Association as the Zonal Vice President (Colombo), member of the Executive Committee and Member of the Bar Council for many years and elected BASL Secretary in 2019.

As Secretary of the Bar Association, Mr Nawaratne was able to facilitate the donation of much needed Computers, Laptops, Legal publications etc, to Outstation Bars in order to enhance their access to legal knowledge. Further, he coordinated the improvements of infra-structure facilities of Outstation Bars, especially the donation of furniture etc, for the benefit of the members.

Most significantly, Mr Nawaratne has always given priority to junior members of the Bar through many programmes which were conducted during his tenure as the Secretary of the BASL, such as Career Development Programmes, Apprenticeship Programmes, Legal Awareness Programmes etc., through the BASL and was instrumental in setting up a Junior Bar Centre at the BASL Secretariat for the betterment of the Juniors. Further, a novel programme such as the Toastmasters

Club was introduced for the benefit of the juniors to enhance their oratorial and leadership skills.

During his tenure the BASL hosted the National Law Conferences and Junior National Law Conferences. In addition, many Provincial Law Conferences, Continuous Legal Education Seminars, Day Seminars, Skills Development Programmes for members, Workshops in various areas of practice, covering every Provincial Bar association as well as the Tri Forces, Programmes for the empowerment of Women Lawyers, Interaction with International fora, Legal Aid programmes for the benefit of the General Public, Law week, Bench and Bar Discussions to address the issues of practitioners were conducted for the benefit of the members.

Mr Nawaratne serves as a member of the Disciplinary Committee appointed by the Chief Justice under the Judicature Act and also functions as an Additional Chief Editor of the Editorial Board for the Publication of the Sri Lanka Law Reports.

Mr Nawaratne also served as a member of the Incorporated Council of Legal Education and as a member of the Executive Committee of Law Asia for 2019/2020. Further, as the Chief Legal Advisor of the Sub-Committee on Commercial Law Reforms of the Ministry of Justice, Mr Nawaratne had submitted many proposals relating to Commercial Law Reforms. He also functioned as a member of the Civil Law Reforms Sub Committee and the Committee on the Digitalisation of Court Systems in Sri Lanka.