‘Covid has made it all so different’
COVID-19 has led to a very different experience than expected for Guernsey’s first female Deputy Bailiff.
Jessica Roland outlined her past 11 months in the role, having further made history by being the first crown appointment whose swearing in was streamed over the internet last May, at a Chamber of Commerce lunch yesterday.
Since then Ms Roland has presided over court hearings and States meetings over Microsoft Teams, which has presented occasional frustrations and some opportunities.
Frustrating times when connections have been lost, or people forget to mute or unmute themselves, while the situation has provided impetus to a digitisation project at the Royal Court.
States meetings have seen votes having to be retaken as technology failed, and moments of humour or concerns when deputies have spoken out of turn and unmuted.
Ms Roland supported the presiding officer of the States remaining as an unelected position.
She said that this was a strength of the system and meant that every deputy could have confidence they would have every opportunity to speak in the chamber.
Her ground-breaking appointment has led to some questions – including how she should be addressed, with some slipping in debate and calling her sir, although she was unfazed by that.
The Deputy Bailiff’s ceremonial clothes are also tailored for men, although Ms Roland joked it was lucky Guernseymen were traditionally short of stature.
She is still waiting for some tailored garments to arrive from London because of Covid-related delays.
Ms Roland was previously managing partner at law firm Mourant in Guernsey. She became the first female Deputy Bailiff since the role was created in 1969, to serve as a judge in court and presiding officer in the States.
‘I feel like cut-price Kamala Harris’
JESSICA ROLAND told yesterday how she has been overwhelmed by the response to her appointment over the past year.
She joked that she felt like a ‘cut-price Kamala Harris’ – the first female US Vice-President – but also outlined other experiences which had shaped her life and career, including being the first member of her family to go to university, being the product of a single parent family, and being a mother.
She said she hoped her appointment would mean that others were not limited by their own expectations of what they can achieve
Before university she attended the Girls Grammar School.
‘There was an expectation of where you would end up in life, and that wasn’t as Deputy Bailiff,’ she said. ‘It’s important to aspire beyond the boxes we put on ourselves in and what society does.’
