Attorney Upali Gooneratne felicitated

Sarath Malalasekera

Felicitation of Senior Attorney-at-Law Upali A. Gooneratne by his past and present members of his Chambers was held on May 30, at the Hotel Galadari to mark the 37th Anniversary of his admission as an Advocate. Upali Gooneratne who was the first lawyer of the Republic celebrated his 61st Birthday on May 31.

He started his schooling as a boarder at the Ratnapura Convent at the age of 4 1/2 years and later attended St. Aloysius College (SAC) Ratnapura and SAC Galle where he was always the first at every Term Test walking away with the coveted class (“General Proficiency”) Prize and the maximum number of prizes at each Annual Prize-giving. After his GCE O/L Examination, he joined Ananda College, Colombo.

He joined the Ceylon Law College (CLC) in 1967. Being only 19 years, he was the youngest male student at CLC and its youngest Advocate student. He was, among other offices, elected uncontested as the General Secretary - Law Students’ Union (LSU), President of the Law Students’ Buddhist Brotherhood and a member-executive Committee of the Law Students’ Sinhala Union.

He drafted the new LSU Constitution of 1970, sacrificing his Final Examination that October, only to keep an election promise. It was adopted unanimously after the longest meeting lasting 8 hours and 10 minutes in the LSU history, chaired by R. K. W. Goonesekera himself.

He obtained First Class Honours at the Advocates’ Intermediate Examination. He passed the Final held in May 1971, after the April insurrection that year. It was only after his “Call”, that he began to realise the bitter realities of trying to commence practice as a young Advocate in the big city, with no legal connections whatsoever.

Though he apprenticed in the Chambers of Vernon Wijetunge, QC, it was without a Senior that he started his own practice as a Criminal Lawyer. That opportunity came by later from that magnanimous “great” the late Eardley Perera PC.

Though he was chosen for the privilege of joining AG’s Department in early 1974, it was due to pressing personal reasons that he had to decline, a decision he still regrets.