Cheryl-Lynn Vidal
Belize
Cheryl-Lynn Vidal is a national of Trinidad and Tobago and Belize.
She obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the West Indies in 1996 and a Certificate of Legal Education from the Hugh Wooding Law School in 1998. She also holds a Master of Laws Degree with a specialization in Criminology and Criminal Justice and a Master of Laws Degree with a specialization in Human Rights Law, both of which she obtained from the University of London in 2015 and 2019 respectively.
She was entered on the roll of attorneys-at-law in Trinidad and Tobago in 1998, in Jamaica in 1999 and in Belize in the year 2000.
After working in private practice in her native Trinidad and Tobago and in Jamaica, she began employment with the Government of Belize in the year 2000 as a Crown Counsel in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. She later held the posts of Crown Counsel in the Solicitor General’s Office of the Attorney-General’s Ministry, Registrar of the High Court and Court of Appeal, and Legal Adviser to the Belize Police Department.
In 2008 she was appointed to act as Director of Public Prosecutions and was confirmed in the post in 2010. She was the first female appointed to serve as DPP in the history of Belize.
In her 15 year tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions she has continued to pursue her passion for advocacy and regularly appears in trial and appellate courts, and before the Caribbean Court of Justice, Belize’s apex Court. In January of 2014, she was elevated to the rank of Senior Counsel.
She has been actively involved in the Bar Association of Belize where she served as a Bar Committee Member in 2016, Vice President from 2017 to 2018 and then President from 2018 to 2020.
She is currently a member of the General Legal Council of Belize and also served in this capacity from 2018 to 2020.
She has been an Associate Tutor with the Norman Manley Law School, Jamaica, since 2021. She assists to tutor the Advocacy Course.
She became a member of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association in September of 2023.
