Created: May 15, 2025 02:37 PM (Updated: May 15, 2025 02:38 PM)
Firebrand: Lawrence “Larry” Scott’s social and political conscience informed his 2011 treatise on the drivers of the island’s antisocial behaviour (File photograph)
An outspoken former political figure who served on the Corporation of Hamilton has been remembered as a lawyer with a drive for social justice.
Lawrence “Larry” Scott, who was 78, was a Hamilton councillor with Charles Gosling, the mayor, after getting elected to City Hall in 2012 under the previous “Team Hamilton” administration of Graeme Outerbridge.
Mr Scott, brother to the former Progressive Labour Party Attorney-General Michael Scott, was a prominent civil and criminal advocate in the firm of Scott & Scott, as well as an author.
His passing was marked this morning by Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe.
Mr Justice Wolffe told the Supreme Court: “We all know about his personality and passion for the law, and his willingness to help others.
“He was a consummate gentleman — it is a sad day for the legal profession.”
Larry Scott contemplates his role as a Hamilton councillor (File photograph)
Mr Scott served on the executive of the United Bermuda Party and was a UBP senator from 1993 to 1998.
In the days of dual constituencies, Mr Scott ran for the party in Warwick East along with Bob Richards in the General Election of 1998, when the PLP took the Government for the first time and won the constituency in the process.
Mr Richards scored 776 votes and Mr Scott got 784, but Dale Butler of the PLP topped the polls with 1,320 votes and Alex Scott, who went on to serve as premier from 2003 to 2006, took 1,278.
Larry Scott (File photograph)
Mr Scott was also an author whose 2011 book It’s Only 4 per cent — Crime in Bermuda explored the roots of the island’s troubles.
The cause was dear to him, as Mr Scott spelled out in uncompromising statements in the Upper House, in letters to The Royal Gazette, on social media and in his book, which shocked some readers.
He delved into his legal experience in particular to speak out on racial bias and what he saw as an overly punitive court system that put young Black men at a disadvantage.
“I am fairly straightforward with my views and I don’t apologise for that,” he told the Gazettein 2011.
“I want people to think about these things instead of saying ‘you have offended’. We have some difficulties in this community and I try to tackle them from the root cause.”
Larry Scott (File photograph)
He attended Sandys Secondary School followed by Wilberforce University in Ohio, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and political science in 1971.
By his own admission, he struggled academically but pulled through on grit.
He studied law in Britain at the Polytechnic of North London — which became the University of North London, then the London Metropolitan University — and received his law degree in 1980.
In 1993, he earned a legal education certificate from Norman Manley Law School in Kingston, Jamaica.
