Savitri St. John

Savitri St. John is a Partner and Head of our Firm’s Property Department.

Savitri is also responsible for the training of our Firm’s Property Department associates. Her energetic and pro-active approach to the practice of law and its advancement has led to the development of many talented young attorneys not only with the Firm but also at the Barbados Bar, as her counsel is regularly sought by her colleagues within the legal fraternity.

Savitri graduated from the Hugh Wooding Law School of The University of the West Indies where she excelled, being awarded the Pelham Sloane-Seale prize for conveyancing.

A native of Grenada and Barbados, Savitri was enrolled as a member of the Grenada Bar in 1994, joining the legal firm of Henry, Henry and Bristol, practicing commercial and real estate law. There she continued to shine and was elected as the secretary of the Grenada Bar Association.

She was admitted to practice in Barbados in 1997, when she joined the firm of Clarke & Co.

Since then, she has specialised in real estate law with particular interest in commercial real estate matters and was admitted to partnership in the merged firm of Clarke Gittens Farmer in 2003.

As a natural extension to her practice, Savitri has an instinctive and extensive command of banking and finance law, and has worked with the leading commercial banks, insurance companies and other lending institutions, as well as private developers and high net worth individuals. Apart from guiding her clients on title and security issues for residential and commercial loans, she has been responsible for the complete revision of several commercial banks’ and lending institutions’ security documentation and lending practices. She also conducts training seminars for lending and risk officers, helping them understand and expedite the legal process of securing a loan with a high rate of recovery while providing solutions for their customers to maintain their competitive edge.

Over the course of almost three decades, she has worked with lenders and developers on a wide range of capital projects from the very simple to multi-party cross border transactions, including hotel financing, commercial and residential real estate developments (whether by way of share or real estate sales and purchases), project finance, restructuring and timeshare. Savitri is highly experienced in negotiating and drafting the documentation for condominium developments, timeshare and commercial leases and has solved numerous title defects for pre-existing developments which have had occasion to cross her desk. She has considerable experience on such matters as rights of way, easements, covenants and town planning.

Savitri’s expertise is not limited to real estate matters, as she is a trusted advisor to several corporate conglomerates with multiple diverse interests and activities within local and regional markets, including manufacturing, construction, merchandising, insurance and tourism and tourism related activities. Of late, she has been helping her clients invest in the renewable energy sector on the acquisition of their underlying real estate assets.

Savitri was appointed as a Justice of the Peace in 2022.

Savitri is dedicated to doing her part to raise the standard of the Bar in Barbados and to this end has sat on the Land Transfer Committee of the Barbados Bar Association and given seminars to the Barbados Bar on the topic of Conveyancing and Registration of Title. She has also tutored both current and aspiring real estate agents on real estate law for the Barbados Community College and for the Barbados Estate and Valuers Association.

Savitri is as committed to her community as she is her clients, and is an active and enthusiastic member of the Rotary Club of Barbados. She has been elected to and served on the Board of that Club.