Despite a call by former attorney general Karl Hudson-Phillips for Seenath Jairam to step down as president of the Law Association, the Council of the Association on Tuesday night affirmed confidence in him.

Jairam last week indicated he would not resign.

In a statement, the Council said it considered the issues surrounding the acceptance and return of a brief by Jairam from Finance Minister Larry Howai.

"The Council, after deliberation, wishes to express its continuing confidence in Mr Jairam, SC, as president of the Association. The Council very much regrets that issues between colleagues were put out for public consumption," it stated.

Last week, Hudson-Phillips publicly rebuked Jairam for his acceptance of a brief from the State after the lawyers were fired.

It was suggested that Jairam's acceptance of the state's CLICO brief was an obvious conflict of interest, as he had previously represented CLICO policyholders in a matter, which is still ongoing.

Hudson-Phillips reasoned that Jairam's actions reflected negatively on the Association and he should have done the honourable thing and step down from the presidency.

Jairam and junior counsel Joseph Toney later returned the CLICO brief to the Ministry of Finance.

In a letter last weekend, Jairam retaliated, describing Hudson-Phillips's statements as "crass", and questioned his moral authority to chastise him. Hudson-Phillips maintained Jairam was still wrong and should not have accepted the brief in the first instance.

Last week, the council held an emergency meeting to discuss the public insults and the conduct of the president, and conferred again on Tuesday to deliberate on the matter.

"The Council reminds its membership that as a self-regulating profession, attorneys-at-law must avoid pursuing personal conflicts in the public domain, least the profession is brought into disrepute," it ended its statement.