Dame Joan Augusta Sawyer, DBE, PC (born 26 November 1940) is a Bahamian judge. She was Chief Justice of the Bahamas from 1996 to 2001 and President of the Court of Appeal of the Bahamas from 2001 to 2010. She was the first woman to ever serve in those two positions.
Sawyer was born in George Town, Exuma, Bahamas. She received her early education at the George Town Public School, Government High School, Aquinas College, and the Government High School Evening Institute. She obtained an LL.B. at the University of London, and studied for the bar exams at the College of Law in London in 1970.
Sawyer was called to the Bar of England and Wales at Gray's Inn on 19 July 1973 and to the Bahamas Bar two months later. She began her career in 1958 as a clerk-trainee at the Ministry of Public Works.
She was named a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Bahamas on 6 May 1988, and served in that position until 30 June 1995. She returned to the bench on 1 November 1996 as Chief Justice, where she sat until 26 November 2001.[1]
She was then appointed President of the Court of Appeal; a position from which she retired on 26 November 2010, her 70th birthday. She was succeeded in the position by Anita Allen, the second woman to hold the job.[2] [3] Sawyer is also a member of the Indian Council of Jurists.[4]
Sawyer was married to the late Geoffrey Sawyer; they had one son, Samuel.