Facing a dismissal recommended by the Senate Select Committee, the past Chairman of the Social Security Board Yasin Shoman resigned on July 19. Well, tonight there is a new Chairman and he is attorney Michel Chebat who takes over the Chairman's seat effective tomorrow. And while he is the new Chairman, he isn't new to Social Security.

Chebat was the attorney for the Social Security Board for the past 7 years; that is, up until August first when he resigned that post, as we understood it then, in protest of the dismissal of Narda Garcia who he had worked with closely.

Chebat would later tell us that he was one of the attorneys defending Narda Garcia in her case against the same Social Security Board for wrongful dismissal. But today he told us that he never formally presented himself as her attorney of record. Chebat added that the Prime Minister asked him if he would take up the post and he accepted because he thinks his long knowledge of the workings of the SSB would benefit the institution, bring transparency and integrity to the board, and provide continuity.

And it is continuity in more ways than one; apart from being Garcia's former legal ally, Chebat is also the law partner of Ambassador Lisa Shoman, the daughter of former Chairman Yasin Shoman, which we would put at.... say...two degrees of separation...?

Under new leadership the board holds its first meeting next month.