Law History Profiles

James Donald Baker was born at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia in December 1936. While he was still a child, his father died in an automobile accident, and his mother moved to East Vancouver. James Baker grew up on the east side of the city, and attended high school at Gladstone Secondary.

Kenneth S. Benson was born in Vancouver and attended school on the Westside of the city, graduating from Grade 13 at King Edward High in 1956. He entered the Commerce-Law option at the University of British Columbia, and graduated with his LL.B. in 1962. In order to pay for his university education expenses, he worked throughout university driving trucks for Dairyland Milk Foods.

Nick A. Blom was born and raised in Wassenaar, on the west coast of Holland. At Christmas of his Grade 9 year, he immigrated with his family to Canada, settling in Pitt Meadows in early 1953. He completed high school in Port Moody, and enrolled at the University of British Columbia. He graduated with a BA in Math and Economics in 1959. Being unsure of what to do next, and realizing that a law degree gave the broadest choice of careers after graduation, Blom enrolled in law school and graduated from UBC in 1962.

Kenneth J. Doolan graduated from high school Kitsilano Secondary in 1952. He attended the University of British Columbia, eventually taking the Commerce-Law option and graduation with his LL.B. in 1962.

He obtained articles under Allan McEachern (as he then was), and practiced law for 21. In November 1984, he was then sworn in as the District Registrar of the Supreme Court siting in Vancouver. Two months later he was sworn in as a Registrar in Bankruptcy. In 1989 he was sworn in as a Master of the Court, and sat as a Master until reaching retirement age in September 2003.

Douglas Mitchell was a distinguished lawyer, committed volunteer and thoughtful philanthropist who has helped many community organizations, but outstanding among these efforts is his long-time support of amateur sport in Canada, and university athletes in particular.

Fred Green was born in Victoria, BC and spent most of his time on Vancouver Island. He spent a brief time in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia to study law, obtaining his LL.B. in 1962.

Marvin Storrow is an accomplished lawyer whose career includes several groundbreaking cases that have steered the course of legal history in Canada. He has received many distinctions including the highest award from the Canadian Bar Association's British Columbia Branch and the Milvain Chair of Advocacy Award from the University of Calgary, which is awarded to a leading Canadian courtroom lawyer.

“I heard lots of bombers and V1’s. The V2’s you didn’t hear. We were the luckiest people of course; most of the rest of Europe was far worse off.” Martin R. Taylor grew up in England during the Second World War. His mother was in the Army and his father was in the Home Guard. At the age of twenty-one, he embarked for North America on the RMS Queen Elizabeth with a sense of adventure and a willingness to go wherever fate took him.

Kenneth G. Hanna was born in Vanguard, Saskatchewan and spent his formative years in town across Alberta and Saskatchewan, before graduating from Crescent Heights High School in Calgary. He began law school at the University of Edmonton, but a visit to Vancouver at the start of his second year and a chance meeting with Dean Curtis inspired him to transfer to the University of British Columbia.

Born and raised in Victoria, Cecil graduated from St. Michael's University School. He proved to be an able student, an excellent athlete, and was B.C. Junior Boys Tennis Champion. While at Victoria College (later UVic) he coached the girls' grass hockey team, started the Student Liberal Club and served on the student council…

For more, read Profile of Cecil Branson in The Advocate, 74 (2016).

Vaughan Hembroff shares the distinction of many of his classmates from the class of 1962 - appointment to a superior court. He attended the University of British Columbia to study Arts, where he met his wife Marilyn and was married in 1957. He proceeded to study law at UBC, and admits he enjoyed every minute of it. He returned to article in his hometown of Lethbridge, Alberta under Charles G. Virtue at Virtue and Company.

Douglas Mitchell was a distinguished lawyer, committed volunteer and thoughtful philanthropist who has helped many community organizations, but outstanding among these efforts is his long-time support of amateur sport in Canada, and university athletes in particular.

Robert Hunter was born in Vancouver and grew up attending school on the West Side of the city. He enrolled at the University of British Columbia in the combined Commerce and Law program, graduating with his LL.B. in 1962. He articled in Vancouver with Campney, Owen and Murphy, but shortly after being called moved to Kamloops, where he practiced with Fulton, Rogers and Company for 29 years.

Jon L. Jessiman graduated from the University of British Columbia with his LL.B. in 1962. After graduation he practiced law in Vancouver, eventually specializing in Admiralty Law and working primarily as counsel in the Federal Court System, although concurrent jurisdiction in maritime law meant his cases would sometimes need to be argued at all levels of courts.

Jack Lee was born into a large family and raised with his 6 siblings in Vancouver's Chinatown. He attended the University of British Columbia, obtaining a degree in Commerce before his LL.B. in 1962. He opened his own practice in Chinatown, focusing on real estate law, where he worked until his retirement in 2008.

"I don’t have any illusions that my work will endure forever. It has to get examined and re-examined and modified as we know more about different kinds of issues. And that’s the way it should be.”

Warren Mitchell graduated from law school at the University of British Columbia in 1962, and articled with Allen McKimmie. He practiced there briefly after being called, but soon joind the Department of National Revenue in Ottawa, with the responsibility to litigate tax cases for the Department in Western Canada.

Willis Edward (Bill) O'Leary was born in Vulcan, Alberta and raised outside Edmonton and in Calgary, which he considers home. He grew up playing hockey in Calgary and his talent would determine the early years of his life. He was invited in 1949 to the New York Rangers prospect camp. While never playing for the NY Rangers, O'Leary did receive a scholarship to play hockey at the University of Denver, where he graduated with a degree in Business Administration in 1953.

Henry Allen Hope has been elected by his fellow Benchers to serve as the next Treasurer of the Law Society. This is partly because he is the next senior Bencher, but those who know him will realize that it is also because of his not inconsiderable ability and in spite of his not inconsiderable eccentricities. For instance, he owns, and runs, a 600 acre dairy farm on the Blackwater Road, outside Prince George and is, as careful research is able to establish, the only member of the history of the Bar to have been run over by his own tractor, while driving it …

The Honourable Alfred (“Alfie”) J. Scow, OC, OBC, of the Kwicksutaineuk-ah-kwa-mish First Nation on Vancouver Island, was born at a time when Aboriginal individuals were prohibited from entering the legal profession, but went on to become the first Aboriginal person to graduate from a BC law school and the first Aboriginal lawyer in BC to be called to the Bar. In 1971, he became the first Aboriginal BC Provincial Court judge, a capacity in which he served until his retirement in 1992.