Law History Profiles

July is a cold, wintry month in Melbourne, Australia. That is when, and where, approximately 46 years ago, Richard S. Margetts, president of the Law Society of British Columbia, was introduced to the world. A contrarian by both inclination and genetics, it is fitting that Richard should now thrive in a land on the opposite side of the globe, where July is part of a warmer and more hospitable season ... 

Adriana Wills is a Partner at Harris & Company LLP (“Harris”) in Vancouver. Her legal practice primarily focuses on workplace law as well as employment law, labour law, and human rights law. With over 30 years of experience, Wills has appeared before the British Columbia Supreme Court and the British Columbia Court of Appeal, as well as the Labour Relations Board and the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal. Since 2010 she has been annually recognized by Best Lawyers in Canada in the Labour and Employment Law sectors.

Jan Lindsay, Q.C., the new president of the Law Society of British Columbia, is smart, warm and genuine. Jan has risen to her position as president as a result of hard work, determination and a bucketload of talent. The profession will be well served by her leadership. Jan has lived her entire life in the Lower Mainland. She was born at the Vancouver Grace Hospital on January 20, 1955, the first-born child of Abie and Carol Klassen. As the eldest offspring and only daughter, Jan was expected to set a good example for her younger brothers, Stan, Lory and Glen.

Born and raised in Kelowna, Paul Mitchell has played an integral part in his hometown’s remarkable growth over the last few decades. He is a tireless community volunteer and leader whose strategic initiatives and involvement in dozens of socially-oriented organizations have helped to create a vibrant and connected city.

Brian Higgins, Class of 1979, has the unique quality of having greatly impacted the lives of countless law students at the University of British Columbia without ever having been their professor. Higgins was the longest serving Supervisor Lawyer of the Law Students' Legal Advice Program, working with the Program from 1988 until his retirement in 2011.

While in Terrace, Darrell was one of the leading criminal barristers in that city, being involved in numerous high-profile cases, including many jury trials. Darrell soon became very well known throughout the north, representing clients in criminal cases of all varieties, from minor shoplifting cases in the Provincial Court to lengthy and complicated murders and conspiracies before juries in the Supreme Court.

Ross Beaty is a graduate of geology and law, and holds a Master’s from Imperial College London. He has founded and divested several resource companies and is currently the chairman of Pan American Silver Corp and Alterra Power Corp. Mr. Beaty is also a passionate environmental philanthropist. Through his work with the Sitka Foundation he aims to promote biodiversity and protect the environment through the support of environmental research, education and public policy.

Suzanne Anton, QC was elected as the MLA for Vancouver-Fraserview in May of 2013, and held the position of Attorney General and Minister of Justice from June 2013 to June 2017. As the second in a three generation law school family, her association with the Allard School of Law runs deep. Ms. Anton’s father, David R. Williams, was a graduate of the Class of 1949, which was the second in the law school’s history. Her son, Robert Anton, graduated in 2011. Ms.

It is an honour and pleasure to have the opportunity to write about our Canadian Bar Association B.C. Branch president this year, Margaret Ostrowski, Q.C. Margaret is a rare find. She is a lawyer who is at once a consummate and ethical professional and yet maintains a hectic agenda as a devoted mother of two active, accomplished sons in school and a stepmother to three grown children. She is a well-rounded person.

At just past halfway through her five-year term as a chief judge of the Provincial Court of British Columbia, Carol Baird Ellen cannot be said to have had an uneventful tenure so far. In a rare moment of quiet contemplation recently, we shared some reflections on those first 30 months and thoughts about the second half ... 

In the fall of 2007, after 23 years with the Community Legal Assistance Society (“CLAS”), Jim Pozer, the society’s executive director, retired for health reasons. Few people have done as much as Jim to advance the rights of the underprivileged in British Columbia. Throughout his career, with trademark humour and grace, he worked tirelessly to advance the law relating to poverty, mental health, the physically and mentally disadvantaged and human rights ...

Grand Chief Edward John was born at Nak'al Bun (Stuart Lake), in northern British Columbia in 1949. He was taken to the Lejac Residential School on Fraser Lake, but completed high school at Prince George College, where he was elected class president. He attended the University of Victoria, graduating in 1974 with a BA in Sociology. After a year as the executive director of the Prince George Indian Friendship Centre and a year as education director for the Tl'azt'en First Nation, he enrolled in the law school at the University of British Columbia.

On May 7, 2009 British Columbia’s Provincial Court Chief Judge, Hugh Stansfield (‘79), died from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the white blood cells. An intelligent, dynamic and open-minded judge, he was involved in or directly responsible for many of the significant reforms in BC’s provincial court over the past 15 years. He was 56 years old ... 

His father was a member of Dean Curtis’s second graduating class in 1949. He attended University Hill School and played field hockey where Gage Towers now sit, urged into the sport at age six by Dr. Harry Warren, an Olympic sprinter, Rhodes Scholar geology professor and friend of George Curtis. Two of Curtis’s boys were teammates.

Justice Alnashir Visram (LL.B. ’78) was born and raised in Kenya, and in the mid-70s, he wanted to start a new life in Canada. Already a practicing Kenyan lawyer, Visram decided to repeat law school so he could start a new legal career in Canada. But nine years after graduating from law school at UBC, Visram found himself back in Kenya. Visram is now a judge in the Kenyan Court of Appeal, the highest court in Kenya. Here he talks about his journey from Kenya to Canada, and back again ...

As a native Vancouverite interested in business and law, UBC was the natural choice for Ron. He completed the seven-year combined Commerce/Law program in 1978 and found the legal education he received at UBC to be indispensable preparation for his employment at Farris & Company. However, his foray into the legal world did not last long. A year after being called to the bar in 1979, Ron decided to enroll in the MBA program at the University of Western Ontario.

When it comes to the environment, Gregory McDade pulls no punches. “I think the battle for climate change is largely lost. Our kids will inherit a very different world than the one we live in.” Spoken by one of Canada’s top environmental lawyers, these words must not be taken lightly.

The Honourable Madam Justice Risa E. Levine holds a BA (Honours) and an MA in Sociology from the University of Toronto and an LLB from the University of British Columbia's law school. She received the Law Society Gold Medal and Prize for the LLB class of 1977, in recognition of achieving the highest cumulative grade point average over three years of study at the Allard School of Law. She would later join the Faculty as an adjunct professor and join the Dean's Advisory Committee for the Centre for Business Law.

Elizabeth Arnold-Bailey was sworn in as a justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia on May 4, 2005. Madam Justice Arnold-Bailey leaves a large void to fill on the Provincial Court of British Columbia, where she has presided for the last 15 years.

Kerry-Lynne Donna Findlay was elected this spring by acclamation to be the President of the B.C. branch of the Canadian Bar Association for the year commencing in August 1997. Kerry-Lynne was born in the early evening hours of January 12, 1955, at Ladysmith, B.C., much to the joy and pride of her parents, Stephen and Norah Findlay ...