Law History Profiles

"Someone I think who is successful in business by and large isn’t stupid, by and large has interests, by and large have ideas, they do things, that’s a good friend to have. So my social network and my professional network overlap a lot and that has been a source of great joy and huge reward." - Lyall Knott, Q.C., Expo 86 Director, Honourary Captain - Canadian Fleet Pacific - Royal Canadian Navy, Honourary Counsel for The Republic of Tunisia, Class of 1972. 

Malcolm Giles Taylor was born in 1943 and grew up in Sapperton, making the most of life as child and teenager in New Westminster, British Columbia. He played basketball (finishing 3rd at the provincial championships in 1961), football (as a QB who may have handed off more than he threw), and soccer (organized by the eventual first female CBABC president - Marlene Scott).

Glen Ridgway, the Law Society’s new president, was born in Langenburg, Saskatchewan, on September 14, 1947. According to Glen, it was an event of historic proportions. So much so, that his mother and his father, the latter of whom was an active member of the Liberal Party, named him after James Garfield Gardiner, the two-time premier of Saskatchewan and powerful minister of agriculture in the cabinet of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King ... 

One of the "lucky few" who was born and raised and built his adult life in Vancouver, Dave was born on December 26, 1948 and graduated from Magee High School in 1967. He valued the many friends he made during those formative years, maintaining many of those friendships throughout his life. Dave then enrolled at UBC, where he joined the Zeta Psi Fraternity and excelled in all aspects of the fraternity lifestyle. Called to the B.C. bar on May 15, 1974, Dave began his career in the three- man firm of Hawthorne Piggott and Kington, known today as Hawthorn Piggott and Company. 

There are occasions when both the match of the person to the office is so fitting that those who know both are moved to observe: “Of course; so obviously right; there is no one more eminently suited to the task.” The accession of Doug Robinson of Lawson Lundell Lawson & McIntosh to the office of President of the B.C. Branch of the Canadian Bar Association is just such an occasion. He brings a formidable combination of talent and experience to bear at critical juncture in the affairs of the profession ...

Many people skate, glide or walk through life, but Jim marched through life, mowing down any obstacle in his path - and we mean that in a good way. He loved life, he loved people, he adored his family and he loved to talk. Jim was born on September 2, 1947 and was a lifelong Vancouverite. He attended John Oliver High School and then Simon Fraser University, obtaining a degree in history.

At perhaps one of the most important junctures in the long history of the Law Society of B.C. (the “LSBC”), the presidency has been placed in the steady and capable hands of Bill Everett. Lawyers and members of the public at large (in whose interest the LSBC governs the legal profession) have every reason to be confident that, whatever the coming year may throw in his way, Bill will exercise his mandate as president in a manner that will be a credit to the important position he now occupies ... 

Geoff was born in Victoria on May 1, 1945. The family moved to Burnaby where his father built the house that Geoff lived in until he left home. Geoff was only ten years old when his father passed away from injuries he sustained from his Navy years. Geoff grew up quickly, learning about responsibilities working first as a paperboy, then with Safeway. He excelled in all that he took on from an early age. As a teenager he progressed through the scouting movement to become a Queen's Scout. Throughout his lifetime Geoff exhibited his integrity, honour and compassion for others… 

Peter Allard was of mixed French Canadian and English-Scottish ancestry. The Allards came from Poitiers, France, to New France in the 1680s, while his mother's family, the Dallamores (Peter's maternal grandfather) came from St. Helena and South Africa via Somersetshire, England at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the Ritchies, Macdonalds, and Camerons came to Canada from around Stirling and Edinburgh, Scotland, in about 1900.

Mr. Hamilton grew up in Victoria, BC and graduated from Oak Bay High School in 1962. He has a BA from the University of Victoria, an LLB from the University of British Columbia, and an LLM from the University of London (London School of Economics). He was called to the Bar in British Columbia in 1973, and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2009. 

A Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal recipient, Ted Hawthorne has made tremendous contributions to his community, including his law firm Hawthorne, Piggott & Company where he served as a partner for nearly 50 years. He has served as a president, chairman, director and trustee in many non-profit charities including, the Columbus Long Term Care Society, the Veterans’ Care Facility, the Royal City Youth Ballet Company Society, The BC Regiment (DCO) Charitable Trust and the Army Cadet League of Canada. 

William J. Diebolt was sworn in as the Chief Judge of the Provincial Court of British Columbia on October 5, 1989. He ended his distinguished term, slightly over the statutory five-year period, on February 1, 1995, when Chief Judge Robert Metzger succeeded him ... 

Donald J. Sorochan obtained his BA from the University of Alberta in 1966. Following graduation he was employed by Canadian Pacific Airways at the Edmonton Airport. Enrolling at the University of British Columbia to study law in 1968, he remained employed with the company at the Vancouver Airport. He graduated with his LL.B. in 1971 and obtained articles at Swinton & Company in Vancouver, the predecessor of Miller Thomson. He would spend his entire career in practice with the firm, and served two terms as managing partner (1981-1984, 1996-2000).

Edward Robert Arthur Edwards, Q.C. is British Columbia’s thirteenth Deputy Attorney General, the first having been appointed in 1871. That means the average term in office is ten years. If Bob maintains that average, it will be our good fortune. He is exceptionally well suited for the task ... 

Originally from Vermont, Carey Linde was known for his student radicalism during his time at the University of British Columbia, where he first enrolled in 1960. He came to UBC with an interest in all things zoological, but was influenced by his international roommate in housing at Acadia camp and as a result discovered a multitude of interests in areas such as history, philosophy, and his eventual major of psychology. Following this discovery, he, with an impression similar to many students of the era, found UBC had little to offer him. Seeking other outlets for his new interests, Mr.

Joost Blom was born in Pitt Meadows and received his BA from UBC in 1967. He went on to complete a LLB at UBC in 1970 before pursuing a BCL from Oxford in 1972. Universities were vigorously expanding throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s: more students were coming and more professors were needed. When UBC Law opened in 1945, there were only two full-time faculty members, Dean George Curtis and Frederick “Pappy” Read, with much of the teaching duties falling on practicing members of the local bar.

A partner with Rush, Crane, Guenther, Stuart Rush provides ongoing litigation and counsel for the Okanagan, Kwakiutl, and Pic River Ojibway First Nations as well as the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, and speaks extensively on Aboriginal rights and the use of oral history evidence. He was appointed Queens Counsel in 1992. These are his words:

On May 12, 2000, the Honourable Mr. Justice Donald I. Brenner accepted the invitation of Prime Minister Jean Chretien to become the 14th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. In what has been described by many from both the bench and bar as a touch of genius, his appointment brings to the Office of Chief Justice the skills and personal attributes for which Don has become so well regarded and which will serve the court well in the years to come ... 

David Mossop received his law degree from UBC in 1970, and has since pursued an impressive career in Community Law. Representing the interests of disadvantaged members of society on various cases has brought him before 34 different administrative tribunals and courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada. Mossop worked with the Community Legal Assistance Society from 1971 to 2014, and continues to do so on an ad hoc basis.

Harold Meyerman was born and raised in the Netherlands and moved to Canada in 1957. He studied both commerce and law at UBC. Mr. Meyerman fondly remembers running the Thunderbird Shop at the UBC-Vancouver campus. Mr. Meyerman's wife, Dorothy, describes that, "although Harold never praised law, that experience and education has stood him in great stead." As a symbol of Mr. Meyerman's appreciation and continuing support of the Allard School of Law, the law school at UBC was named as a beneficiary of the Meyerman Family Trust.