Law History Profiles

Dr. Constance Isherwood, QC passed away on January 26, 2021 at the age of 101. For more information, read a Times Colonist article about her remarkable life and work as the province's oldest practicing lawyer. The following profile was created by the law school as a monthly alumni feature in 2011.

Last year marked the 25th anniversary of Big Rock Brewery and for Ed McNally, it was the perfect excuse to throw another beer bash. Ed founded Big Rock Brewery in 1985 after decades of practicing law, farming and raising cattle. An Alberta native, Ed attended UBC Law in the army-hut days of the 1950s before there was a brick-and-mortar facility. “It was one of my smarter choices in life, going to UBC,” he says wistfully, recalling the dark foggy campus nights, an “interesting” roster of professors and classmates, and the formidable University President and law scholar Norman Mackenzie.

George Stewart Cumming (also known as George S. Cumming, George Scumming and X. Xumminf, Esq.) will become Master Treasurer January 1, 1983. 

George was born in Vancouver, B.C. in 1928. George’s father was with the Bank of Montreal which resulted in the family moving to Victoria, B.C. where George attended Oak Bay High School. There he excelled scholastically and as a rugger player. It is reliably reported that on a fairly regular basis he was separated from his rugby shorts both before, during and after rugger games ... 

Brian William Ferriman McLoughlin was born October 4, 1927 in Victoria. He attended St. Michael’s School and Oak Bay High School where it is reputed he lost some of his innocence and most of his hair. After graduating from U.B.C. Law School he articled with Lawrence & Shaw where he has remained since his pre-Sputnik call to the Bar in 1950 ... 

“What in hell is the Jokers Club?” reads the first line of a Ubyssey article published in October, 1945. “A club for all nitwits, screwballs, and zanies,” was the answer of Alan Beesley, founding member, Noise Joker and club publicity man. “We are lunatics at large.” The Jokers Club is the first thing Beesley mentions now when asked about his years at UBC. “I was so busy I had to take every second day off from my studies,” he deadpans.

Meredith J. is now the senior puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia having been sworn in on April 27, 1973. He was born in Vancouver in 1922 and was the son of the late Elmore Meredith, Q.C., a well known Vancouver lawyer, who, in his time, had been a Bencher and Treasurer of the Law Society ... 

For the first time since the early 1950’s (when William Haldane served as Master Treasurer), a Master Treasurer will hail from Victoria. This is not an insignificant feat when one considers that to lay claim to this office one must serve long and sufficiently well to achieve re-election at least three times over, and perhaps most importantly, if from Victoria, must survive many years of almost weekly round trips in the not so friendly skies of what was until recently known as “Scare-West”! ... 

A lawyer who graduated with him from UBC Faculty of Law in 1950 told me: “I never would have gone through law school without McEachern’s notes.” That voluntary confession, apart from its refreshing candour and expression of gratitude, illuminates not only the note-taker’s generous spirit but also his instantaneous comprehension and ability to record unfolding events quickly in legible hand. Those skills have come in handy ever since ... 

Diana M. Priestly, who has served as Law Librarian and a member of the Faculty at both of the Province’s law schools, will retire from her position at the University of Victoria on June 30, 1987. Her association with the law and the legal profession in British Columbia began in January, 1946 when she enrolled in the Special Veteran’s Class at the UBC Faculty of Law. Prior to enrolling, she had served in the Womens’ Royal Canadian Naval Service from 1943-46 …

As lawyers, we like to tell “war stories.” We usually mean some court room drama, or perhaps a deal that went sideways. At 89 years of age, Don Easton has lots of war stories, gathered over a remarkable life and career. With 61 years at the bar, he has plenty of lawyer “war stories” from his time as a solicitor working at the heart of our province’s business community. He also has some other war stories, of the literal kind …

Richard Fraser Gosse, Q.C., known across Canada as Dick Gosse, was a lawyer of many careers, all of them pursued with flair and verve. 

On Thursday, August 4, 1983 Louis Allan Williams, Q.C. was dealing with the routine of filling out an application to the Secretary of State for External Affairs for a new passport. Accompanying his application would be the green passport issued to him as a provincial Cabinet Minister and Provincial Attorney General. He was thus giving up one of the last perks which came to him as the 33rd Attorney General of British Columbia ...

Brian was born in Saskatoon in January 1923, the second of four brothers. Their father was a professor of economics and for a time had George R Curtis (later the first dean of UBC law school) as a student. One of Brian's brothers was Fred Carrothers. Fred was at various times dean of law at Ottawa and Western, president at the University of Calgary, and a long-time member of the Faculty of Law at UBC… 

Though Don chose his priorities well, retiring from active practice in 1986 to spend time with his one true love and lifetime partner, Enid, he remained in touch with many of his classmates and colleagues, continued to participate in various functions with Boughton (formerly Boughton Peterson Yang Anderson), the firm which he managed and led for 20-plus years, and always found time to connect with colleagues…

Leslie Peterson grew up on a farm outside Viking, Alberta, and recognized the value of education at an early age. At fourteen, he moved away from the family farm to go to school, and paid for a small housekeeping room by doing part-time janitorial work. 

Mr. Peterson served in the Canadian Artillery during the Second World War, and graduated from law school at UBC in 1949 alongside many other veterans. 

Of the some 130 members of the class of 1949, four were women: Joan Hall, Virigina Galloway, Helen McCoy and Valerie Manning. Valerie Taggart (née Manning) was born in 1926 in Cranbrook, and into a family with strong legal ties – one of her family members had articled with Sir John A. MacDonald. In 1934 her older brother decided to attend UBC, and the family came to the Coast with him and settled in West Point Grey.

Born in Kamloops in 1923, David R. Williams was a student during the earliest years of UBC Law, at a time when the classes were still conducted in repurposed army huts from the Second World War. After graduating in 1949, Williams practised civil and criminal litigation in Duncan. Later in his career, Williams became an avid historian, and made a number of important contributions to legal history in BC through the ten books that he authored.

On November 14, 1993, the kindly face that graces the front cover of this edition of the Advocate completed a quarter of a century of useful service on the Court of Appeal of British Columbia. He joins a select group of only five Justices of Appeal who have served that long …

Michelangelo (Mike) Provenzano passed away on October 19, 2015, at the age of 93. Born in Cranbrook, the third of four children of Italian immigrants, Mike and his siblings were raised by their mother after their father's suicide when Mike was a young boy. In high school, he played basketball and was the editor of the school yearbook. He graduated early during the Second World War and enlisted, becoming a flight instructor… 

According to Malcolm G. King, he never seriously considered a legal career until his father suggested that he go to work in the family sawmill. At that point, he says, he ran for cover and after having consulted a career psychologist who thought he had some latent potential for the law he decided to enroll in law school at UBC rather than continue with an arts program - which he admits he would have preferred.