Profiles

Madam Justice Linda Ann Loo obtained her law degree from UBC in 1974, and was called to the Bar in 1975. She was practicing law as in-house Counsel for BC Hydro from 1975 to 1986, before becoming an associate (and later, a managing partner) with the law firm Singleton Urquhart, where she stayed from 1986 to 1996.

Madam Justice Mary Victoria Newbury practised principally as a corporate commercial lawyer. However, she was best known as a "lawyers' lawyer". At both her former firm, Ladner Downs, and her last firm, Fraser & Beatty, her partners looked to her when they were confronted with legal problems of exceptional difficulty. Her vast legal knowledge, her superb analytical skills and her ability to reach a conclusion speedily were renowned.

“I grew up in, well we called it ‘Haney’ in my day, it became Maple Ridge Later. It was a district in Maple Ridge but it was compromised of Haney, Hammond … I grew up there and went to Maple Ridge High school. I graduated in 1959. My dad was in shoe repair until he passed away in ’88. He was working still, he passed away from a heart attack. My mother was the owner of a fabric store – she co-owned the fabric store for years. I  was the eldest of four, I had two brothers and a baby sister. I was involved… In those days, I was like everyone else.

Mexico City, October, 1968. It’s the year of the Fosbury Flop, the first doping tests, the first woman to light the Olympic cauldron— and all at 2,240 metres above sea level. Olympic and world records are set and broken and broken again in the rarefied air: long jump, high jump, triple jump, pole vault and sprints. But for the middle- and long-distance runners, the altitude has the reverse effect. “It was a huge factor,” says Trerise, the memories flooding back. “The feeling is that you just want to lie down and go to sleep.

Rick's practice has focused on criminal defence, and his professional life's work has been rooted in the firm belief that defence counsel fulfills a vital function in society. It is a role that can be carried out in a way that not only serves the client, but also befits a noble profession and enhances the administration of justice. He speaks frequently and passionately about the importance of an independent bar, civility and professionalism, and he practises what he speaks...

Having known Gordon Turriff, Q.C., for more than a collective century, it is somewhat remarkable that we cannot easily describe the Law Society’s new president in simple terms. Gordon is first, and truly, a British Columbian and Vancouverite. He was born and raised on the west side of Vancouver, the younger of two children of Les and Mary Turriff. His father was a manager with an international transportation firm, and his mother, after raising their family, was secretary to the chancellor of UBC …

Thanks largely to Derek’s efforts the attitude of the profession toward alcohol and drug problems has changed dramatically. People are more open about their problems and the problems of others and are much more inclined to seek help and deal with their problems. [The Lawyers Assistance Program (“LAP”)] now has a case load of about 500 people at any given time. It has approximately 300 volunteers and three full-time and one part-time lawyers/counselors. It has also opened a satellite office in Victoria.

On December 16, 1985, Mary Ellen Boyd took her seat on the Bench of the County Court of Vancouver. There, she will no doubt continue to hold that professional respondent which she so deservedly earned in her practice at the Bar. Her Honour was born in Saskatoon ...

Madam Justice Mary Victoria Newbury practised principally as a corporate commercial lawyer. However, she was best known as a "lawyers' lawyer". At both her former firm, Ladner Downs, and her last firm, Fraser & Beatty, her partners looked to her when they were confronted with legal problems of exceptional difficulty. Her vast legal knowledge, her superb analytical skills and her ability to reach a conclusion speedily were renowned.

In 1982, Jennings decided to leave the law practice to pursue a life less ordinary - in his case, opening a fly-fishing shop in Calgary, where he had lived as a teenager in the 1960s. In the space of just a few minutes, Neil Jennings rattles off quotes from Oliver Wendell Holmes and George Carlin with equal respect. It makes sense. Holmes ("Most people die with the music still in them.") and Carlin ("It's just STUFF!") were addressing the same, age-old relationship between happiness and materialism.

Professor Joseph Weiler joined the UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law as Assistant Professor in 1974. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1979, and became a Full Professor in 1987. He earned his BA with Honors at the University of Toronto in 1969, his LLB at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University in 1972 and his LLM at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 1974.

Karen was born in Victoria not so many years ago. She lived with her parents in England after her birth, returning to Victoria as a wee slip of a girl, ultimately graduating in Honours English from the University of Victoria. Karen attended UBC Law School, where she was affectionately known as Boomer. She obtained her law degree in 1974 and was called to the Bar of British Columbia on 1975. Mr. and Mrs. Nordlinger, Sr. for their sins, produced two lawyers. Karen’s only sibling, peter, practices law in Victoria ... 

Mary Saunders, Q.C., is one of the new appointees to the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Although born in Vancouver and appointed to the Bench from the Vancouver firm of Campney & Murphy, her character was formed by her upbringing and schooling in Valemont and Merritt; her soul belongs to the interior of the province. She continues to travel back to Nicola Lake where her mother maintains a home and to Kamloops where her brother and his family reside. In fact, Mary was one of the boosters of the Coquillaha Highway to Merritt …

Asked why she decided to study law, Madam Justice Lynn Smith answers, “Who knows?” Uncertainty of motive, however, does not seem to have inhibited either her abilities or her commitment. Her decision to study law seems to have stemmed from her interest in social change and because, in her words: “it seemed like a good fit, especially with a philosophical undergraduate background.”

He’s a natural storyteller. His recollections of law school, of colleagues and of trials take shape as fully formed narratives. He speaks with a hint of laughter in his voice and as though he has all the time in the world for these tales; you’d never guess he had 45 volumes of material on a construction case vying for his attention.

Joe was the youngest of four children born to Motoharu and Sayoko (Tanaka) Hattori. His parents married in 1938 in Vancouver. Interestingly, Joe's grandparents were among the earliest Japanese immigrants to arrive in Canada. Sayoko's father, Ichijiro Tanaka (1886- 1982), came to Canada in 1903. He married Miki (Tsuji) Tanaka (1891- 1981) in 1911 in Victoria, B.C. They had eight children, Sayoko being the eldest. The Tanaka family ran a very successful tofu business in the Powell Street area of the Japanese community in Vancouver until the uprooting of 1942.

The recent unexpected retirement of Richard R. Sugden, Q.C., from the practice of law is a loss to the legal profession in British Columbia. Rick made truly exceptional contributions during his 34 years at the bar. He rose to the pinnacle of the profession and is universally acknowledged as one of the finest advocates and civil litigators to ever grace the courts of this province ... 

Jon Sigurdson arrived at law school in the fall of 1970 amidst great change. “I was one of the first Canadian students to write the LSAT,” he recalls. “Law school then was really focused on case study and the Socratic method,” Sigurdson said, but added that a number of younger professors - Chris Carr, Bill Black and Michael Jackson, among others - aimed to give their students a broader, more socially conscious, view of the law.

Climaxing several years of participation in Canadian Bar activities, James Dimitri Vilvang becomes President of the B.C. Branch of the Canadian Bar Association at the next annual meeting in August at Montreal. Jim, well known in athletic circles in British Columbia, was born in Vancouver in 1950 but grew up in New Westminster and attended New Westminster High School …

Although Jack enjoyed the practice of law, his real love was the world of politics. At Jack's funeral, his brother told the story that when Jack was a youngster his mother commented that one day he would be the Prime Minister of Canada. Jack did not make it to Ottawa, but many regarded Jack as the "Prime Minister of Terrace". In 1979 Jack became a councillor for the City of Terrace and remained in that position until he was elected as mayor in 1985. He remained in the position of mayor until 2008 and in so doing became one of the longest serving mayors in British Columbia.