Profiles

The Honourable Mr. Justice Bouck is the second Senior Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia having been appointed on the same occasion as Toy, J.A. and the Honourable E. Davie Fulton on January 17, 1974. Merely surviving long enough to become the second senior serving judge would not be enough to qualify for enshrinement on the front cover of The Advocate. It is the contribution of Bouck, J. to the legal profession and the Bench which marks him as an outstanding member of the legal community ...

The Honourable Judge Glenson Baker was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1930. He soon moved along with his family to North Vancouver, where he grew up and attended high school. He matriculated to the University of British Columbia, where he obtained a B.A. in 1952 and subsequently his LL. B. in 1955. He entered practice in White Rock with the firm of Thompson, Wilson, and Baker in 1956. He focused on civil law and never went to court, eventually leaving the firm with his colleague Ed Scarlett to begin their own partnership.

Roy was born on April 22, 1931 in Victoria, B.C. His father was an engineer on CPR ships. This afforded Roy the opportunity to travel the Pacific Northwest. In doing so, Roy learned the value of respecting people from all walks of life, from the lowest mate to the exalted captain. Roy never forgot this lesson and throughout his life it was a hallmark of the way he dealt with people.

Bruce's family hailed from the Canadian prairies. His paternal grandfather was a pioneer in the settlement of the western provinces at the turn of the last century and served as a Justice of the Peace in Saskatchewan from 1906 to 1927. Bruce's father, Thomas (Tom), had aspired to a career in the law, but the onset of the Great Depression made higher education an unaffordable luxury. Opportunities were few in his hometown of Weyburn, Saskatchewan, which prompted Tom and his wife, Lucille, to move to Vancouver. It was there on March 3, 1931, that Ronald Bruce Harvey was born...

By the late 1940s, during his teen years, John A. Fraser was working in lumber mills and camps, loading boxcars and booming logs. It was dangerous and brutal work. There was no automation, there were no computers—just sweat, muscle, and back-breaking labour. It was then, on the tidewaters and in the forests of British Columbia’s rugged wilderness, that the future politician and conservationist nurtured his deep appreciation for nature.

“Let me add a prequel, as it were. Joan and I were two of five women in the class of 1954 who graduated in 1954. In 2004, she and I put together the fiftieth reunion of the class of ‘54, which in and of itself was an extremely interesting activity because we discovered a lot about the class, our classmates. We discovered that about half had died in that time period, because many were veterans of the Second World War,” begins Jane Banfield …

“Let me add a prequel, as it were. Joan and I were two of five women in the class of 1954 who graduated in 1954. In 2004, she and I put together the fiftieth reunion of the class of ‘54, which in and of itself was an extremely interesting activity because we discovered a lot about the class, our classmates. We discovered that about half had died in that time period, because many were veterans of the Second World War,” begins Jane …

George Scott was born to immigrant parents in 1921, his father Scottish and his mother from an Irish family which were among the first to settle Ladner in the late 1800s. He grew up in Vancouver, attending Britannia High School but further schooling was delayed by the advent of the Second World War. Mr Scott enlisted and served with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm, as a pilot and flight instructor in Canada and England.

Mr. J. Donald Mawhinney, who graduated from law school in 1954, was a highly respected and well-known member of the legal community. After graduating with his LL.B., Mr. Mawhinney articled with Ladner Downs (now Borden Ladner Gervais LL.P.). He became an associate in 1955, a partner in 1959, and acted as Managing Partner of the firm from 1976 to 1978. In 1980, he joined Howard J. Kellough, Q.C., to establish Mawhinney & Kellough. Over a ten year period, Mawhinney & Kellough grew to become a firm of 28 lawyers whose primary focus was business law.

Frederick Howard Herbert passed away on July 19, 2014 at the age of 85. Mr. Herbert was born in Edmonton, Alberta and earned both his B.A. and LL.B from UBC. He had an extensive practice in both civil and criminal law for the Federal and Provincial Crown and the Supreme Court of BC. Mr. Herbert was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1970 and was a member of the bar for 60 years. He was chairperson of the Pacific Regional Counsel which was the senior advisory body to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. Mr. Herbert and his wife retired to Halfmoon Bay where he presented courses in law.

"We were prepared to lay ourselves down for nothing. There was no guarantee that the Canadian government was going to give us the full rights of Canadian citizenship. We were taking a gamble." - Douglas Jung, Canadian armed forces, spy, member of parliament, delegate to the United Nations, Class of 1953.

Professor Thomas Martin Franck (‘53), a well-known expert in international law,passed away on May 27, 2009, in his Manhattan home after battling cancer. Professor Franck received his LL.B. from the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law in 1953. He went on to study at Harvard, where he earned a master’s of law degree in 1954 and a doctorate of juridical science in 1959. He joined the New York University School of Law Faculty in 1960, where he remained on Faculty and as the Director of the Center for International Studies until his retirement in 2002.

Margaret Jean Gee was the first woman of Chinese descent to be called to the Bar in British Columbia. Born in Vancouver and raised along with her brother Sonny, in the city's Chinatown where her parents ran a bookstore. She enrolled in law school at the University of British Columbia just 3 years after the Law Society lifted restrictions against females of Chinese 'origin' joining the profession. Gee graduated in 1953 and was called to the Bar in 1954. She soon opened her own law office at 510 West Hastings.

The Honourable Howard Alexander Callaghan was born in Ottawa in 1927. He grew up in Ottawa, obtained both an academic and football education at Glebe Collegiate before progressing to Carleton, where he graduated with a B.A. in 1950. He enrolled at UBC and completed an LL.B. in 1953, then articled in Penticton at Day Washington under Harold McInnes. He secured his articles during an interview in Dean Curtis' office at the law school, during which McInnes tersely offered "Come to Penticton and I'll teach you everything I know."

"I have no intention of slowing down. I'm having too much fun," said 81-year-old Morley Koffman, QC, who continues to work from 6:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day, although he admits that these are shorter days compared to when he first began as founding partner at Koffman Kalef LLP 18 years ago.

"I enjoy the challenge of negotiation, but most of all I enjoy the people. You're dealing with people from different industries and with different views of the world. It brings a broad perspective to life."

British Columbia admitted its first Chinese Canadian lawyer in 1953, when Andy Joe was admitted to the bar by the law society. Born in Victoria in 1926, Joe served during World War II in the Royal Canadian Air Force, and was discharged in 1946.

March 13, 1928 - October 9, 2019

The Honourable Patricia Mathilda Proudfoot, beloved by her extended family and an even broader circle of friends and colleagues, died peacefully at home on October 9, 2019, age 91. A singular woman, she combined a judicial career marked by firsts with a full private life. Pat valued relationships. She built and maintained these across generations and continents, in all aspects and at every stage of her life. She will be remembered with love, with laughter and with deep respect for her strength of character, courage and life accomplishments.

The Honourable Madam Justice Southin was a woman of “firsts”: she was the first woman to article at Bull Housser, the first woman appointed Queen’s Counsel, and the first woman Treasurer of the Law Society of British Columbia. Looking back on her career, she confesses that she never felt that the profession ever once stood in her way. Rather, she credits her success to the help she received from others. “I couldn’t have done what I did,” she admits, “without tremendous help.”

Born in Neidpath, Saskatchewan, in 1927, Frank Karwandy came from a family with roots in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Keen on education, his father served as a councillor and reeve in the Municipality of Lawtonia. Frank was educated locally in one and two room schools, in high school in Herbert, Saskatchewan, and came to UBC in 1947 to study History, English, and French. He entered UBC law school in 1949, when he was twenty-one.

His work with Alfred Bull, who was affectionately (I trust) known as "Bully", exposed Harvey to a wide range of litigation experience and the odd acerbic comment from the Court of Appeal ("Your argument, Mr. Bull, sounds like a little Bull and a lot of Bowering"). Among their more notorious cases in the late 1950s were the lengthy criminal and civil proceedings arising out of the tribulations of Robert Summers, the minister of lands and forests accused and convicted of accepting bribes.