Law History Profiles

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 …

Just a dozen years after hanging out her shingle in Maple Tree Square, Jo-Ann Prowse was appointed to the County Court of Vancouver in December of 1986.

T.E. (known to everyone as Terry) La Liberté is the incoming President of the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association. A long time B.C.A. “groupie”, Terry practices predominantly in criminal and some civil litigation with his law firm, La Liberte Rich. Terry began life in Ste. Catherines, Ontario. He thought better of this at a relatively early age, however, and relocated with his family to New Westminster where his father was a barber …

The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, P.C., C.C. was the first woman to hold the distinguished position of Chief Justice of Canada. Her vision for Canada reflected her adept interpretation of Canadian constitutional law and her groundbreaking decisions and rulings, which significantly contributed to the evolution of our country.

Patricia Colleen Connor was born January 20, 1950 in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. She moved when very young to Vancouver with her mother, her sister Jeannie, and her aunt. Graduating first from Sir Winston Churchill High School, then UBC Law in 1974, she was called to the bar the next year, in 1975.

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.

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.

Trudi L. Brown, QC graduated from UBC’s law school in 1973. She is a family law litigator, mediator, and arbitrator based in Victoria, BC. After being called to the BC bar in 1974, Ms. Brown worked at the BC Crown Counsel office in Victoria for 4 years. In 1978, she started her own firm, Buckler Metzger Brown and Miliken. She formed another firm, Brown and Kay in 1984, which went on to become Brown Acheson Henderson - better known as “Broads on Broad Street.” From 1988 to 2001, Ms. Brown worked at Horne Coupar. She now practices family law at her firm Brown Henderson Melbye.

The Honourable David J. Brine (1948 – 2009) obtained an undergraduate degree in 1970 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1973, from UBC. He also obtained a Master of Laws from King’s College at the University of London. Known in the legal profession for his fairness and patience, Justice Brine led a distinguished legal career. In 2000, he was appointed Queen’s Counsel, and on April 20, 2001, he became Master of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. He was appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia on November 26, 2004.

When asking the Honourable Justice Grant D. Burnyeat - past AMS President and UBC Alumni Association President, six-year member of UBC Senate, founding Director of the Allard Law Alumni Association, and former Chair of the Dean’s Reunion Advisory Committee for the Allard School of Law - what motivates him to remain so active in the law school and university community, he replies with a simple, “I guess I am a joiner.”

Rose Mok first came to Canada in 1953 from Hong Kong, having been accepted as a foreign student by the University of Toronto. After a series of relocations in devotion to her husband Henry's career, the Mok family finally settled in Vancouver in the 1960s.