Law History Profiles

Jack J. Huberman has been the Executive Director of the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia for the past six years. He was born and raised in Calgary, but came to Vancouver to attend King Edward High School before it burned down. He has been setting fires in education ever since …

As a teenager in the British Merchant Navy, Derek was a very popular radio officer. He could do almost anything he wanted on the ship, and although he attributed this to his outgoing personality, it appears it was only because of his ability to tune into any radio station, anywhere, and retrieve the music, the cricket matches, the horse racing results and the football matches the sailors wanted. He circumnavigated the globe three times on commercial vessels, stopping for various lengths of time in ports throughout the world. He delighted in exploring different places and cultures.

The Honourable Justice Randall Wong is a pioneer in Canadian law. He served as the first Chinese Canadian provincial Crown Counsel (1967) and became a BC Provincial Court judge in 1974. In 1981 he became the first Chinese Canadian federally appointed judge with his appointment to the British Columbia County Court. In 1990 he was promoted to a position on Canada's Supreme Court serving the Supreme Courts of British Columbia, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut's Court of Justice.

Selwyn Romilly was born in Trinidad and left home when it was still a British colony. His father, a school principal, had always insisted that his kids get professions. Romilly’s brother Valmond also decided to practice law and became a judge like his brother. His first choice was to study in England, but friends of his who were studying engineering at UBC convinced him to move to Vancouver. He confesses that his decision to go to UBC was partially influenced by Vancouver’s mild weather.

William S. Berardino, QC is a member of the LLB class of 1965. Mr. Berardino’s firm, Berardino & Harris LLP merged with Hunter Voitch in 2006 to create the Vancouver-based, leading litigation firm, Hunter Litigation Chambers. Throughout Mr. Berardino’s accomplished career, he was worked on many landmark cases and appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada on many occasions.

Donald J MacDougall was a dedicated student of the law, as well as a gift to his own students. He was first admitted to study law in 1952 on scholarship to the Universtiy of Melbourne, where he received awards of distinction in no less than six subjects over the course of his studies. He continued his legal education over the academic year of 1958-1959 as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Chicago, where he obtained his J.D.

Bruce waited until 1940 to be born, knowing that in 1986 he would become the youngest Treasurer of the Law Society of British Columbia. He embraced Judaism at birth knowing it would make him the first Treasurer of Jewish persuasion, notwithstanding any claim by Harry Rankin, Q.C. Finally, having arranged for his hair to turn prematurely grey at age twenty-nine, Bruce gave himself plenty of time to perfect the “Treasurer’s Look” …

“I was turned on by Law School. I had not been much of a serious student. I was a regular, ordinary student. Then I got into Law School and…I enjoyed Law School generally and then I did well in Law School and that helped a lot.” – Michael O’Keefe, Special Assistant to the Minister of Finance, Adjunct Professor, Tax Lawyer, Class of 1965.

Paul Beckmann grew up in New Westminster, attended the public schools there and went on to U.B.C. where he took the commerce and law option. He was granted this B.Comm. degree in 1963 and his LL.B. in 1964 …

Stanley Gifford Turner was born in March 1938 and raised on his family's farm in Kelowna, B.C. He completed an undergraduate degree in Geology, and married his high school sweetheart in 1961, the year he enrolled in law school at the University of British Columbia. He graduated in 1964 and began practice in Vancouver, but soon relocated from the stress of the big city to start his own small town practice. The Turner family settled in Princeton, B.C. in 1968 and Stanley Turner's practice became a town mainstay over the next 49 years.

Dennis J. Mitchell was born in 1934 at Leipzig, Saskatchewan. He recognized at an early age that salmon fishing in Saskatchewan was poor as were his chances of becoming Master Treasurer of our Society if he remained resident in that province. Accordingly, he asked his parents to move to the family to British Columbia. His parents were not prepared to abandon the prairies and the family compromised by settling near Dawson Creek where they established a grain farm ...

Angela Swan is nothing short of a venerated celebrity in both Canadian contract law and the Canadian legal community at large. With over fifty years of experience in the legal profession, Swan has expertly filled a number of roles from professor to esteemed counsel. An award-winning author, renowned educator, and frequently cited scholar, Swan embodies what it means to be a jack of all trades in the field of law. As a result of her years of noted passion and drive, Swan is regarded as one of the most distinguished experts in Canadian contract law.

Raymond MacLeod was born in Vancouver and raised on the city's West Side, first attending high school at Kitsilano Secondary. He transferred to Vancouver College, where playing football earned him an athletic scholarship to the University of Oregon. After graduation he continued his football career in the Canadian Football League, playing two years with Edmonton and one with Winnipeg. During his second year with Edmonton in 1954, he won the Grey Cup.

Barrie Adams spent most of his career as a corporate and general counsel to various companies involved in the communications industry. When the establishment of the Canadian Radio-television Commission (CRTC) in 1968, Mr. Adams career changed quite drastically early on. However, over the years he developed a strong practice advocating in front of the commission, and eventually established his own law practice, focused on broadcasting regulation.

Willis Edward (Bill) O'Leary was born in Vulcan, Alberta and raised outside Edmonton and in Calgary, which he considers home. He grew up playing hockey in Calgary and his talent would determine the early years of his life. He was invited in 1949 to the New York Rangers prospect camp. While never playing for the NY Rangers, O'Leary did receive a scholarship to play hockey at the University of Denver, where he graduated with a degree in Business Administration in 1953.

Bill Adamson was born on the Westside of Vancouver, where he graduated from high school at Lord Byng Secondary in 1955. He attended UBC, an easy choice of university due to its proximity. His choice of major was easy one too, given his lack of interest or aptitude in Sciences, Engineering, or Teaching, the natural remaining choice was Commerce or Law. He chose Law and graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1962.

Dennis Overend was born in Vancouver and was raised there and in the North Okanagan, but spent the summers of his school years living life outdoors and enjoying his family's cabin on Mabel Lake. He attended high school at Vancouver College, and enrolled at the University of British Columbia. In the summers Overend worked in forestry but realized that his lack of aptitude for science impacted his aspirations to be a forester. Instead, he decided to try law and obtained his LL.B. from UBC in 1962.

William Charles (Bill) Bice was born 73 years ago in Winterthur, Switzerland. Bill’s father, the eldest son of a Duchy farmer, was born in St. Columb, Cornwall, in 1886. He came to Canada en route to Australia to join his three brothers, but when he saw Victoria and Vancouver Island he knew there could be no better place in all the world ...

Born and raised in Victoria, Cecil graduated from St. Michael's University School. He proved to be an able student, an excellent athlete, and was B.C. Junior Boys Tennis Champion. While at Victoria College (later UVic) he coached the girls' grass hockey team, started the Student Liberal Club and served on the student council…

For more, read Profile of Cecil Branson in The Advocate, 74 (2016).

David Anderson was born in Victoria, British Columbia and grew up attending Victoria High School. He attended Victoria College (predecessor of the University of British Columbia) for two years before enrolling at the University of British Columbia to finish a degree in Law. While at UBC he was a member of the Thunderbirds rowing crew. Rowing with the Canadian Men's Eights crew at the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago he won a silver medal, an accomplishment he would repeat a year later at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.