Law History Profiles

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. 

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. 

Kenneth G. Hanna was born in Vanguard, Saskatchewan and spent his formative years in town across Alberta and Saskatchewan, before graduating from Crescent Heights High School in Calgary. He began law school at the University of Edmonton, but a visit to Vancouver at the start of his second year and a chance meeting with Dean Curtis inspired him to transfer to the University of British Columbia.

Vaughan Hembroff shares the distinction of many of his classmates from the class of 1962 - appointment to a superior court. He attended the University of British Columbia to study Arts, where he met his wife Marilyn and was married in 1957. He proceeded to study law at UBC, and admits he enjoyed every minute of it. He returned to article in his hometown of Lethbridge, Alberta under Charles G. Virtue at Virtue and Company. 

Marvin Storrow is an accomplished lawyer whose career includes several groundbreaking cases that have steered the course of legal history in Canada. He has received many distinctions including the highest award from the Canadian Bar Association's British Columbia Branch and the Milvain Chair of Advocacy Award from the University of Calgary, which is awarded to a leading Canadian courtroom lawyer.

"When Terry told me that he was to receive this degree and that it would be conferred in London by the Queen Mother, he seemed incredulous that I would expect that he would travel to England for the event," recalls Connie Munro, "[Terry said] 'It is not required. They will mail it to me.'" 

Robert Hunter was born in Vancouver and grew up attending school on the West Side of the city. He enrolled at the University of British Columbia in the combined Commerce and Law program, graduating with his LL.B. in 1962. He articled in Vancouver with Campney, Owen and Murphy, but shortly after being called moved to Kamloops, where he practiced with Fulton, Rogers and Company for 29 years. 

Douglas Mitchell was a distinguished lawyer, committed volunteer and thoughtful philanthropist who has helped many community organizations, but outstanding among these efforts is his long-time support of amateur sport in Canada, and university athletes in particular.

Jon L. Jessiman graduated from the University of British Columbia with his LL.B. in 1962. After graduation he practiced law in Vancouver, eventually specializing in Admiralty Law and working primarily as counsel in the Federal Court System, although concurrent jurisdiction in maritime law meant his cases would sometimes need to be argued at all levels of courts. 

Jack Lee was born into a large family and raised with his 6 siblings in Vancouver's Chinatown. He attended the University of British Columbia, obtaining a degree in Commerce before his LL.B. in 1962. He opened his own practice in Chinatown, focusing on real estate law, where he worked until his retirement in 2008. 

Alexander Buchanan Stewart graduated in 1962 from the joint commerce-law program at the University of British Columbia. He served articles at Meredith & Co, where he continued after articles until joining the legal department at B.C. Hydro. He later founded his own firm of LaCroix, Stewart, Siddall & Saunders, and sometime after that founded another firm. Stewart, Aulinger & Co was his firm until retirement. 

Warren Mitchell graduated from law school at the University of British Columbia in 1962, and articled with Allen McKimmie. He practiced there briefly after being called, but soon joined the Department of National Revenue in Ottawa, with the responsibility to litigate tax cases for the Department in Western Canada. 

Leon Getz grew up in a liberal household in South Africa where his parents strongly encouraged argumentation and debate. His father had an interest in the law and encouraged both Leon and his brother to study law. At the beginning of his career, Getz was a faculty member of UBC Law from 1962-1969 and again from 1978-1979. Looking back on his time at UBC Law, Getz, now partner at Getz Prince Wells LLP, remarks that the quality of the faculty is second to none.

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.

“I heard lots of bombers and V1’s. The V2’s you didn’t hear. We were the luckiest people of course; most of the rest of Europe was far worse off.” Martin R. Taylor grew up in England during the Second World War. His mother was in the Army and his father was in the Home Guard. At the age of twenty-one, he embarked for North America on the RMS Queen Elizabeth with a sense of adventure and a willingness to go wherever fate took him. 

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. 

"I don’t have any illusions that my work will endure forever. It has to get examined and re-examined and modified as we know more about different kinds of issues. And that’s the way it should be.” The Honourable Frank Iacobucci was born to Italian immigrants and grew up in the East End of Vancouver. Though his parents were uneducated, they gave him the values that supported him throughout his career. At seventeen he was hired to work alongside his father in a steel foundry, and was told by the superintendent that if he was a fraction of the worker his father was he would be a success.

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.