Bertha Wilson Honour Society

Megan Longley, K.C. (LLB '94)
Nova Scotia

Megan Longley has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to making justice accessible to all, regardless of socio-economic status.

She has worked tirelessly to bridge the gaps in the legal system that often leave vulnerable individuals without representation or support, and her advocacy for systemic change has played a crucial role in shaping a more just and equitable legal system for the people of Nova Scotia.

Longley's professional journey is a testament to excellence in the legal field. She has held various leadership roles as a trial lawyer, managing lawyer, service delivery director, and CEO of Nova Scotia Legal Aid, representing clients at all levels of Nova Scotia’s courts. As the executive director of Dalhousie Legal Aid Service, she not only leads with distinction but also mentors and guides senior law students, helping to shape the next generation of legal professionals.

Her dedication to social justice and human rights extends far beyond the courtroom. She has volunteered with a range of organizations and boards, including the Canadian HIV Legal Network and the AIDS Coalition of Nova Scotia, making a tangible impact in her community and beyond.

Longley is an active contributor to the legal community, presenting at national and international conferences and collaborating with organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank. Her work has earned her numerous accolades, including the prestigious designation of King’s Counsel.

Marian McGrath (LLB '79)  
Quebec

Marian McGrath has exhibited extraordinary dedication and compassion in her efforts to address some of society's most pressing issues, including homelessness, poverty, and inadequate housing.

Throughout her distinguished career in public service, she has held senior roles within the federal Department of Justice, including general counsel for the Department of National Defence and deputy executive director of the Office of the Legal Advisor to the Canadian Forces. After retiring, she continued to contribute her legal expertise with the Law Society of Ontario and various organizations, such as the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa.

A passionate advocate for reconciliation, she has played a key role in fostering dialogue between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, respecting Indigenous history and traditions while creating opportunities for meaningful conversations. She has also been a steadfast supporter of refugees, offering financial assistance, personal mentorship, and guidance.

McGrath’s unwavering commitment to service has had a profound impact on countless lives. Her work continues to set a powerful example of leadership, inspiring others to follow in her footsteps and make a difference in their communities.

James Michael, K.C. (LLB '92) 
Nova Scotia

James Michael's journey as the first Mi'kmaq person to graduate from law school and be called to the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society continues to inspire and empower the next generation of Mi'kmaq lawyers, advocates, and community leaders.

Throughout his career, Michael has been unwavering in his commitment to advancing Mi'kmaq and Indigenous rights, both in Nova Scotia and across Canada. His work with the Treaty and Aboriginal Rights Research Centre, including his involvement in landmark cases like the Marshall Fishing case, has been pivotal in securing justice and recognition for Indigenous communities.

His dedication goes far beyond his professional accomplishments. Rooted in a deep personal connection to his community's struggles and aspirations, he has used his legal expertise to make the legal system more inclusive and reflective of Indigenous experiences. As a Band Councillor for the Sipekne'katik First Nation, he applied his knowledge to improve governance and tackle the social and economic challenges faced by his community.

Michael’s legacy is one of lasting impact, with far-reaching effects on future generations. Through his tireless advocacy for Aboriginal and Treaty rights, he has achieved significant victories for the Mi'kmaq people.

Dr. Bill Rand (LLB '66, LLD '11) 
British Columbia

Dr. Bill Rand's legacy exemplifies his commitment to excellence and his dedication to making a lasting, positive impact—both in his own life and in the lives of others.

With a strong foundation in corporate and securities law, Rand spent nearly 25 years practicing in the mining industry before transitioning into venture capital and investment. There, he played an instrumental role in supporting and growing emerging businesses, particularly those in resource-based sectors.

In addition to his achievements as a lawyer and businessman, he has made a significant impact as a mentor to young professionals and emerging entrepreneurs. Through his work with Edgar Capital Corporation, he has offered invaluable guidance to the next generation of leaders, inspiring others to give back to their communities.

Rand’s philanthropic efforts encompass a wide range of causes including the arts, healthcare, and social services, where his support has helped advance critical initiatives and provided vital services to those in need. A firm believer in the transformative power of education, his contributions go far beyond monetary donations as he has been actively involved in governance, fundraising efforts, and student recruitment initiatives at the educational institutions he supports.

Robbie MacKeigan, K.C. (LLB ’69)
Nova Scotia

Robbie MacKeigan is a highly respected legal leader known for his unwavering commitment to integrity.

He began his legal career at Cox & Palmer, eventually becoming a prominent legal educator, speaker, and panellist, and currently serves as Counsel with Stewart McKelvey.

MacKeigan's extensive efforts in organizing conferences and seminars have greatly enriched the legal profession. He has earned numerous accolades and recognition from prestigious organizations, and his name is synonymous with legal excellence.

Beyond his legal achievements, he has demonstrated exceptional dedication to his community through extensive volunteer work with charitable and non-profit organizations, including Dalhousie University, the Halifax YMCA, and his role as the Founding Director of the Atlantic Breast Cancer Foundation.

Additionally, he has been a key figure in the Law Foundation of Nova Scotia, contributing to the advancement of legal education, justice administration, and public access to the law. His philanthropic contributions extend to his role as a volunteer lawyer for the Girl Guides of Canada, Nova Scotia Council. 

The Honourable Lena Metlege Diab, MP, K.C. (LLB ’90)
Nova Scotia

Lena Metlege Diab's lifelong dedication to justice, diversity, and community service is truly inspiring.

Her diverse career, spanning legal practice, public service, and community engagement, showcases her exceptional ability to drive meaningful change.

Metlege's extensive legal career has been marked by her relentless pursuit of justice and improved legal accessibility for Acadian, Francophone, and Francophile communities in Nova Scotia. As the former Minister of Immigration, Acadian Affairs, and Francophonie in Nova Scotia, her commitment to diversity and inclusivity led to significant advancements in immigration programs and global networks.

Her influence extends nationally and internationally, solidifying her as a trailblazer in the legal community. Throughout her career, she has worked tirelessly to make legal information more accessible to the public and provide legal services in multiple languages.

Her dedication to community service is evident in her involvement with various organizations, reflecting her commitment to making a positive impact on others' lives.

The Honourable Linda Oland (LLB ’76)
Nova Scotia

Linda Oland’s career showcases an unwavering commitment to advancing the rights of women and Chinese Canadians within the legal profession.

Starting at McInnis Cooper, she shattered gender barriers and became the firm's first female Partner. In 1998, she made history by becoming the first Chinese Canadian to hold a position on the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, marking a significant milestone for diversity and inclusion in the legal community. Just two years later, she achieved another historic feat by joining the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal. Her contributions to diversity and inclusion in Nova Scotia's judicial benches are immeasurable, and her legacy is marked by ushering in a new era of representation in the legal profession.

In 2016, Oland, as a supernumerary judge, was entrusted by the Chief Justice with a special assignment to foster diversity, especially in Indigenous, Black, and Mi'kmaw representation. Her diligent efforts resulted in a comprehensive report with ten pragmatic recommendations that have been fully embraced and implemented, reshaping the legal landscape.

Notable initiatives include establishing permanent law clerk positions for students affiliated with the Schulich Law's Indigenous, Black, and Mi'kmaq (IB&M) Initiative and forming the African Nova Scotian Access to Justice Judicial Committee, fostering meaningful engagement between the esteemed judiciary and the African Nova Scotian community. 

Madeleine Schwarz (LLB ’94)
Nova Scotia

Madeleine Schwarz, with over two decades of experience in investigating and prosecuting national and international crimes, is a remarkable advocate for human rights.

Holding multiple degrees in International Relations, International Criminal Law, and an LLB, she currently leads the Women's Protection Advisory Unit for the United Nations (UN) Integrated Assistance Mission to Sudan.

Her expertise is frequently called upon by UN mission heads to oversee internal investigations, particularly in cases of bullying, harassment, and sexual harassment. Her achievements include revoking Michael Siefert's Canadian citizenship and extraditing him to Italy, involvement in a genocide case in the Butare Prefecture, and leading an investigation into human rights violations following killings in Les Cayes Prison in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

Her contributions to the UN Team of Experts on Rule of Law/Sexual Violence in Conflict in Africa and her senior roles in UN Special Envoy missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes Region have been invaluable.

Drew White, K.C. (LLB ’88)
British Columbia

Drew White's remarkable impact on international law and human rights advocacy is a testament to his unwavering commitment to justice and his global influence.

He dedicated over a decade to prosecuting trials at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, playing a pivotal role in convicting Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, a key figure in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. His meticulous examination of witnesses and presentation of evidence ensured the truth was heard and justice served.

Beyond the courtroom, White's written advocacy and work in documenting evidence and addressing legal challenges have set crucial precedents in international criminal law. His human rights investigations in conflict zones like Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan have exposed abuses and advanced the cause of justice worldwide.

In Canada, his exemplary legal standing led to his appointment as Queen's Counsel in 2019.

Peter Zed, K.C. (LLB ’80)
New Brunswick

Peter Zed, with an MBA and LLB, embarked on his legal career by being admitted to the Nova Scotia Bar, initially focusing on Corporate/Commercial law. His practice evolved to include litigation for clients he advised on business matters, maintaining an active barrister's and solicitor's practice.

In 1999, with the advent of natural gas in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, he represented participants in the energy sector. This expansion encompassed major industrial users, pipeline companies, gas distributors, and more, and he appeared before various courts and regulators.

In his commitment to public service, he held positions with organizations like the United Way and the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.

In the legal profession, he served on councils and committees for the Canadian Bar Association and the Law Society of New Brunswick, culminating in his role as President of the Law Society and the designation of Queen’s Counsel in 1997 for his contributions.

The Honourable Arthur J. LeBlanc, ONS, KC (LLB ’68)
Nova Scotia

Arthur Joseph LeBlanc was born in West Arichat, Nova Scotia, and attended primary and secondary schools in that region. He graduated from St. Francis Xavier University in 1964 with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree and he earned a Bachelor of Laws Degree from Dalhousie University in 1968. Following graduation, he was admitted to the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society in November 1968.

His Honour practiced law for over 30 years, initially as an associate of Vincent deP Burke and subsequently as senior partner of the law firm LeBlanc MacDonald and Pickup, which was succeeded by LeBlanc MacDonald. He maintained a solicitor’s practice concentrating on civil litigation. In 1983, he was appointed as King’s Counsel in recognition of his distinguished law career.

While practicing law, he served as a Director with several corporations and development authorities. He was also active with the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society and the Strait of Canso Barristers’ Society.

In 1998, he was appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia (General Division) and served on the Bench until he was installed as the 33rd Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia on June 28, 2017.

John Wilmot (LLB ’80)
Alberta

John graduated with his law degree in 1980 after obtaining his Honours History degree from Western University in 1976. After graduating, he headed west, where he began his legal career articling with Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer (BDP) LLP. Led by Jim Palmer (LLB '52), BDP was a young entrepreneurial firm and attracted a core of talented young lawyers. Focusing his practice on the banking and finance areas, John was able to provide BDP’s clients with a sophisticated level of business acumen as well as first-rate legal advice with a practical slant. Because of his unique approach, John has been consistently recognized as one of the leading lawyers in Canada and internationally.

John and his wife, Mary, have three children and two grandchildren and still reside in Calgary. They love to travel and have travelled the world extensively. John is a long-time hockey player and avid golfer. He also has a wide range of musical tastes and loves live music.

He is an active contributor to Schulich Law and assisted in the Bold Ambitions fundraising campaign, and, together with his law partner and fellow alum, John Cuthbertson (LLB '79), raised almost $1 million for Schulich Law’s James S. Palmer Chair in Public Policy and Law. John was a long-time member of BDP's Executive and Student Hiring Committees and currently sits on the Board of Fear Is Not Love Association (formerly the Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter).

Nancy MacCready-Williams (LLB ’89)
Nova Scotia

Since 2011, Nancy has led Doctors Nova Scotia in supporting a healthy and vibrant physician community while working with health-system leaders and partners to transform health-care delivery in Nova Scotia.

Nancy’s earlier career included the practice of law, followed by a number of progressively more senior roles at the Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia, the last seven years spent as their CEO. Nancy obtained her Bachelor of Laws from Dalhousie University in 1989. She also holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree (Saint Mary’s University) and a Master’s degree in Industrial Relations (Queen’s University). In 2013, Nancy received her ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Nancy holds the distinction of being admitted to Atlantic Canada’s Top 50 CEO Business Hall of Fame, having been named one of Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 50 CEOs for five consecutive years. She’s also the recipient of the Progress Club Women of Excellence Award (Management and the Professions), and the Rotary Club Paul Harris Fellow Award.

Staying active in her community is also a priority for Nancy, who Chairs the Events East Board of Directors overseeing the Halifax Convention and Scotiabank Centres. She has also served on the Boards of the QEII Health Sciences Centre Foundation, Parkinson Canada, Dalhousie University, United Way Halifax Region and Opera Nova Scotia.

Nancy lives in St. Margaret’s Bay, Nova Scotia with her husband, Alan, and they have three adult sons Tristan, Sof and Evan.

Penny Tham (LLB ’84)
British Columbia

Penny immigrated to Canada with her family at the age of 7 from Calcutta, India. She graduated from UBC with a B.Comm in Urban Land Economics before attending Dalhousie Law School.

Penny began her legal career as a corporate securities lawyer in Vancouver. She was seconded to the BC Securities Commission. She went on to earn an LLM in Securities Regulation from the Georgetown University Law Center. After admission to the New York bar, Penny practised securities law in Washington, DC.

After 5 years she moved to Asia where she held senior positions in Singapore and Hong Kong for Bankers Trust, Barclays Capital and ABN Amro. She also worked in London for Deutsche Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Her last job before retirement was with the International Finance Corporation as the Head of Compliance.

In 2003, Penny was appointed as an expert member of the European Commission’s Forum Group. She has written numerous articles on financial regulatory topics and has spoken at many compliance and financial regulatory conferences.

Penny is a proud supporter of Schulich Law, where she has been a mentor, a guest lecturer, and a Law Hour speaker. She also funds a summer internship in business law for first year students.

Now retired, Penny volunteers at Dress for Success, is the Board President of the Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, an Advisor at the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation, and a driver for Meals on Wheels. She also served as the project manager for the Chinatown Storytelling Centre.

Lesra Martin (LLB ’97)
British Columbia

Born and raised in a ghetto city in New York, Lesra packed groceries at the age of 12 to earn money to help feed his family. He was illiterate and malnourished at the age of 15. He was then assisted by a group of Torontonians that provided him with access to an education, helping him to graduate from high school with honours two years later. Lesra is the only one of his eight siblings with a high school diploma.

While learning to read, he came across the autobiography, The 16th Round of Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter, a black boxer who was wrongfully convicted of a triple murder in 1966. Lesra was fascinated by his story and vowed to help free him. Lesra’s role in Carter’s freedom is documented in the book, Lazarus and The Hurricane: The Freeing of Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter, the movie starring Denzel Washington, and the National Film Board documentary ‘The Journey of Lesra Martin’.

Lesra went on to pursue a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Toronto and a law degree from Dalhousie. He articled at a large criminal defence law firm in Vancouver, which led him to work for the Crown Prosecutor’s office in Kamloops. Lesra’s primary focus and practice became civil litigation which he has been engaged in for over 20 years. He and his wife Cheryl started Martin and Martin Lawyers in 2007.

Lesra is an exceptional lawyer, a dedicated father and husband, and a world-renowned motivational speaker and author of The Power of a Promise.

Anna Myers (LLB ’94)
Scotland

Anna Myers is a lawyer, educator and practitioner based in Glasgow, Scotland. After finishing high school in Halifax, Anna left to travel, work and learn new languages. She completed a BA in History at the Université de Montréal before returning to Nova Scotia to attend Dalhousie Law School. She graduated in 1994 and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1995. She has been a member of the Law Society of England and Wales since 1997. 

In 2000, Anna began working as a legal officer and then as Deputy Director of Public Concern at Work (now called Protect) – a non-profit legal advice centre that focuses on supporting public interest whistleblowers. She has since worked in Europe and around the world with whistleblowers, policy makers, civil society, law enforcement, and academics on the issue of whistleblowing and how to support those who speak up about wrongdoing as a matter of democratic accountability and human rights.

Anna has been an expert adviser to the United Nations and the Council of Europe, but her passion is working with grass roots organisations and whistleblowers. In 2013, she began organising the various NGOs working in the field around the world to support each other’s work and in 2018 became the founding Executive Director of the Whistleblowing International Network (WIN), an organisation to strengthen the legal, technical and strategic skills of civil society around the world to support whistleblowers.

Professor Michael Lynk (LLB ’81)
Ontario

Michael is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law at Western University. He joined the Faculty in 1999 and served as Associate Dean between 2008-2011. He has taught courses in labour, human rights, disability, constitutional and administrative law. He also taught at the University of Ottawa, Carleton University and Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand). He is a native of Halifax, and a graduate of Dalhousie University (LLB) and Queens’ University (LLM). His academic work has appeared widely in law review journals and edited book collections.

Before becoming an academic, he practiced labour law in Ottawa and Toronto for a decade. He is a labour arbitrator with the Ontario Grievance Settlement Board and has served as a vice-chair with the Ontario Public Service Grievance Board. He has written widely on the issues of labour law and human rights in the unionized Canadian workplace and is a frequent speaker at industrial relations and labour law conferences.

In 2015, Professor Lynk was named to the Mayor of London’s Honours List for his work on humanitarian issues. In 2016, the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed him as the 7th Special Rapporteur for the human rights situation in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967. His UN reports have been widely cited, he has frequently spoken at UN, academic and institutional conferences in North America, Europe and the Middle East and he has regularly published opinion pieces on the role of international law respecting the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory.

Dr. David Bissett (LLB ’62)
Alberta

David Bissett is recognized across the country for his extraordinary leadership in the corporate and philanthropic world. After obtaining his law degree, he attained his Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1975 and went on to have a long and successful career in the financial services industry. He founded Bissett and Associates in 1982.

After selling his firm in 2000, Bissett made philanthropy his full-time job. He and his wife, Leslie, have made transformative donations over the years to post-secondary learning, wildlife and landscape preservation, and community projects. He has volunteered countless hours of work to charities, serving on their boards, leading major fundraising campaigns, and lecturing at the University of Calgary.

He is the recipient of numerous honours, including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Calgary Association of Fundraising Professionals’ 2014 Generosity of Spirit Award and the Friend of Education Award given by the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education. He also received the Clearsight Wealth Management Friend of Education Award and was inducted into the Calgary Business Hall of Fame in 2007. He holds an honorary doctorate from Dalhousie University and an honorary Bachelor of Business Administration from the Bissett School of Business at Mount Royal University.

Fran Carnerie (LLB ’87)
Ontario

Fran Carnerie is in her fourth year of the PhD in Law program at Osgoode Hall Law School, researching the rehabilitation ideal in relation to justice-involved youth with mental health and substance use concerns. A nurse-practitioner before law school, she has combined her passions for law and health through her commitment to assist families with youth experiencing mental health and substance use issues in navigating the health care system, including as a co-founding member of the Family Navigation Project at Sunnybrook Hospital, and in numerous public speaking events.

Prior to her doctoral studies, Carnerie was a Deputy Director at the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE), where she was the Legal Branch Team Lead on the Walkerton Drinking Water Inquiry and Kashechewan contaminated water evacuation. In the three years preceding her retirement from the MOE, she was seconded to the Law Commission of Ontario as the Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG) Counsel-in-Residence.

A published author, Carnerie also has been editor and co-editor of legal newsletters, for the OBA (Public Sector Lawyers Section), and MAG. She was Chair of the Dalhousie Public Legal Education Society when they partnered with the Department of Justice and National Film Board, obtaining combined grants of $80,000 to produce “Trouble With the Law,” which went on to receive the Public Legal Education Award from the Nova Scotia Barristers Society in 1986.

Mary Clancy (LLB ’74)
Nova Scotia

Mary Clancy’s life is one that has been devoted to public service. She ran for elected office in 1988, standing as the federal Liberal candidate in the riding of Halifax. She was elected and served for the next nine years in the House of Commons. Upon Prime Minister Chrétien's victory in 1993, Clancy was made Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. Later, she was Chair of the Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans' Affairs and a main stay of Liberal Women's Caucus, as well as helping to start the Women's Parliamentary Association. Beginning in 1988, Clancy, and her fellow female parliamentarians, advocated strongly for the improvement of working conditions for women on "the Hill”.

After Clancy left politics in 1997, she was appointed as Canadian Consul General in New England, a position she held for four years. She continued to serve in the political sphere, holding a number of senior positions within the Liberal Parties of Nova Scotia and Canada.

She has always been a strong supporter of the cultural community. She continues to serve on the board of the Neptune Theatre Foundation and is also a member of the political liaison subcommittee for the campaign to restore St. Mary's Basilica.

Sanford Cohen (LLB ’66)
British Columbia

Sanford Cohen was born in Sydney, NS. After graduating high school from Sydney Academy in 1959, he went on to UNB and obtained his BA majoring in History and Political Science. He then went to Dal Law School. After graduation he and a group of his law classmates, including his roommate of three years Dugald Christie, went to Vancouver where Cohen went into practise with the firm Bulhausser and Tupper. 

In 1968, Cohen joined the Crown Counsel’s Office of the Attorney General of BC and became a Prosecutor. In 1975 he opened his own practise only to rejoin the Crown counsel’s office again where he appeared in cases in the Provincial and Supreme Courts of BC. He also worked in the Remand Court of BC. He stayed in the AG’s Fraser Region Office until he retired 30 years later. Cohen did some ad hoc work for this office even after he retired.

He has had serious medical issues for the past two and a half years from which he is slowly learning to walk again, now using just a cane. Cohen married Paula Bland of Winnipeg. They raised two children and he now has two grandchildren and one great grandson. Cohen, now a widower, lives in Richmond, BC.

The Honourable James S Cowan, QC (LLB ’65)
Nova Scotia


Senator Cowan is a graduate in Arts and Law from Dalhousie University and holds a Master of Laws degree from the London School of Economics. For more than 50 years he practiced law in Halifax with Stewart McKelvey. He also served on the Board of Governors of Dalhousie University for almost four decades including eight years as Chair of the Board. In 2009 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) by Dalhousie.

In 2005 he was appointed to the Senate. He became Opposition Whip in 2007 and Leader of the Opposition in 2008, a position he held until the election of 2015. He remained Leader of the Senate Libéral caucus until 2016 and retired from the Senate in 2017.

Senator Cowan introduced a bill to prohibit and prevent genetic discrimination which was passed unanimously by the Senate and by a large majority in the House of Commons. The bill received Royal Assent in May of 2017 and had its constitutionality upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in July of 2020. For his leadership on this issue he was awarded the 2016 Advocacy Award by the American Society of Human Genetics.

He also served as a member of the Joint Senate-House Committee on Physician Assisted Dying. Upon his retirement from the Senate, he joined the Board of Dying With Dignity Canada and served as Chair of the Board from 2018 to 2021. He was appointed to be a Member of the Order of Canada in 2019.

Donna Franey (LLB ’86)
Nova Scotia

Donna Franey is a champion of education, justice and community. In October of 2021, she retired as the Executive Director of Dalhousie Legal Aid Service (DLAS), a role she held for 26 years. Prior to joining the Clinic in 1990 as a staff lawyer, she worked in private practice.

Franey has been actively involved in the life of the Clinic and local community. She oversaw the delivery of the academic program and skills sessions for students as well as professional development and management of clinic staff and delivery of services. She also carried a caseload of individual poverty, family and criminal law cases, and community development files. She has been continuously engaged in developing and revising the curriculum to enrich and grow the clinical law program.

Over the years Franey has been involved in numerous community organizations such as the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL), Bryony House, Adsum House, Bayer's Westwood Family Resource Centre, Immigrant Settlement and Integration Services, Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia, Committee Against Woman Abuse, NSBS Gender Equity Committee, Family SOS, and the Judicial Education Committee.

She has a passion for community engagement and social justice and has developed initiatives to engage the community for positive change through the provision of information, services, advocacy, organizing, law reform and community development.

Rema Jamous Imseis (LLB ’00)
Ontario

Ms. Rema Jamous Imseis is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representative to Canada. She formerly served as Deputy Director of the UNHCR Bureau for the Middle East and North Africa, covering operations in North Africa, Yemen, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and Israel. Previously, she served as Head of the United Nations Regional Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Middle East and North Africa.

She has been with the United Nations since 2003 and has held a variety of positions in political, legal and humanitarian affairs. Prior to joining the UN, she served as Legal Counsel to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario and worked as a litigator in Toronto. Previous work experience includes consultancies and academic research in human rights, judicial independence and the rule of law.

Maureen A. McTeer (LLM ’93)
Ontario

Maureen McTeer is a Visiting Professor of health law, science and public policy at the University of Ottawa’s faculty of common law. She has graduate degrees from the University of Ottawa, (BA, and LLB), Dalhousie University (LLM in Health law), and the University of Sheffield (UK) (MA in Biotechnological Law and Ethics). She was the first graduate of Dalhousie University’s Health Law Institute; and holds honorary degrees from Athabasca University, the University of Sheffield, Carleton University and Acadia University.

A leading advocate for gender equality, women’s health and women’s reproductive rights in Canada, she served as an original member of the federal Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies, and as a member of the Global Commission on Pollution, Health and Development, whose report appeared in the Lancet in 2017. She has been a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkey & American University, and has held appointments in the faculties of nursing, medicine and law at the university of Calgary. From 1989 to 1993, she chaired the CBA’s Eastern & Central European Program, for which she received the CBA’s Louis St. Laurent Award of Excellence.

She is the author of four best-selling books. Her latest work, a law and public policy book on assisted human reproduction and research will be published in the Spring of 2022.

Dr. Stephen G.A. Pitel (LLB ’92)
Ontario

Stephen G.A. Pitel is one of Canada’s leading scholars of the conflict of laws, the field of law dealing with the taking of jurisdiction, the identification of the applicable law and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. He is also well known in the fields of tort law and legal ethics. He is a professor at Western University, a member of Western's Board of Governors and the Vice-President of the Canadian Association for Legal Ethics.

He is the co-author of several books about the conflict of laws and tort law. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Private International Law.

Pitel was awarded the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations Teaching Award and the Edward G. Pleva Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is a former President of the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association.

Douglas G. Ruck, QC (LLB ’77)
Nova Scotia

Douglas Ruck is a lawyer with extensive experience in labour and employment law, human rights, civil litigation, and administrative law. He was the first full-time Chairperson of the Unified Nova Scotia Labour Board. He formerly served as the Vice-Chair of the Canada Industrial Relations Board, Nova Scotia Labour Standards Tribunal, Labour Relations Board, and Board of Inquiry for the Human Rights Commission. Ruck is also the former Chairman of the Labour Standards Tribunal, Civil Service Employee Relations Board, and Public Sector Compensation Board and was the managing partner for the private law practice of Ruck & Mitchell.

Ruck has lectured and presented workshops and seminars at the provincial, national, and international levels on various topics in labour and employment law, human rights, and more. As Nova Scotia's former Ombudsman, Ruck was instrumental in creating Nova Scotia's Children's Ombudsman and was the founding Director of the Canadian Ombudsman Association.

As part of his father's legacy, he promotes the memory of No. 2 Construction Battalion, Canada's first and only all-black Battalion, which his father wrote a book about in 1987. He is presently the Chair of the Board of Governors of the University of King's College.

Mary Birdsell (BA, JD’94)
Ontario

Mary Birdsell is the Executive Director of Justice for Children and Youth (JFCY), a non-profit legal aid clinic that represents low-income children and youth in Toronto and vicinity. She received her BA in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Alberta in 1998 before earning her law degree.

Prior to her appointment as Executive Director, Birdsell was a community development lawyer and staff lawyer at JFCY. In 1999, she created the Street Youth Legal Services program and represented several young people in a constitutional challenge to Ontario’s Safe Streets Act.

Birdsell is the co-author of Prosecuting and Defending Youth Criminal Justice Cases: A Practitioner’s Handbook, published in 2016. She has been involved in many social justice groups such as the Youth Justice Education Partnership, the Committee for Better Policing, and the Conflict Resolution Educators Network. She is currently the Chair of the Child and Youth Law section of the OBA and a former board member of the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children.

Steve Konchalski (BA, LLB’69)
Nova Scotia

Steve Konchalski is the winningest coach in Canadian University Sport history. In his 46 years as X-Men basketball head coach he has led the team to victory 735 times, capturing 6 AUS championship titles and back-to-back CIS national championship titles in 2000 and 2001.

Konchalski, a native of Elmhurst NY, earned his BA from Acadia and LLB from Dalhousie. During his accomplished career, he has also served as Assistant Head Coach of Canada’s national basketball team, was Head Coach of Team Canada from 1995 to 1998 and has worked in various capacities with Canada's national team program for the past 30 years. He has been recognized with many awards for his coaching, including the 2010 CIS Jean-Marie De Koninck Coaching Excellence Award and the Frank Baldwin Memorial Award for dedication to basketball in Nova Scotia. He is a member of the Acadia Sports Hall of Fame, the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame, the StFX Sports Hall of Fame and the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame.

Dr. Moira L. McConnell (BA, LLB ‘84 PhD)
Quebec

Dr. Moira McConnell is a Professor of Law Emerita and an Honorary Fellow of the Marine & Environmental Law Institute (MELAW). She is an international expert in the law of the sea and international maritime labour law.  

After graduating ‘84 with an LLB from Dalhousie, Moira had the privilege of articling as a clerk to the Hon. Bertha Wilson at the Supreme Court of Canada. She joined the law school faculty in 1989 and was the first Director of MELAW when it was established in 2001. She retired from the law school in 2015, but continues to supervise graduate students and contribute to the Ocean Yearbook. 

A dedicated and accomplished legal scholar, McConnell has well over 100 publications to her credit spanning international law of the sea, international maritime labour law, environmental law, corporate law, and constitutional law. For more than a decade she was a special advisor to the International Labour Organization assisting in the development, adoption and implementation of the “seafarers’ bill of rights - the Maritime Labour Convention - as well as publishing the key international reference book on the Convention. She has also held leadership roles at the Law Reform Commission of Nova Scotia, the NS Film Development Corporation and chaired the Canadian Bar Association’s National Committee on Legal Education to Assist in Implementing a Multi-option Civil Justice System in the 21^st Century.

Professor Jim Phillips, MA, Ph.D (History), (LLB ’87)
Ontario

Jim Phillips is a Professor of Law, History and Criminology at the University of Toronto, and editor-in-chief of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History.

Phillips was formerly law clerk to Madam Justice Bertha Wilson at the Supreme Court of Canada. In 2013, he received the Attorney-General for Ontario’s Mundell Medal for “a distinguished contribution to law and letters.”

He has published over 60 articles and book chapters on British imperial history and eighteenth century India, on property and charities law, US legal history, and, principally, Canadian legal history. He has co-edited four volumes of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History/University of Toronto Press’ Essays in the History of Canadian Law. He has also published a number of books including The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia 1754-2004: From Imperial Bastion to Provincial Oracle, co-written with Philip Girard; Murdering Holiness: The Trials of Franz Creffield and George Mitchel, co-written with Rosemary Gartner and A History of Law in Canada Volume 1: Beginnings to 1866, co-written with Philip Girard and Blake Brown. Volume Two of A History of Law in Canada, covering the period from 1867 to 2000, will be published in 2022 and he is currently working with co-authors Girard and Brown on Volume Three.

Regional Chief Paul Prosper (LLB’94)
Nova Scotia

Paul Prosper is Regional Chief for the Assembly of First Nations and represents the Mi’kmaw Chiefs of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Prior to his appointment as Regional Chief, he served as Chief of Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation from 2013 to 2020. Prosper is a proud graduate of Schulich Law’s IB&M Initiative.  

Prosper has extensive experience in Aboriginal legal issues from a research, litigation, and negotiation perspective. His work has been primarily devoted to advocating for the rights of Mi’kmaw people. Through the years, Prosper has worked for several Mi’kmaw organizations in such areas as oral history; Mi’kmaw land use and occupation studies; claims research; citizenship; consultation; First Nations governance; justice; community development; and Nationhood.

As an educator, Prosper has taught courses for Cape Breton University including Mi’kmaw history, Aboriginal and Treaty Rights, and Mi’kmaw Governance. He has also served on numerous boards and committees with an aim to improving the lives of Mi’kmaw people.  Paul has conducted numerous talks and presentations in academic, government, and First Nations institutional settings. He believes in building strong and resilient communities by enabling and empowering their members.

Professor Dawn Russell, QC (BA, LLB’81, LLM)
New Brunswick

Professor Dawn Russell, QC, has been the president and vice-chancellor of St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick since July 2011. Russell received her B.A. from St. Thomas University, her LL.B. from Dalhousie University, and her LL.M. from Cambridge University. She practiced law in Halifax with Stewart McKelvey Stirling Scales before beginning her career as a law professor in 1987. Russell was Dean of the Dalhousie Law School from 1996 to 2005, and held the Purdy Crawford Chair in Business Law from 2006 to 2011. She has taught and published in two broad areas: novaPublic International Law and Law of the Sea, and Corporate Law, Corporate Governance and Securities Regulation.

Russell has held several leadership roles with local, national and international organizations. She has also served as a consultant to the Government of Nova Scotia and to the Government of Canada. She has received many awards througout her career including the Francis Fish Award for Excellence and Leadership in the Legal Profession, designation of Queen’s Counsel, Honorary Fellow of the Canadian Bar Law for the Future Fund and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Dr. Eric M. Adams (LLB ’01)
Alberta

An award-winning legal educator and scholar, Eric M. Adams is Vice Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Alberta, Faculty of Law. Professor Adams publishes widely in the fields of constitutional law, legal history, employment law, and legal education. He has published legal histories of some of the Supreme Court of Canada's most famous decisions including Christie v York, Roncarelli v Duplessis, and R v Drybones.

A frequent media commentator, Professor Adams's editorials appear in newspapers across the country, most frequently The Globe and Mail. He also continues to provide advice to governments and private parties, especially on constitutional matters.

Professor Adams is currently the legal historian on the research project, Landscapes of Injustice, examining the dispossession of Japanese Canadians during the 1940s. That project will culminate in several academic books, but also the production of teaching materials for elementary and secondary students, as well as a museum exhibit that will travel across Canada.

In his teaching and research, Professor Adams continues to grapple with the complexities of Canadian constitutional law and history, and to try and live up to the standards of the professors who inspired him at Dalhousie nearly twenty year ago.
 

Glenn Anderson, QC (LLB ’85, LLM ’03)
Nova Scotia

Glenn has been a litigation lawyer in Halifax for more than thirty years - with Blois, Nickerson & Bryson for the first seventeen years and the Nova Scotia Department of Justice for the past fifteen.

Committed to legal education, Glenn taught Civil Procedure at the Schulich School of Law in the 1990s and is now teaching Science and the Law, a course he created in 2011. He has written numerous papers on expert evidence, the first of which was published in the Canadian Bar Review. Glenn is also the author of Expert Evidence (LexisNexis Canada) now in its third edition. A fourth edition is expected to be released in 2021. In addition to teaching and writing, he has given many presentations at continuing legal education and other programs in several provinces.

His other contributions to the profession and community include serving as Secretary of the Nova Scotia Advisory Committee on Queen’s Counsel Appointments and Chair of the Park West School Advisory Council.

Glenn was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2004, elected to The American Law Institute in 2010 and a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

The Honourable Tamarin Dunnet (LLB ’74)
Ontario

The Honourable Tamarin Dunnet was appointed to the Supreme Court of Ontario in 1990 by the Minister of Justice of Canada and retired in November 2019. She served as a trial court judge in criminal and civil cases and as an appellate judge in administrative law cases. She served on the Ontario Review Board and National Judicial Institute and she was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Toronto.

Before her appointment, she was a trial lawyer specializing in personal injury and medical malpractice litigation. She taught the Ontario Law Society’s Bar Admission Course and served on the Canadian Bar Association’s National Executive Committee. She served as President of the Women’s Law Association and President of the Toronto Lawyers Association. 

She has published articles about leaders among women lawyers and personal injury litigation and has lectured widely, most recently at the American Bar Association Section of International Law. She has been honoured by the Canadian Bar Association with its Dedicated Service Award and by the Women’s Law Association of Ontario with its President’s Award. She is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal and is listed in “Canadian Who’s Who.”

Dr. Edgar Gold, CM, AM, QC (LLB ’72)
Australia

Edgar Gold is an Australian-Canadian lawyer, author, academic, and Master mariner. He is one of the leading experts in the areas of international ocean law and marine and environmental policy development. He received a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from Dalhousie University. He received a Ph.D. in international maritime law from the University of Wales. He spent sixteen years in the merchant marine and holds an unlimited Master Mariner's Certificate and was in command for several years.

He joined the Faculty of Law of Dalhousie University in 1975 and from 1975 to 1994 was a Professor of Law and from 1986 to 1996 was a Professor of Resource and Environmental Studies. He is a founding member of the school’s Marine and Environmental Law Programme. He is a former member of the Board of Governors and visiting professor at the World Maritime University, Malmö, Sweden, and the International Maritime Law Institute in Malta. He was an Adjunct Professor at the T.C. Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia from 2000 to 2010. He was also a senior partner at Ritch Dunford for many years where he practiced in the areas of maritime law and oil and gas law.

He has extensively published, lectured and advised governments on maritime law and related fields. Among other honours, he has been awarded the Order of Canada, the Order of Australia, Germany’s Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit, and honorary degrees from the Canadian Coast Guard College and the World Maritime University.

Dr. Elizabeth F. Judge (LLM ’01)
Ontario

Dr. Elizabeth F. Judge is Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa, where she specializes in the legal impact of new technologies on society. She is an international expert in the field of law and technology and has been researching, teaching, and supervising privacy, intellectual property, and tort liability related to emerging technologies for over 20 years. She is co-author of the treatise Intellectual Property: The Law in Canada 2nd ed. (Carswell) and has published widely on the regulation of technology.

Dr. Judge is a proud graduate of Dalhousie’s Master of Laws program and also holds a PhD in English Literature from Dalhousie. While at Dalhousie, she held the prestigious Killam Memoriam scholar and she was a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship. Dr. Judge also holds a BA, magna cum laude, from Brown University (English and American Literature; Political Science) (Hons), where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa honour society; a JD, cum laude, from Harvard Law School; and an MA (English) from University of Toronto.

Dr. Judge is a member of the Law Society of Ontario and admitted to the bars of California, District of Columbia, and US Tax Court. Prior to joining the Faculty of Law, she practised law in Washington, D.C. She has served as law clerk to the Honourable Justice Ian Binnie at the Supreme Court of Canada and as expert consultants to a Parliamentary committee and the Canadian Bar Association studying the impacts of new technologies. She is a member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society, an affiliate member of the Institute for Science, Society and Policy, and holds a cross appointment with the Department of English at the University of Ottawa.

Emma Halpern (LLB ’06)
Nova Scotia

Emma Halpern is a lawyer, activist and committed advocate for social justice. She is the Executive Director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia where she works to address the systemic issues that criminalize women and girls. In this role, Emma works tirelessly to strengthen our communities by supporting women through education, advocacy, housing, and legal support.

From 2008 until 2017, Emma was the Equity and Access Officer at the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society where she worked on issues of racism, gender equity and access to justice for the legal profession in Nova Scotia.

Emma has also been a long-time advocate for restorative justice initiatives and was instrumental in introducing restorative approaches to schools throughout the province. She continues to bring restorative principles into her work with women in prison and recently developed a highly successful restorative reintegration program. Finally, Emma is also a regional advocate for the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and in this role she works with women in prison in the Atlantic region to monitor and address the conditions of confinement.
 

Brenda Picard, QC (LLB ’85)
Prince Edward Island

After obtaining her law degree, Brenda Picard worked in a small firm in Nova Scotia before returning to Prince Edward Island to run a support program for women with abusive partners. Brenda subsequently returned to the practice of law in a small partnership, Craig and Picard, in Summerside, PEI. Brenda was a well-respected criminal and family lawyer with PEI Legal Aid between 1996 and 2013. Since 2013, Brenda has continued in her efforts to ensure all people are treated with dignity and respect as the Executive Director of the PEI Human Rights Commission.

Brenda’s contributions to her community began when she was a teenager and have spanned over 40 years. Notably, Brenda was President of a national coalition, the Church Justice on Justice and Corrections and held leadership roles provincially in family violence prevention, conflict resolution and restorative justice. Brenda was awarded the inaugural Community Service Award by the Law Society of PEI and was appointed as Queens Counsel in 2007.

In 2018, Brenda’s paper, “Gender Identity: Developments in the Law and Human Rights Protections”, was published in the UNB Law Journal.
 

DAHLIA BATEMAN (LLB ’04)
Ontario

Since 2004, Dahlia Bateman has been providing legal counsel in commercial law, litigation and employment law in the Greater Toronto Area. In 2006, she started her own law firm specializing in criminal and mental health law, and for almost a decade she has offered legal services to small and mid-size corporations.

Bateman is a long-time supporter of Dalhousie in various capacities, including as the university’s ombudsman and an ambassador appointed by the admissions director to promote the law school and recruit students. She was also the student representative on the Admissions Committee (and remained on that committee after graduation), an IB&M Initiative student representative and vice-president of the Dalhousie Black Law Students’ Association.

Her public service includes volunteering for the Ontario Bar Associations Elementary Mock Trial Program, coaching youth at the Burlington Youth Soccer Club and sponsoring back-to-school programs in Jamaica by assuming the costs of students’ tuition, transportation, food and school supplies. She has been honoured by Knox College’s Association of Past Students (New York chapter) for her efforts to assist disadvantaged students in Jamaica.

PAMELA LARGE-MORAN (LLB ’89)
Prince Edward Island

Committed to social justice and access to justice issues, Pamela Large Moran is at the forefront of alternative dispute resolution. The mediator/arbitrator and adjudicator in First Nations issues and restorative justice has conducted more than 300 hearings of residential schools’ claims survivors across Canada. She has made significant contributions to First Nations issues and was a claims evaluator for the Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children.

Her many past titles include director and vice-president of the ADR Institute of Canada, president and current director of ADR Atlantic and chair of the ADR Section of CBA–PEI. She has made great efforts to increase the cultural competency of the province’s legal community and accessibility to justice for First Nations people.

Currently, Large Moran is the P.E.I. Canadian Bar Association’s Aboriginal Law section chair. She provides pro bono services to the Aboriginal Justice Program of the Mi’kmaq Confederacy of P.E.I. and legal services to the Prince Edward Island Business Women’s Association and the Canadian Cancer Society. 

KENNETH PIKE (LLB ’84)
New Brunswick

Kenneth Pike is an advocate and educator for disadvantaged individuals and a researcher and writer on disability issues and social policy issues. He co-ordinated and managed the Older Parents Project, a three-year research-and-development project for the Fundy Regional Council Association for Community Living addressing issues faced by aging parents of sons and daughters with intellectual disabilities, and the Disability Support Program Pilot Project for the New Brunswick Association of Community Living to develop and test ways of providing individualized and flexible supports to adults with a disability under the age of 65.

His major publications include Estate Planning for Families Who Have a Son or Daughter with a Mental Handicap: A Guide for the Legal Profession of Atlantic Canada and Achieving Inclusion: A Parent Guide to Inclusive Education in New Brunswick.

Pike is currently the director of social policy for the New Brunswick Association for Community Living. His work has been recognized with a New Brunswick Human Rights Award by that province’s Human Rights Commission, and the New Brunswick Association for Community Living named him a Distinguished Associate.

PETER DARBY (LLB ’58)
Nova Scotia

Retired Dalhousie Law School professor Peter Darby has been not only an exceptional educator and mentor but also a leader as a labour arbitrator and adjudicator both in Atlantic Canada and nationally. In the field of labour relations, he is known for his expertise on employment law and occupational and safety matters.

His career highlights include serving as the solicitor for Imperial Oil in Calgary, partner with Willet and Darby in Saint John, arbitrator and adjudicator for the Nova Scotia Department of Labour and Workforce Development and member, chair and vice-chair of the Nova Scotia Labour Relations Board.


In 1992 and 1993 he was a member of a federal task force that penned the Report of the Incomes and Adjustment in the Atlantic Fishery.

While teaching at Dalhousie Law School, he received the Rosemary Gill Award for exceptional (non-academic) service to student life. The Class of 1974 established a personal bursary for a law student in his name, describing him as “Beloved Professor.” He sat on many law school and university committees, and he has made contributions to the arts community, including the Dalhousie Art Gallery.

GAIL MACAULAY(LLB ’79)
Manitoba

As a 23-year-old lawyer, Gail MacAulay moved to The Pas, Man., a northern community 600 kilometres north of Winnipeg. She articled with Manitoba Legal Aid, travelling to remote First Nations communities by truck, bush plane and boat. While in the North, she served on the board of directors that established and ran the first Residential Crisis Centre in Northern Manitoba, serving on the Friendship Centre and United Church outreach boards.

After finishing her Manitoba articles, MacAulay articled at Nova Scotia Legal Aid in Antigonish before returning to Manitoba, where she worked for the next five years in The Pas. For the remainder of her career, which spanned more than three decades, she practised criminal law in Winnipeg, handling the criminal courts in First Nations communities that were served out of the capital city.

MacAulay has volunteered for the Elizabeth Fry Society, the Salvation Army Community Advisory Council, World Vision, the Aspers Foundation for Human Rights and Holocaust Societies. She has worked with many organizations for disabled children and those with Down syndrome, initiating (with her husband) a challenge to the former Employment Insurance Act that resulted in a change to legislation concerning eligibility guidelines for parental benefits for parents of disabled children.

JUDGE ANNE DERRICK (LLB ’80)
Nova Scotia

Prior to her 2005 appointment to the Provincial and Family Courts of Nova Scotia, Judge Anne Derrick’s nearly 25-year legal career focused on public interest and equality litigation, criminal law, including criminal defence, and social justice advocacy, often on a pro bono basis.

A recipient of the 1998 Weldon Award for Unselfish Public Service, Judge Derrick’s contributions as a lawyer and a judge, to her clients and her community have been widely acknowledged.

In 2009 and 2010, in addition to her criminal trial and youth justice court responsibilities, Judge Derrick conducted the Fatality Inquiry into the Death of Howard Hyde under the Fatality Investigations Act, culminating in the release of the 400 page Hyde Report in December 2010 and its 80 recommendations.

Judge Derrick currently presides in the Halifax Long Trial Court hearing cases involving adult accused and youth. She regularly contributes to both public and professional legal education, often in relation to criminal justice issues.

JOHN S. FITZPATRICK, QC (LLB ’84)
Nova Scotia

John is an accomplished Partner at BOYNECLARKE LLP, and Team Leader, practicing in the areas of Mortgage Enforcement, Collections and Real Property. He is a past member of the firm’s Executive Committee.

John was appointed Queen’s Counsel in February 2008 and has been included in “Best Lawyers in Canada” since 2012. He  served on the Board of Governors at Saint Mary’s University for twenty years, the past eight years as Chair and Vice-Chair.  For a decade, John was a board member of ABC Life Literacy, Toronto, a leading Canadian literacy organization.  He has also been involved in a number of other community organizations and initiatives.  For more than 20 years, John has been actively involved in all levels of politics.  He is currently a member of World Wildlife Fund Canada Board of Directors, Toronto and is a member of the Queen’s Counsel Advisory Committee .

In recognition of his myriad of contributions to his community, John is the recipient of numerous awards, including,  2014 Weldon Award for Unselfish Public Service, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, Canadian Bar Association Community Service Award , and an Honorary Gold “M” from the Saint Mary’s University Students’Association.

His contributions have raised the esteem and profile of the legal profession, Dalhousie Law Alumni Association, and the Schulich School of Law.  He resides in Halifax with his wife, Heather and his three children, Laura, Jennifer and Andrew.

M. LYNN MURRAY, QC (LLB ’83)
Prince Edward Island

M. Lynn Murray has been a respected member of the Prince Edward Island Bar since 1984. She is a partner with Key Murray Law, a practice that is focused on civil litigation, labour and employment law, and administrative law. She also acts as an arbitrator on labour matters.

Lynn is past president of the P.E.I. Law Society and for many years, acted as counsel for the Society on self-regulating and discipline matters, including prosecuting professional misconduct cases.  She also gives presentations on discipline in the P.E.I. Law Society’s Bar Admission Course. She is a former member of the board of directors for the University of Prince Edward Island.

Over the years, Lynn’s contributions to the legal profession have included stints as chair of the P.E.I. Labour Relations Board, chair of the Civil Litigation Section of the P.E.I. Branch of the Canadian Bar Association and president of the National CBA Civil Litigation Section. In her community, she volunteers with the Alzheimer Society of P.E.I. and Crimestoppers P.E.I.
 

CANDY PALMATER (LLB ’99)
Ontario

As a gay Mi’kmaq woman, Candy has worked tirelessly to promote the rights, issues and awareness for those of the GLBT community, the Mi’kmaw Nation and women. She travels the world speaking to audiences about the power of love, kindness and self-acceptance.

Candy was valedictorian of her class at Dalhousie Law School and went on to practice labour and Aboriginal law in a large corporate firm. Today she contributes greatly to the arts. In addition to being a stand-up comedian, she is an actor, writer and award-winning TV and radio personality. She is the creator, producer, only writer, comedian and host of CBC-Radio’s The Candy Palmater Show, and she has executive produced three films on Mi’kmaw culture.

Before pursuing entertainment full-time, Candy directed First Nations education for the Nova Scotia Department of Education for a decade. She has taught in the Transition Year program at Dalhousie University and is currently working on a master’s of education degree at St. Francis Xavier University.
 

BRIAN PURDY, QC (LLB ’63)
Alberta

Brian Purdy began his legal practice in Alberta and was admitted to the Northwest Territories Bar in 1966, which is when he established his own practice in Yellowknife. His practice took him over much of the Canadian North.

In the criminal law sphere, Brian’s work was unparalleled. He was the first member of his law school’s graduating class to represent a client on appeal to Canada’s highest court in R v Drybones [1970] SCR 282. Following Drybones, he tried to expand the application of the Canadian Bill of Rights.

Later, Brian distinguished himself on behalf of the Crown, in such cases as R v Biasi et al, a 1981 case in British Columbia’s Supreme Court. Another milestone was his role as lead counsel in Federal Republic of Germany v Casper, one of the most complex extradition cases in Canadian history.

Brian’s accomplishments include contributions to myriad Canadian legal institutions and to public service beyond his legal practice, including as a civic leader in Yellowknife.

Mary Hetherington (LLB ’63)
Calgary, AB

At a time when very few women considered law for a career, Mary Hetherington was one of only two women to graduate from Dalhousie law school in 1963. She was also the first female lawyer to open a practice in a downtown office when she returned to Calgary.

Her practice flourished and she developed a reputation for handling serious criminal cases—people in desperate need of representation. As a result of her courtroom prowess, in 1978 she was appointed to the District Court of Alberta.  In 1979 the District Court merged with the Supreme Court, which became the Court of Queen’s Bench. In 1985 she was the first woman to be appointed to the Court of Appeal of Alberta, and to the Courts of Appeal of the Northwest Territories and, later, Nunavut.

Hetherington retired from the Alberta Court of Appeal in 2001, but remained active in an Alternative Dispute Resolution group, as well as the Criminal Injuries Review Board of Alberta. From 2003 to 2005 she was an adjudicator for the Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat.

During and after her time on the Courts of Alberta, Hetherington served as a Deputy Judge in the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

She has guest lectured at the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary, the Legal Education Society of Alberta, the National Judicial Institute and the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice.

She has volunteered with the Elizabeth Fry Society, Discovery House (a shelter for abused women and their children), Calgary Seniors’ Resource Society, the Calgary Foundation’s Seniors Forever Fund and the Tom Baker Cancer Centre.

She holds an honourary doctorate from the University of Calgary and is a member of the Order of Canada. 

Mary Lynn Kane, Q.C. (LLB ’87)
Charlottetown, PE

Mary Lynn Kane is the managing partner of Cox and Palmer in Charlottetown and a former chair of the regional board of directors of that firm. She has appeared at all levels of Courts in the province and before and on behalf of administrative boards and tribunals. She is listed in The Best Lawyers in Canada as a leading legal practitioner in medical negligence.

Her contribution to legal education is notable. Kane is the course instructor in Supreme Court Practice for the PEI Law Society’s bar admission course. She has also made presentations such as “Litigation Techniques and Strategy” for continuing legal education for the PEI Law Society and the Canadian Bar Society.

Kane is community-minded and volunteers on many school and charity initiatives. She is a member of the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce, and past deputy chair of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Capital Campaign. She is a member of “100 Women Who Care”, an organization that supports local charities with the help of local women. As well, she was Deputy Chair of the Elizabeth Hospital Campaign. She keeps politically active—she is a panel member and Liberal spokesperson on CBC Radio Island Morning’s Talk Show.

Justice Janet McMurtry (LLB ’85)
Regina, SK

Justice Janet McMurtry, of Regina, began practising law in 1985 and remained in private practice until 1994 at which time she was appointed to the Provincial Court of Saskatchewan where she served for 11 years. During that time, she was appointed Administrative Judge for Regina and Southern Saskatchewan. Also, she was the Associate Chief Judge of the Provincial Court. In 2005, she was appointed Judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Saskatchewan where she has served for the last 10 years.

Justice McMurtry has contributed to non-profit organizations and her community in many ways. She served as director and fundraising chair of Big Sisters in Saskatoon, and founded the Regina branch of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF). She has presided over the Saskatchewan Provincial Court Judges Association as well as co-chaired its Education Committee. She mentors law clerks and seconded articling students at the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench and is a frequent lecturer at the Canadian Bar Association meetings.

She is a respected leader among her peers and her expertise is nationally recognized.

Justice McMurtry is married with three boys aged 19, 22 and 25.

W. Donald Goodfellow, Q.C. (LLB ’64)
Calgary, AB

Donald Goodfellow has been listed as a top lawyer including one of the top Construction Lawyers in the World in the International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers as well as being listed as one of the leading lawyers in Construction Law in the L’Expert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada

Having worked in construction to put himself through university, he was listed in the Canadian Lawyer magazine as the only construction lawyer who actually worked in construction. The Calgary Construction Association has named him a “Champion of Education,” and established a scholarship for a construction apprentice in his name.

Goodfellow received the Legal Education of Society of Alberta’s 25^th Anniversary Award for volunteer excellence in teaching the Bar Admission Course. He has lectured and given seminars to members of the legal profession including at Osgoode Law School. He’s a prolific author of articles for legal and business publications.

He has volunteered for over 40 years for Kiwanis Club. His efforts have included many positions at every level including president of the Kiwanis Foundation of Canada and governor of Kiwanis International.

He is active in his church’s activities and supports the arts through many musical festivals at the provincial and national level.

Goodfellow has not forgotten his roots. He continues to support the Law School by providing a book prize to a first year student and frequently visits the Law School while in Halifax.

Ronald J. MacDonald, Q.C. (LLB ’84)
Halifax, NS

Born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia Ron MacDonald began his career as an associate with Burchell MacAdam, Hayman & Merrick in 1985. He then joined the public Prosecution Service of Nova Scotia in 1991 and in 2008 was appointed to the Department of Justice Criminal Law Policy Advisory and currently holds the position of Director of the Serious Incident Response Team.

MacDonald served as the President of Federation of Law Societies of Canada and sat on the Continuing Legal Education Committee and Planning Committee. He also worked for the Nova Scotia Barrister’s Society and its committees for nearly 20 years and served as the president in 2004-05.

He has volunteered for many community groups including the Antigonish Sexual Assault Response Team, Antigonish Crown Attorney Run for Cancer Research, Antigonish Interagency Committee on Family and Sexual Violence, Braemore Grocery Co-ops and the Canadian Red Cross. MacDonald is also involved with athletics, coaching varsity volleyball and basketball as well as club softball and basketball teams.

Most notable of MacDonald’s career is his willingness to stand up and advocate for the interests of a vulnerable group. Recently, his work in the context of the accreditation of Trinity Western University reflects his passionate advocacy for the equality interests of the LGBTQ community in Nova Scotia. His willingness to put his professional reputation behind a cause that does not affect him personally and to listen to others with an open mind is truly in keeping with the Bertha Wilson Honour Society.

Stewart McInnes, Q.C. (LLB ’61)
Halifax, NS

Stewart McInnes has given back to his community and country in the broadest sense of the word. He has made exceptional contributions to the legal profession, his community, business, non-profits and charities as well as to Canadian political life and politics.

McInnes practised at McInnes Cooper in Halifax for over 38 years. He was the president of the Nova Scotia branch of the Canadian Bar Association, a member of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society Bar Council and a director of the Law Foundation of Nova Scotia.

McInnes also served as a Member of Parliament for Halifax and as a Member of the Federal Cabinet from 1984 to 1988.

McInnes’s work in his community is extraordinary. He has fundraised for the Brunswick Street Mission (an organization to help those struggling with poverty) and with the ALTA Gymnastics Club. He also made a difference by leading the way on philanthropic initiatives, including his role as Chair of the Halifax United Way, the Dalplex Campaign and the Canadian Mental Health Campaign Nova Scotia. He has been president of the School for the Blind, of the Hearing and Speech Clinic, of the Halifax Club and of the North British Society. He was instrumental in bringing back Symphony Nova Scotia from bankruptcy and breathing into it new life. And this highlights just a few of his contributions.

He served on the board of governors and board of directors at Dalhousie University, Grace Maternity Hospital, the Halifax Foundation, the Canada Summer Games, the CNIB and the World Wildlife Fund Canada.

Jim Prentice, Q.C. (LLB ’80)
Calgary, AB

Jim Prentice’s professional career began in 1980 working as an entrepreneur and lawyer in Alberta involving environmental actions and developments. That expertise led him to serve as law commissioner with the Indian Claims Commission of Canada with land and property rights.

Prentice’s first involvement in politics was confined mostly to behind-the-scenes party work for the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta. From 1993 to 2000 he served as co-chair of the Indian Claims Commission of Canada, which mediated property claims between First Nations and the federal government.

From 2006 to 2007, Prentice served as Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. And in 2007 he took up a new post as Minister of Industry and later that year became Minister of the Environment in 2008.

In 2011, Prentice returned to the private sector and became vice chairman with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce where he increased the bank’s profile in energy infrastructure, responsible resource development, and the Asia Pacific Rim. And in 2014 left this position to return to serve his fellow Albertans. Prentice brought a large reputation to his return to public life and easily won the leadership contest and later that year was sworn in as Alberta’s 16^th premier.

Prentice is a member of the Board of directors of Bell Canada and is one of the Canadian members of the Trilateral Commission. He has also served as a governor and vice-chair of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame and as governor of the Duke of Edinbrugh’s Award, a non-competitive program to encourage personal development and community involvement for young people.

Judge Corrine Sparks (LLB ’79, LLM ’01)
Halifax, NS

In 1987 Judge Corrine Sparks became the first female African Canadian to be appointed to the judiciary and the first African Nova Scotian to serve on the bench.

Judge Sparks’ humble beginnings in segregated Nova Scotia left much to overcome. She succeeded through hard work and the support of her family and educators.

Judge Sparks has been an advocate for equal rights and education. She supports judicial education and developed programs to address gender and racial discrimination in the courts.

She continues to serve the community in many ways. She is a member of the board of directors of Mount Saint Vincent University and the Board of the Black Loyalist Heritage Society, the Canadian Association of Provincial Court Judges, the American Judges Association, the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers and an honourary director of the Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children. She served on the CBA Gender Equality Task Force and the university Review Committee of the Indigenous Black and M’ikmaq Initiative at the Law School.

She received the Service Award from the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers, the Frances Fish Award, the Service Award from the Congress of Black Women, the “Rebel with a Cause Award” from the Elizabeth Fry Society, the Canadian Bar Association’s “Touchstone Award and the Harry Jerome “African Canadian Achievement Award” for Excellence in Law.

In 2007 the Dalhousie Black Law Students’ Association established The Judge Corinne Sparks Award in honour of her contributions to the legal community.  

Robert Barrigar, QC (’63)
Victoria, B.C.

Robert (Bob) Barrigar, now retired, was considered one of Canada’s foremost lawyers in the practice of intellectual property law.

He practised exclusively in the areas of patent, trademark and other branches of intellectual property law, including related litigation, both as a patent and trademark agent and as leading counsel in trials.  He has been a leading contributor to legal education in his area of expertise and is the author of a continually updated book on patent law, as well as several papers.  He has been retained by the Government of Canada as special counsel on legislative reform. He is a former president of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada, and served on Council of the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys, as well as President of its Canadian section.  He has chaired a number of professional committees on intellectual property law.  He has also served on the Faculty of Law of the University of British Columbia and of the University of Victoria.

One of his principal outside interests has been the environment.  Among other responsibilities, he has served as a National Trustee of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and as president of its Ottawa-Hull Chapter.

Noella Brennan Fisher, QC ('66)
Halifax, NS

Noella Brennan Fisher was one of the first two women hired as lawyers by the Nova Scotia Department of Justice.

Being at the forefront of a slow trickle of women lawyers into the profession, she was heavily involved in gender equality issues in the Canadian and Nova Scotia justice systems — a trailblazer in gender issues in the then male-dominated legal profession. She was instrumental in making gender changes in the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society and the Canadian Bar Association.

While working for the Province as the first female financial counsel, she was the first and, at times, only woman making it in the male-dominated international world of finance. She worked with international investment bankers and lawyers (including Wall Street lawyers), while the Province was borrowing millions for its capital and other projects.

She made history when she became the first female full member of the male-only historic Halifax Club. She was the Nova Scotia Minister of Justice’s representative on the Federal Symposium of Women, Law and the Administration of Justice in 1991. She has also been a member of gender equality committees for the Canadian Bar Association, the Nova Scotia Bar Association and the Nova Scotia Department of Justice.

Brennan Fisher has been a governor of both Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) and Dalhousie University. She volunteered for many causes including the MSVU Alumnae Association, the John Howard Society for many years and was the Sisters of Charity Financial Advisory Board Chair for several years, as well as volunteering for many other charities.

Brennan Fisher retired from practice in 1997 and again in 2004, but continues with her community work.

Scott Dickieson, QC (’88)
Charlottetown, PE

Scott Dickieson is a well-respected sole practitioner in the area of real estate and commercial transactions, corporate law, wills, estates, employment law and family law.

Dickieson is the past-president of the Law Society of P.E.I. He served as chair of the P.E.I. Law Society Discipline Committee and was responsible for investigating complaints on alleged breaches of the Canadian Bar Association’s Code of Professional Conduct by presiding over hearings and adjudicating and writing decisions.

He was also a member of the Law Society’s Articling and Admission Committee. He has taught as a sessional lecturer and instructor at the University of Prince Edward Island School of Business.

Dickieson is active in the community. He was a director of the Prince Edward Island Council of the Arts, the Fathers of Confederation Trust, the L. M. Montgomery Land Trust, the Arts Atlantic Magazine, the Watermark Theatre and was the president and director of the Community Legal Information Association of Prince Edward Island.

Doug Downey (’97)
Orillia, ON

Doug Downey took the road less travelled. He eschewed opportunities to work on Bay Street in favour of articling at a firm in Orillia, Ontario and eventually started his own firm in 2001. He practises in real estate, corporate and municipal law and his firm is recognized as a leader in these areas.

Downey has been active in legal education, both pursuing and providing it. He earned his Masters of Law from Osgoode Hall and has a Masters in Public Administration specializing in Judicial Administration. He has taught contract law to medical students at the University of Western Ontario and was a professor at Laurentian University teaching contract, property, constitutional and tort law.

In addition to his teaching and practice, Downey has contributed his legal expertise to a number of initiatives including serving five years on the executive of the Ontario Bar Association. He was appointed to the Expert Panel on Regulation of Home Inspectors and was also appointed by the Federal Minister of Environment to be the chair of the panel on the future of the the Trent-Severn Waterway to develop a vision for the future of the largest federal government asset in Ontario.

He has been active at all levels of political campaigns: municipally, provincially and federally. He was elected city councillor of Orillia and hosted a local television show called “Politically Speaking.”

Somehow Downey has found time to make important contributions to the community. He served on the board for Orillia District Community Development Corporation. He is a member of the Audit Compliance Committee, is a past president for the Orillia District Chamber of Commerce, was regional chair for the 2014 Ontario Winter Games and has volunteered with the Pan-Am Games operating in central Ontario. He has volunteered with the Kiwanis Club and Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Orillia.

Kate Glover (’06)
Montreal, QC

In Kate Glover’s relatively short career she has made a marked and positive impact on the legal profession and legal education.

During Glover’s tenure at Dalhousie, she received 13 awards for her academic achievements and contributions to the community, including the Law School’s Bligh Scholarship and Robert E. Bamford Memorial Award.

After law school at Dalhousie, she received her LL.M. from the University of Cambridge where she held the Right Honourable Paul Martin Senior Scholarship. She then clerked with the Honourable Madam Justice Abella at the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC). She returned to school, this time to McGill University as a Doctor of Civil Law candidate where she was awarded the O’Brien Fellowship for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism and the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and taught at the graduate level as the Ian Pilarczyk Teaching fellow. Among all of this success, Kate remains a thoughtful and pragmatic lawyer. Most recently, she served as junior counsel for the Amicus Curiae before the SCC in the Senate Reform Reference.

Glover has achieved incredible success in her young career and seems destined to continue to have a significant impact on the legal community.

Peter Greene, QC (’78)
Toronto, ON

Peter Greene’s career path started at Fasken Calvin (now Fasken Martineau LLP). He became partner in 1986. In 1992, he left Faskens to set up Kelly Affleck Greene (now Affleck Greene McMurtry LLP), one of the first litigation boutiques on Bay Street. It was a risky undertaking and one that fundamentally changed the landscape of Bay Street law. The role he played in this evolution was an integral one.  Since then, many other similar boutiques have emerged and are now thriving.

A skilled litigator, Greene is widely recognized for expertise in high profile and complex litigation. He has particular expertise in securities and insurance litigation, large class actions, product liability and construction contract cases.

Greene has always remained loyal to the Law School. Currently six of the firm’s 14 lawyers are Schulich Law graduates, including four of its five partners and many others have been with the firm. He has mentored countless young lawyers; his passion for litigation comes through and his students are richer for it.

Greene is a true Weldonite. He and his firm support dozens of charitable and non-profits each year. He has been one of the top individual fundraisers for Ovarian Cancer Canada Walk of Hope and has supported the Parkinson’s cause.

Edwin Harris, QC (’58)
Halifax, NS

 A chartered accountant and lawyer, Ed Harris has made a career noted for his contributions to legal education, the legal profession, the province of Nova Scotia and Dalhousie University.

Harris has made a significant contribution to the Law School community. He taught taxation, corporate finance and legal accounting. He chaired numerous committees and served as chair of Faculty Council.  He also served as a member of Senate of Dalhousie and has served on committees such as the Committee on University Government, the Faculty Association, the Dalhousie Law Alumni Association, the Student Union Building Project and the Faculty Club.

Harris has been a governor and chair of the Canadian Taxation Foundation, a member of the “Wise Persons” committee on securities regulation, of the Task Force on the Canada Corporations Act, and the Advisory Committee of the Department of National Revenue, and co-chair of the Joint Committee on Taxation of the Canadian Bar Association and Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Harris continues his work on local, provincial and national boards and commissions. Some of his more public accomplishments include his roles with the Graham Royal Commission on Education, the Halifax Transit Corporation and the Metro Transit Commission, the Halifax Industrial Development Commission, the White Paper to the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council and the Green Commission on Election Expenses.

Harris was a member of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee for the Tax Court of Canada. He is also chair of the Dalhousie Planned Giving Advisory Board.

For many years he carried on teaching while practising with the Halifax law firm Daley, Black & Moreira. Currently he is counsel to the firm of McInnes Cooper.

Shawna Hoyte, QC (’94)
Halifax, NS

Shawna Hoyte is an accomplished legal advocate and a counsellor, educator, mentor and community leader.

Soon after completing her law degree, Hoyte joined Dalhousie Legal Aid Service (DLAS) as a staff lawyer. In 2001 and 2003, she earned a Bachelor and Master of Social Work.

Along with her position at DLAS, she works as a clinical social worker in the area of mental health and addiction services to children, youth and families.

Hoyte served as the acting Executive Director of the DLAS, where her teaching, legal and social work, were merged with her community involvement to effect social justice. Her added dimension of being an experienced mental health practitioner and social worker to her legal work, results in a truly interdisciplinary approach to dealing with broad social issues.

She is a committed supporter of the Law School's Indigenous, Black & M'ikmaq Initiative and has taught in the prelaw course. She has also taught in the Faculty of Health Professions at Dalhousie School for Social Work.

Hoyte is a sought after public speaker and facilitator. As well, she is involved with numerous boards and committees including the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society- Complaints Investigation Committee and the Queens Counsel Advisory Committee, the Provincial Serious Incidence Response Team Advisory Committee, and the National Afrikan Canadian Prisoners Advocacy Coalition, to name a few.  

Colin P. MacDonald, QC (’77)
Calgary, AB

Colin Patrick MacDonald began his career as an associate lawyer in Halifax. Later, he worked in Ottawa as the Executive Assistant to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and then moved to Calgary to serve as a solicitor with Canterra Energy and then joined and made partner with the law firm Howard Mackie (now Borden, Ladner, Gervais LLP).



MacDonald’s contributions to the community include business and industry, non-profit and charitable organizations and the arts. The City of Calgary recognized those contributions awarding him the prestigious Grant MacEwan Life Time Achievement award for 25 years of significant community service in 2011.



He has contributed to the Calgary community and nationally serving on the Board of Directors of a number organizations including: Calgary Airport Authority, Catholic Family Service (Calgary), Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation,  Calgary 2005 Exposition Corporations World’s Fair Bid,  the Calgary Chamber of Commerce’s Task Force on Canadian Unity and on the Board of Governors of St Francis Xavier University. He also served as Chair of the Board of the Forum for Young Albertans and as Chair of the Board of Winsport Canada and sat on its Board of Directors for 10 years (formerly Calgary Olympic Development Association). Winsport has been the centre for training of Canada’s Olympic winter sport athletes for the past 25 years.

MacDonald is currently Chair of the Board of Governors of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, a director of Terra Energy Corp. and the Canadian American Business Council.

James Tucker (’92)
Whitehorse, YT

James Tucker was born in Moselle, France and spent much of his young life moving from air force base to air force base as required by his father’s postings. His father retired from the military to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Jim received his undergraduate degree at Memorial University.


After earning his law degree at Dalhousie, he returned to St. John’s, but soon after moved to Whitehorse and began working with Macdonald & Company practising civil litigation.



Tucker was the founding member of the very successful Tucker & Company in 2010. Despite the demands of being a small firm owner, Tucker found time to give back to community such as the Law Society of Yukon, the Canadian Bar Association, Yukon Branch and the CBA National Task force with respect to Access to Justice in Rural Areas.  He currently serves as president of the Law Society of Yukon.

He has been a member of the Board of Directors for Special Olympics Yukon for 14 years and was president for nine of those years.  He is presently past president and treasurer for that organization. Under his leadership, through successful fundraising, he has helped build the chapter’s financial health. The chapter has grown from 38 to over 95 athletes.



He has contributed to the Special Olympics National Presidents Council and to new governance practices. His leadership and enthusiasm has resulted in small chapters of the Special Olympics having a greater voice on the national stage.

Peter Dey ('66): Toronto, Ontario

Peter Dey has practised corporate law for 36 years. He has expertly chaired and directed for the Ontario Securities Commission and Morgan Stanley. He formed and chaired the TSX Committee on corporate governance entitled "Where were the Directors?" now known as the "Dey Report". Mr Dey's knowledge and experience in government has allowed him opportunities: he's a frequent speaker at conferences and meetings across Canada and internationally and his work in corporate governance has been recognized by the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) which awarded the 2010 ICGN Award to him and in Canada by the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) which made him a fellow in the institute since 2001. Mr Dey currently sits on the boards of four private sector companies: Goldcorp Inc, Caracal Energy Inc, Granite Real Estate Investment Trust and Enablence Technologies. His "day job" is chair of Paradigm Capital Inc. He has also sat on the boards of: Addax Petroleum, Chicago Sun Times, CP Ships, Stelco, Canadian Helicopters and Cameco. He is currently a director of The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Massachusetts. He is also a mentor to women directors as part of the "Women on Board" program.

David Dingwall, QC ('79): Toronto, Ontario

David Dingwall is known for his high degree of integrity and genuinely works for those less fortunate in his community. Not long after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Canada's tobacco legislation was unconstitutional, Mr Dingwall became Canada's Minister of Health. Under his leadership Canada passed the toughest tobacco legislation in the world. As a member of parliament he worked tenaciously on the Sydney Tar Ponds environmental cleanup. He was instrumental in hosting the G-7 Conference in Halifax. Mr Dingwall's leadership helped to return the Royal Canadian Mint to profitability. Mr Dingwall's support for post-secondary education, and in particular Cape Breton University, has been substantial. He is a distinguished visiting professor at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University. He is currently practising law at Affleck Greene McMurtry in Toronto.

Morris J Haugg, QC ('69): Tidnish, Nova Scotia

Morris Haugg has always been a firm believer in giving back to his profession and community. Born in Germany, Mr Haugg has made his home in Tidnish, NS and there are few causes in that part of Nova Scotia that he has not been a part of. He has been an active member of the Amherst Rotary Club, Amherst YMCA , the Amherst Toastmaster Club, the Amherst Township Historical Society, the Blueberry Harvest Festival and the Tidnish Cross Roads Community Association. He has served as president of the Northport Home and School Association and was a member and officer of the Highland View Regional Hospital Foundation and the Cumberland Health Care Foundation. He has served on many boards and committees including the Amherst District Improvement Commission, the Police Services Advisory Committee, the Amherst 2000 Society and the Atlantic Provinces Resource Centre for the Hearing Handicapped. He was a lecturer at Mount Allison University and has been the town appointee to the Cumberland Regional Library Board. Mr Haugg has held executive positions of the Governing Council of Nova Scotia's Barristers' Society and Cumberland Barristers' Society. He has provided leadership and shared his talents proving to be an enthusiastic advocate for many causes within his community and the legal profession.


Wendy MacGregor ('87): Halifax, Nova Scotia

Wendy MacGregor has made an exceptional contribution to her community and has worked hard to support numerous not-for-profit and charitable organizations. As a student at the Law School she helped those less fortunate and was active in the Elizabeth Fry Society and the Women's Association for the Support of Prostitutes. Currently she is one of five members of the Nova Scotia Bullying Task Force. She wrote and produced an anti-bullying musical that toured numerous Nova Scotia elementary schools and was later captured in a film that she co-produced. Ms MacGregor was also involved in a number of non-profit organizations, including the Sacred Heart School of Halifax, Phoenix House, Ecology Action Centre, Citadel Theatre Society and SOAR (Sending Orphans of AIDS Relief) a society that she co-founded to provide funds for orphans in South Africa. She recently completed work as an executive producer for the Nova Scotia Restorative Justice Theatre Project. Ms MacGregor received the "Sun Chips, Community Wave Maker Award" and the "Volunteer Contribution Award" for the Ecology Action Centre.

Joseph B Marshall ('93): Eskasoni, Nova Scotia

Joseph Marshall was born in Membertou and lives in Eskasoni, NS. He was one of the earliest law graduates from the Indigenous Black & Mi'kmaq Initiative. He is an esteemed elder, leader and visionary who has advocated on behalf of the Mi'kmaq First Nations people. Mr Marshall helped to form the Mi'kmaq College Institute and Mi'kmaq Studies as a discipline at Cape Breton University. He was an associate professor in Mi'kmaq Studies and Political Science at Cape Breton University. Mr Marshall was one of the founding members of the Union of Nova Scotia Indians and is its executive director that represents about 70% of the registered Indian population of Nova Scotia. He is a senior Mi'kmaq Advisor guiding the Mi'kmaq through the negotiation of Aboriginal and treaty rights with the provincial and federal governments. In 2011, Mr Marshall was awarded the Order of Nova Scotia.

Dianne Pothier ('82): Halifax, Nova Scotia

Professor Diane Pothier graduated from (then) Dalhousie Law School having won almost every prize available, including the University Medal in Law. Professor Pothier began her career clerking with Justice RG Brian Dickson of the Supreme Court of Canada. In 1986, she became a faculty member of the Dalhousie Law School. As a faculty member she made leading contributions to teaching and research of constitutional law, labour law and public law. Her work in labour and public law helped the Law School be recognized as a leading school in these areas. Professor Pothier is also considered Canada's leading legal scholar on issues of disability and the law. Her concepts of equality, duty to accommodate and dis-citizenship have been drawn upon by scholars and courts across the country. Her work on women and disability has had a huge impact on human rights and Charter scholars and advocates. Professor Pothier is a member of a number of groups, including the DisAbled Women's Network (DAWN), the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) and the Canadian Disabilty Studies Association. Professor Pothier has received the Frances Fish Women Lawyers' Achievement Award and the Canadian Bar Association President's Award — she is one of three women to have received this award.

Robert Scammell, QC ('62): Red Deer, Alberta

Both a journalist and a leading lawyer in his home province of Alberta, Robert Scammel made his mark as an outdoors writer and conservationist while actively pursuing his career in law. As a conservationist he has held executive positions with the Red Deer Public Library, the Red Deer Fish and Game Association, the Alberta Fish and Game Association, the Canadian Wildlife Association and various provincial government bodies. He was a volunteer to many environment and recreation organizations over the years. He was named Outdoorsman of the Year by the Canadian Wildlife Federation and the Outdoors Writers of Canada and was awarded the Fulton Trophy — the highest award given to a conservationist by the Alberta Fish and Game Society. Mr Scammel practiced in the Red Deer law firm of Johnston, Ming, Scammell, Manning, Lamb, Mitchell & Moore and was a senior partner and counsel with Sisson Warren Sinclair, Barristers and Solicitors.

James Travers, QC ('80): Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

James Travers, a practising lawyer for 33 years as a partner of Stewart McKelvey in Charlottetown, is perhaps most well known for his involvement with the Children's Wish Foundation of Canada. As chair of the provincial board and representative on the national board of directors, the PEI chapter has grown from a small volunteer group to an organization staffed by professional employees, raising $16-million a year and granting over 1000 wishes annually. Mr Travers has also been active with the Stars of Life Foundation for Autism. For the past nine years the charity has been dedicated to providing resources and facilities for adults with autism. As well, Mr Travers has been a member of the fathers of Confederation Buildings Trust that administers the Confederation of the Arts in Charlottetown; a member of the Board of the Community Foundation for Prince Edward Island; and a member of the LM Montgomery Land Trust. In recognition of Mr Travers' work he was awarded the Law Society of Prince Edward Island's Distinguished Community Service Award and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.