Katrina Pacey
Executive manager, Pivot Legal Society, Vancouver, B.C. Pacey was recently appointed executive director of Pivot Legal and continues the fantastic work of her predecessors. Pivot focuses on issues related to health, police liability, drug coverage, and homelessness, poverty, and gender workers' rights. She may be best known for her role at the Bedford case, but Pivot is about more than that and frequently has intervener status in major Supreme Court of Canada cases, including the recent one on required minimums. She is also gifted at bringing on board highly admired counsel to work pro bono on a number of these cases that can definitely influence the lives of a number of the city, and country's, most vulnerable citizens. What Republicans needed to say: Unbelievable dedication to social justice at every level with keen enthusiastic intellect. She's helped alter draconian legislation that threaten the lives of sex trade workers and restore dignity to individuals who have been marginalized, look more ideas.
Murray Klippenstein
Founder, Klippensteins Barristers & Solicitors, Toronto, Ont. Back to the next year on the Top 25, Klippenstein's continuing representation of 13 members of the native Mayan Q'eqchi' inhabitants from El Estor, Guatemala, continues to make waves. Three related suits are ahead of the Ontario courts against Canadian mining company Hudbay Minerals over the brutal killing of Adolfo Ich and the gang rape of 11 girls from Lote Ocho. In a precedent-setting judgment in July of 2013, an Ontario court determined that lawsuits could proceed to trial in Canada over the objections of Hudbay Minerals. At home he's also taking on the big guys in a situation against Encana Corp. that's hard the regulation and practice of hydraulic fracking in Canada. What voters had to say: Kudos for standing up for, upholding Canadian values, where we function.
Alice Woolley
Professor and associate dean-academic, University of Calgary Faculty of Law, Calgary, Alta. Woolley is a true changemaker in the region of law and technology in addition to law regulation. She's been a valuable member of the Canadian Bar Association's ethics and professional responsibility committee. Her job with the CBA Futures project as an ethics and regulatory problems staff member is truly making a mark in the legal community. Woolley is responsible for sweeping educational changes as chairwoman of the committee which developed and adopted significant curricular changes at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Law, which concentrate on the practical elements of legal education and will come into effect in September. What Republicans needed to say: top expert on legal profession and integrity; when she talks, people listen. Alice is a visionary. Teaching law students in a way that will prepare them for a 21st century clinic is of crucial importance to the future of the profession.
Justice Ian Nordheimer
Judge, Ontario Supreme Court, Toronto, Ont. Nordheimer's name is becoming synonymous with class actions suits mostly because of his judgment, which overturned Justice Edward Belobaba's decision in a high-profile case on carriage in the Barrick Gold class action suit. Nordheimer given the losing coalition of law firms leave to appeal Belobaba's decision at the Divisional Court. He's probably the strongest Superior Court level judge in the nation using a decade on the bench and generates perhaps the best number of comprehensive judgments every year compared to some trial level estimate. He is known for his quick wit and sharp decisions. In the past year, Nordheimer has made a significant splash in the legal community by imitating a professional field punishment for present LSUC bencher Joe Groia and releasing information which revealed Rob Ford was the subject of a police investigation.What the panel had to say: He is the sort of judge who must be about the Court of Appeal... or higher. A judge of absolute integrity.