Cromarty is the current executive director at Northumberland Community Legal Centre
Lois Cromarty is the 2021 recipient of Legal Aid Ontario’s Sidney B. Linden Award for her work helping low‑income Ontarians in the pursuit of access to justice.
“Lois Cromarty exemplifies the best qualities of the legal aid system in Ontario,” LAO chair Charles Harnick said. “Lois has worked hard for three decades to ensure that low-income clients in Northumberland County and injured workers across the province receive the best legal advice and the most zealous advocacy.”
Cromarty is the current executive director at Northumberland Community Legal Centre. Cromarty articled at a civil litigation firm in Kitchener and worked as private practitioner in Toronto. From 1986 to 1989, she served as a staff lawyer in the Waterloo Region Community Legal Services.
For the past three decades, Cromarty has worked with various agencies to identify unmet legal needs in the community. She has teamed up with Queens Elder Law Project to create wills for seniors unable to meet LAO’s income eligibility rules. She also helped build a transition house and emergency shelter and trained paralegals for the initial Northumberland Affordable Housing Action Committee.
In addition, Cromarty has mentored caseworkers in other community legal clinics to help clients in all aspects of Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) claims. She is recognized as one of the LAO’s WSIB specialists across the province.
Cromarty earned her law degree from the University of Alberta. She was called to the Ontario bar in 1986.
The Sidney B. Linden Award recognizes exceptional individuals who have demonstrated a longstanding commitment to helping low‑income individuals and devoted their time, expertise and service to ensuring access to justice throughout the province. The award was named after Justice Sidney B. Linden, LAO’s first chair, who has rendered legal aid service for over 35 years.
