Ontario Superior Court of Justice welcomes five new judges

The minister of justice and attorney general David Lametti has announced five new appointments to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

The newly appointed judges are Nicola Edmundson, J. Ross Macfarlane, M. Claire Wilkinson, Martha A. Cook, and Joseph Perfetto.

Edmundson previously worked as senior counsel at the family and children’s services of Lanark, Leeds and Grenville in Perth. She obtained her law degree from Dalhousie University and articled at Soloway Wright in Ottawa. Her practice focuses on family law, child welfare, and criminal law. She was a panel lawyer for the Office of the Children’s Lawyer on the custody, access, and child protection panels. She will sit as a judge in the Belleville family court.

Macfarlane is a lawyer at Flett Beccario, Barristers & Solicitors in Welland. He received his law degree from the University of Ottawa. He practises civil litigation, focusing on commercial, real property, and insolvency matters. He has represented and advised financial institutions and licensed insolvency trustees and acted for various public and private companies and individuals. He will sit as a judge in Windsor.

Wilkinson obtained her law degree from Queen’s University and was called to the bar in 1995. She had spent her entire legal career practising plaintiff personal injury at Martin & Hillyer Associates in Burlington, focusing on assisting survivors of sexual assault. She was the Halton Country Law Association and the Ontario Trial Lawyer’s Association president. She has also been an Ontario director for the American Association for Justice since 2013. She was an elected bencher with the Law Society of Ontario and an adjudicator with the Law Society Tribunal. Wilkinson will sit as a judge in Brampton.

Cook earned her law degree from Queen’s University Law School, and she articled with Davies, Ward, Phillips & Vineberg LLP before being called to the Ontario bar in 2001. She practised civil and administrative law in Toronto before opening a law practice in Stratford in 2009. Her practice encompasses civil litigation, estate matters, administrative law, and selected criminal defence matters. She appeared as counsel before every level of court in Ontario, the federal court and the federal court of appeal. She will serve as a judge in London.

Perfetto obtained a law degree from the University of Western Ontario. He articled with the crown law office and later became crown counsel. He worked as an assistant crown attorney in Sarnia and London and acting crown attorney in London and Stratford. Before he was appointed as a superior court judge, he was the director of crown operations for the west region. Perfetto was a wiretap agent and a member of the ministry of the attorney general’s search expert group. He will sit as a judge in London. He is appointed a judge in St. Thomas.

The announcement of the five new judges came following the appointment of Torkin Manes partner Loretta Merritt as Ontario Superior Court judge.

Lametti commented on the appointments, “I wish Justices Edmundson, Macfarlane, Wilkinson, Cook, and Perfetto every success as they take on their new roles. I am confident they will serve Ontarians well as members of the Superior Court of Justice.”