Honorary degree recipients include Supreme Court of Canada Justice, three Ontario judges
The Law Society of Ontario conferred honorary degrees of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, to eight legal professionals during the call to the bar ceremonies held in Ottawa, Toronto, and London last month.
Each year, the LSO confer honorary degrees to distinguished individuals to recognize their outstanding contributions to the legal profession, rule of law, or cause of justice. The honorary degree recipients for 2022 are as follows:
- Elaine Craig
Craig is a law professor at Dalhousie University. She teaches and researches in the areas of constitutional law, evidence law, law and sexuality, feminist legal theory, and queer legal theory.
She has published several works on sexual assault law in Canada. She is the author of two books entitled, “Putting Trials on Trial: Sexual Assault and the Failure of the Legal Profession” and “Troubling Sex: Towards a Legal Theory of Sexual Integrity.”
She has testified before Senate and House of Commons’ standing committees on proposed law reforms to criminal law of sexual offences and regularly provides commentary on legal responses to sexualized violence. In 2019, she was named one of Canadian Lawyer’s Top 25 Most Influential.
- Michelle Fuerst
Fuerst is a judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Central East Region. She is a member of the judicial education committees the Superior Court and the Canadian Judicial Council.
Before joining the bench, she served as a partner at Gold & Fuerst. Her practice focused primarily on criminal and quasi-criminal trials and appeals. She was previously inducted as a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Society of Barristers for her expertise in trial advocacy.
Throughout her legal career, she has been considered a “visionary” in continuing legal education. She served as co-chair of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada’s National Criminal Law Program − the country’s premier continuing legal education program for criminal judges and lawyers.
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- Ian Holloway
Holloway has been the dean of the University of Calgary Faculty of Law since 2011. Prior to this role, he served as dean of the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law and associate dean of the Australian National University. He is currently the longest-serving law dean in Canada.
Prior to his academic career, he maintained a private practice at McInnes Cooper in Halifax, where he specialized in labour and employment law. He served as a law clerk to the Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal and was appointed Queen's counsel in Nova Scotia and Alberta.
In 2015, he was appointed as a member of to the Security Intelligence Review Committee − an independent, external review body which reports to Parliament on the operations of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
- Andromache Karakatsanis
Karakatsanis is the first Greek Canadian justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. She is a former judge of the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Superior Court.
Karakatsanis began her legal career as a law clerk to the Court of Appeal. After her litigation practice in Toronto, she took on several roles within the Ontario Public Service. During her career in public service, she served as chair and chief executive officer of the Liquor Licence Board of Ontario, assistant deputy attorney general and secretary for native affairs, and deputy attorney general.
She previously sat on numerous boards, including the Public Policy Forum, the Canadian Policy and Research Network, and the Superior Court Judges Association. At present, she leads the National Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters.
- Audrey Loeb
Dubbed as the “Condo Queen," Loeb is a lawyer, educator, author, and consumer advocate. She currently serves as partner and co-leader of the condominium practice group at Shibley Righton LLP.
She is the author of the two leading texts on condominium law – “The Condominium Act: A User’s Manual” and “Condominium Law and Administration” – and the booklet entitled, “Condominium Ownership: What you need to know.” She is a frequent lecturer for the Ontario Bar Association and the LSO.
As a member of the Ontario Residential Study Group, she made recommendations to the government that resulted in the passage of the 1978 Condominium Act. She was also part of an expert panel tasked to review and advise on proposed changes to the Condominium Act, 1998 and the Protecting Condominium Owners Act, 2015.
- David Nahwegahbow
Nahwegahbow is Anishinabe from Whitefish River First Nation in Ontario. He is one of Canada’s leading Indigenous lawyers and the founding partner of Nahwegahbow Corbiere Genoodmagejig.
He has represented First Nations in a range of Indigenous legal matters, such as land claims, Aboriginal and treaty rights, and title cases. He recently appeared in a complaint alleging discrimination against First Nations children in care before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
He previously sat on the board of directors of the Advocates’ Society and led the Indigenous Bar Association. In 2021, he received the Award of Justice from the Advocates’ Society in recognition of his advocacy and contribution to achieving the goal of social justice.
- Paul Rouleau
Rouleau currently serves as a judge of the Ontario Court of Appeal. He was also assigned as a deputy judge of the Supreme Court of Yukon, the Nunavut Court of Justice, and the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories.
Since joining the bench, he has been involved in the continuing legal education of judges and lawyers. He currently leads the Access to Justice in French Advisory Committee, which provides advice and guidance to Ontario’s Ministry of Attorney General on strategies related to access to justice in French. He also sits on the board of governors of the Law Commission of Ontario.
In April 2022, he was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to lead the Public Order Emergency Commission. The commission is an independent public inquiry created under the Emergencies Act following the declaration of a public order emergency by the federal government in February.
- Michael Tulloch
Tulloch is a judge of the Ontario Court of Appeal. He is the first Black Canadian to sit on an appellate court in Canada.
Prior his judicial appointment, he worked as an assistant Crown attorney in Peel and Toronto. He then moved to private practice and specialized in criminal law. He is a former member of the advisory board to the Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School and currently sits on the board of directors of the Osgoode Society on Legal History.
He is a founding member and patron of the Second Chance Scholarship Foundation – a non-profit organization that provides scholarships for young people who have been in conflict with the law and are pursuing a post-secondary education.