Top Lawyers In Canada

Louise Arbour

Counsel, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Montreal, Que. An international lawyer who has recently settled in Canada, Arbour has earned a place on the Canadian Lawyer's Top 25 Most Influential record again this season. She's a winner of the 2015 Simons Foundation Award, realizing world leaders who form and create an environment for a much safer and more just world. Arbour has spoken out from protracted use of solitary confinement and has been inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. She's been a Supreme Court of Canada judge, an international war crimes prosecutor, and a law school professor. Her ability to pick things up quickly led her to different roles nationally and internationally. Arbour says economic disparities between and within counties is that the number-one inexcusable human rights issue right now. Always craving new and challenging environments, just last year she finally did something she hadn't ever done: joined a law firm in Montreal where she continues to fight for individual rights. What Republicans needed to state:Her magnificent contributions speak for themselves. International superstar.

Fred Headon

Assistant general counsel, labour and employment law, Air Canada, Montreal, Que. As chairman of the Canadian Bar Association's Futures Initiative, Headon has contributed more than 25 presentations to attorneys, law professors, professors, librarians, law firm personnel, and labs in Toronto to Buenos Aires, Victoria to Halifax, in person and online. The Futures report has been released in August 2014 and its recommendations put Headon squarely in the midst of many important discussions on topics essential to the profession. He continues to lead the Futures steering committee because it now turns its recommendations into action. Headon is an integral part of the discussion about the future of this profession and he had been the first in-house counsel to become the president of this CBA. What voters had to say: Brings energy and decency and the smarts to everything he does.

Rocco Galati

Rocco Galati Law Firm PC, Toronto, Ont. Rocco Galati is famed because of its one-man opposition to the present government, so far spending $42,000 of his own money on court challenges. He successfully launched a situation that blocked Stephen Harper's appointment of Justice Marc Nadon into the Supreme Court of Canada. His resistance to the appointment of Federal Court of Appeal Justice Robert Mainville to the Quebec Court of Appeal Wasn't as successful. While he doesn't always win, Galati is dogged in his efforts to defend the Constitution against a government he sees as pushing the boundaries with too little respect to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He's now also been chosen because bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada and it will be interesting to see what he brings into the law of this profession.What voters had to say: A true Canadian constitutional and individual rights hero, look more to gk law.

Alice Woolley

Professor and associate dean-academic, University of Calgary Faculty of Law, Calgary, Alta. Woolley is a true changemaker in the region of technology and law in addition to law regulation. She has been a valuable member of the Canadian Bar Association's ethics and professional responsibility committee. Her work with the CBA Futures project as an ethics and regulatory problems staff member is really making a mark in the legal community. Woolley is responsible for sweeping educational modifications as chairwoman of the committee which developed and embraced significant curricular changes at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Law, which focus 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 ethics; when she speaks, people listen. Alice is a visionary. Teaching law students in a way that will prepare them for a 21st century practice is of crucial importance to the future of the profession.