Top Lawyers In Canada

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 topics related to health, police liability, drug policy, and homelessness, poverty, and gender workers' rights. She may be best known for her role in the Bedford case, but Pivot is more than that and often has intervener status in important Supreme Court of Canada cases, including the recent one on mandatory minimums. She's also gifted at bringing on board highly admired counsel to perform pro bono on a number of these instances that may really influence the lives of some 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 intelligence. She has helped change draconian legislation that endanger the lives of sex trade workers and restore dignity to people who have been marginalized, canadian immigration services.

Rocco Galati

Rocco Galati Law Firm PC, Toronto, Ont. Rocco Galati is famous because of its one-man resistance to the present government, so much spending $42,000 of his money on court challenges. He launched a case that blocked Stephen Harper's appointment of Justice Marc Nadon to the Supreme Court of Canada. His resistance to the appointment of Federal Court of Appeal Justice Robert Mainville into the Quebec Court of Appeal was not as successful. While he doesn't win, Galati is dogged in his efforts to defend the Constitution against a government he sees as pushing the boundaries with a lack of respect for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He's now also been elected as bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada and it'll be interesting to see what he brings to the law of the profession.What voters needed to say: An authentic Canadian constitutional and individual rights hero.

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 given over 25 presentations to lawyers, law students, professors, librarians, law firm personnel, and regulators in Toronto to Buenos Aires, Victoria to Halifax, in person and online. The Futures report has been released in August 2014 and its own recommendations put Headon squarely in the midst of several vital discussions on subjects crucial to the profession. He continues to lead the Futures steering committee as it now turns its guidelines into action. Headon is an essential component of the discussion on the future of the profession and he had been the very first in-house counsel to become the president of the CBA. What Republicans needed to say: Brings energy and decency and the smarts to what he does.

Louise Arbour

Counsel, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Montreal, Que. An global lawyer who has recently settled in Canada, Arbour has certainly earned a spot on the Canadian Lawyer's Top 25 Most Influential list again this year. 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 prolonged use of solitary confinement and has been inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. She's been a Supreme Court of Canada judge, an global war crimes prosecutor, and a law school professor. Her ability to pick up things quickly led her into various 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, only last year she finally did something she had never done: joined a law firm in Montreal where she proceeds to fight for human rights. What Republicans needed to say:Her stunning contributions speak for themselves. International celebrity.

Pascale Fournier

Professor & research seat, legal pluralism and comparative law, University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, Ottawa, Ont. Fournier has achieved international fame for her groundbreaking work on sex, faith, and the law, using fieldwork interviews with women from various states to emphasize the intricate interplay between spiritual and secular law. She has received numerous national and international awards and nominations in 2014. Fournier became a fellow of the prestigious International Women's Forum for her role as a leader in the legal profession; getting the Canada-Arab Chamber of Commerce Award for academic excellence and contribution to humankind. Fournier represented the University of Ottawa as a successful leader in the Governor General's Canadian Leadership Conference and was unanimously appointed by the National Assembly of Quebec to the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission. What voters had to say: Superb thoughts, according [to] Harvard's Prof. Kennedy.