Top Lawyers In Canada

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 more than 25 presentations to attorneys, law students, professors, librarians, law firm personnel, and regulators from Toronto to Buenos Aires, Victoria to Halifax, in person and online. The Futures report was released in August 2014 and its own recommendations put Headon squarely in the middle of several important discussions on topics essential to the profession. He continues to direct the Futures steering committee because it now turns its recommendations into actions. Headon is an essential part of the debate on the future of the profession and he had been the 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.

Justice Murray Sinclair

Chairman, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Winnipeg, Man. A rare write-in candidate winner with this year's Top 25, Sinclair was among the list last year, making headlines again in June with the release of this overview of the report of the TRC and 94 recommendations to redress the cultural genocide of Canada's residential college program. Over six decades, Sinclair directed the TRC hearing the stories of over 7,000 survivors of sexual, physical, and mental abuse. Sinclair, who was the first aboriginal judge in Manitoba, was first appointed to the provincial court in which he became associate leader in 1988 and then elevated to the Court of Queen's Bench at 2001. He was co-commissioner of Manitoba's Aboriginal Justice Inquiry in 1988 and presided over a 2000 inquest into the deaths of 12 infants at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre. Sinclair expects to complete the commission's full report in the not too distant future, after which he will choose whether to go back to retire or court and advocate for native rights fulltime.

Jean-Pierre Blais

Chairman, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, Ottawa-Gatineau Blais is not scared of criticism and is prepared to go above and beyond in the name of consumer rights. A recent CRTC decision will give users more freedom to select TV channels of their liking as part of the cable and satellite subscriptions despite bitter opposition from Canada's cable companies. Blais called out former Bell Media president Kevin Crull, without naming names, over reports Crull told CTV news staff not to interview him later that choice. Crull ended up apologizing for interfering in the information gathering process and afterwards stepped down. From telemarketers to telcos, Blais consistently intends to support the rights and demands of customers. What voters had to say: Achieving big change with consumer-minded focus. About time!

Louise Arbour

Counsel, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Montreal, Que. An international lawyer who has recently settled in Canada, Arbour has certainly earned a spot on the Canadian Lawyer's Top 25 Most Influential record again this season. She is a winner of the 2015 Simons Foundation Award, recognizing world leaders that form and create an environment for a 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 has 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 various roles nationally and internationally. Arbour says economic disparities between and within counties is that the number-one inexcusable human rights issue right now. Constantly craving new and challenging surroundings, just last year she eventually did something she had never done: joined a law firm in Montreal where she proceeds to struggle for individual rights. What voters had to state:Her stunning contributions speak for themselves. International superstar.