Dennis Edney and Nate Whitling
Defence adviser, Edmonton, Alta. In a rare move, Edney and Whitling have been termed as Top 25 honourees as a group. Both have spent more than a decade advocating for Omar Khadr, almost universally on a pro bono basis. From Guantanamo Bay to the Supreme Court of Canada (three times), the improbable duo have fought for Khadr to have him released from prison (victory in May), have him treated as a child soldier, and continue to battle for his legal rights at home and abroad. It's been what the Globe and Mail called waging a war of legal attrition from the government, which has always done everything to paint Khadr as a dangerous terrorist who must be kept behind bars. Edney, a former soccer player who only started practising law at 40, has been the public and press face of the continuing legal battles, even taking Khadr into his own home after he had been recently released on bail. Whitling, a Harvard law graduate and former SCC clerk, is a much more quiet and reserved force behind the scenes. What Republicans needed to say: Dennis has gone above and beyond the call of duty in his defence of Omar Khadr. The nobility of the profession depends on attorneys like Dennis as we're occasionally called upon to defend unpopular entities or people -- but people who are not as deserving of natural justice and procedural fairness. Whitling is an smart and extremely effective advocate who stays out of the limelight. He is a excellent lawyer. Exceptionally smart and excellent to use,
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Alice Woolley
Professor and associate dean-academic, University of Calgary Faculty of Law, Calgary, Alta. Woolley is a true changemaker in the area of law and technology as well as law regulation. She has been a valuable member of the Canadian Bar Association's integrity and professional responsibility committee. Her job with the CBA Futures job as an ethics and regulatory issues staff member is truly making a mark at the legal community. Woolley is also responsible for sweeping educational changes as chairwoman of the committee which developed and embraced significant curricular changes at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Law, which concentrate on the practical elements of legal education and will come into effect in September. What voters had to say: top expert on legal profession and ethics; once she speaks, people listen. Alice is a pragmatic visionary. Educating law students in a way that will prepare them for a 21st century clinic is of critical importance to the future of our profession.
Mark Tamminga
Partner, Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, Hamilton, Ont. Tamminga has committed his career to automating lawful practices. His information technologies focus began in 1986 while he was still a law student and was given the task of systemizing the production environment for mortgage files. Since that time, Tamminga's aptitude for legal technology has just grown with Gowlings LLP. Three years back, he had been called Gowlings' Innovation Initiatives leader. He is responsible for automating the Gowlings recovery solutions practice. He has designed and built lots of additional training systems in the areas of debt collection, loan placement, and civil litigation. His role has demanded re-thinking the thornier aspects of large firm operations: managing cultural change, inducing client-side thinking, and building the compensation mechanics, which drive new behaviour. Exactly what the board had to say: Tamminga has shown real vision in handling tough issues that lots of law firms aren't quite ready to carry on.
Murray Klippenstein
Founder, Klippensteins Barristers & Solicitors, Toronto, Ont. Back to the next year on the Top 25, Klippenstein's ongoing representation of 13 members of the native Mayan Q'eqchi' inhabitants from El Estor, Guatemala, continues to make waves. Three associated suits are ahead of the Ontario courts against Canadian mining firm Hudbay Minerals over the brutal killing of Adolfo Ich and the gang rape of 11 girls from Lote Ocho. In a precedent-setting ruling in July of 2013, an Ontario court determined that lawsuits could proceed to trial in Canada over the objections of Hudbay Minerals. At home he is also taking on the big guys in a case against Encana Corp. that's hard the law and practice of hydraulic fracking in Canada. What voters had to say: Kudos for standing up for, upholding Canadian values, where we function.
Justice Murray Sinclair
Chairman, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Winnipeg, Man. An uncommon write-in candidate winner with this season 's Top 25, Sinclair was on the record last year, making headlines in June with the release of the summary of the report of the TRC and 94 recommendations to redress the cultural genocide of Canada's residential college program. Over six decades, Sinclair led the TRC hearing the stories of more than 7,000 survivors of sexual, physical, and mental abuse. Sinclair, that was the first aboriginal judge in Manitoba, was first appointed to the provincial court where he became associate leader in 1988 and then elevated to the Court of Queen's Bench at 2001. He had been 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 hopes to complete the commission's full report in the not too distant future, after which he will choose whether to return to court or retire and advocate for native rights fulltime.
Marie Henein
Old spouse, Henein Hutchison LLP, Toronto, Ont. Considered one of Canada's greatest criminal defence attorneys, Henein is notorious for representing high-profile clients including former CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi -- charged with seven counts of sexual assault, of which two have been dropped -- former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant, and junior hockey coach David Frost. Most recently Henein has taken on the case of defence counsel colleague Leora Shemesh, that had been charged with perjury and obstruction of justice by Peel Police. Henein is well known in the profession as a go-to attorney for all high-profile criminal matters. She's a superb track record of wins versus losses and has been a part of the group that recently was successful in getting John Salmon's certainty in a 1970s murder . What Republicans needed to say: Most visible leader of [the] criminal defence bar.
