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VOL. 79 PART 2 MARCH 2021
While a doctoral student, Wes taught at York University and then Okla-
homa City University before landing a tenure-track position as an assistant
professor in the Department of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton Univer-
sity in Ottawa. He continued there, with Ph.D. (1989) in hand, before moving
to the Robson Hall Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba, and
then to UBC in 1993 as the inaugural holder of the Nathan T. Nemetz Chair
in Legal History.
Wes was a scholar of the legal profession who sought to understand the
lives of 19th- and 20th-century common law lawyers, particularly those in
England and Canada. The scope and character of their professional work
were important to him, but equally so were the cultural contexts in which
lawyers worked, the social circles in which they moved, and the political
and cultural power that they wielded. Through his work, Wes was
unearthing the foundations of the modern profession and its place in
processes of nation building and of Empire. He was among the first to
engage in comparative study of the legal profession and to consider the role
of lawyers in light of what were emerging bodies of colonial and postcolo-
nial theory. As recognition of his many contributions, Wes’s final scholarly
work, Lawyers’ Empire: Legal Professions and Cultural Authority, 1780– 1950,
was distinguished with a set of review essays in a special issue of the International
Journal of the Legal Profession.1
In addition to his remarkable record as a scholar, Wes was a first-rate
builder of scholarly community, a talent that he shared between the university
and numerous scholarly associations. As the Associate Dean, Graduate
Studies at the Allard School of Law, Wes rejuvenated existing programs, cre-
ated new degrees and was an unparalleled enthusiast for graduate students
and their scholarship. He was convinced, and never tired of saying, that
graduate students were responsible for the most interesting and innovative
work in the academy. To help create a platform for their ideas, Wes encour-
aged and supported the creation of an annual graduate student in law con-
ference that, nearly 25 years later, continues to showcase their work. In
2003, Wes received UBC’s Killam Teaching Prize for excellence in graduate
teaching.
In 2007, Wes moved into a full-time role in university administration, tak-
ing up several portfolios as Vice Provost and Associate Vice President at
UBC’s Vancouver campus and then the position of Provost and Vice Princi-
pal at its Okanagan campus, a job he held for two years in the 2011–2013
period. Wes continued to work with graduate students throughout these
years, and he had just returned to Allard Law and to full-time teaching and
scholarship when illness struck.