266 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 79 PART 2 MARCH 2021
As a champion of scholarly associations, Wes served for two terms as the
president of the Canadian Law and Society Association/Association canadi-
enne droit et société (CLSA/ACDS), where he worked to welcome new
members and to place legal historical scholarship in Canada within a larger
law and society tent. He was also an active committee member in the
American Society for Legal History, the Australia New Zealand Law and
History Society, and the International Working Group on Comparative
Legal Professions, organizing countless conferences and workshops and
collaborating with scholars around the world to build community, nurture
young scholars and engage with ideas.2 Shortly before he passed away, the
CLSA/ACDS told Wes that it was naming the association’s annual prize for
the best book in law and society scholarship the W. Wesley Pue Prize.
Lawyers’ Empire had won the prize, before it was so named, in 2017.
Wes loved books, and he worked for years as a member of the publica-
tions board at UBC Press, where, among other things, he founded and
served as general editor of the remarkably successful Law and Society book
series. By the time he handed the series on to other hands, there were more
than 80 titles under its banner, and UBC Press had become the academic
publisher of choice for law and society scholars. Indeed, it was through this
work at the UBC Press and his engagement with the community of law and
society scholars that Wes, more than any other individual, was responsible
for putting Allard Law, and UBC more generally, on the map as a site of law
and society scholarship.
To those of us who were supervised by or worked with him, Wes was a
mentor who encouraged, supported and believed in his students and his
colleagues. There are a great many who regard him as a singular influence
and inspiration in their lives, as an exemplar of a life well lived and as a
friend. For this go profound thanks to his wife Joanne and his daughters,
Heather and Colleen, for sharing him with us.
A fund has been established at the Allard School of Law in Wes’s memory
to support students at UBC in pursuit of graduate degrees in law. More infor-
mation is available online: <memorial.support.ubc.ca/w-wesley-pue/>.
Douglas C. Harris
ENDNOTES
1. W Wesley Pue, Lawyers’ Empire: Legal Professions
and Cultural Authority, 1780–1950 (Vancouver:
UBC Press, 2016), reviewed in (2017) 24:1 Interna-
tional Journal of the Legal Profession 1.
2. See David Sugarman’s tribute, “W. Wesley Pue
(1954–2019): A Personal Appreciation” (2019) 2
RCSL Newsletter 30.