THE ADVOCATE 175
VOL. 79 PART 2 MARCH 2021
law and the same sense of fairness, ethics and humour. Early partnership
meetings may have been informal over beer and a jar of toasted nuts, but
their goals were serious and admirable. Their resulting successes speak for
themselves. Jim, with his seniority to Dean, became one of Dean’s most
important and influential mentors. But I think if we could ask Jim, he would
say that Dean, in turn, influenced him greatly with his own wisdom. They
were certainly a special duo who have left a significant legacy in our firm
that still exists today.
John Waddell, Q.C., has remarked that one of the reasons Dean is so well
suited to become our new president is the mentorship he received from
Jim, who all of us Victorian contemporaries of Dean revered. Over the
years, John has had many opportunities to observe, work with and work
opposite Dean. Throughout, Dean has been as unfailingly courteous, dignified
and respectful as he has been forthright, fair and trusted.
Together, Jim and Dean built a significant law practice with a focus in
insurance law involving both domestic and international insurers and other
areas of civil litigation. Dean has carried on their legacy and, with his own
unique interests, has also represented a wide range of clients from not-forprofit
organizations to elected officials.
The Honourable Justice Macaulay (retired) and Dean have an association
that goes back to at least Dean’s call to the bar. He has always considered
Dean to be the “consummate professional”. He has remarked that: “To
be regarded by your peers as a ‘lawyer’s lawyer’, as I believe Dean to be,
requires both character and innate good judgment. I am not at all surprised
that Dean’s peers have chosen him to be president of the Law Society.” In
the last few years before Mr. Justice Macaulay’s retirement at the end of
2015, several associates from Dean’s firm appeared before him, and he
observed that “among those are future leaders of the profession who present
themselves in the same quietly competent way that Dean has done
throughout his career. In part, this is also, I suspect, a further testament to
Dean and his willingness to demonstrate and mentor.”
A notable benefactor of Dean’s guidance to younger lawyers is the Honourable
Justice Brown of the Supreme Court of Canada, who worked closely
with Dean in his early years as a lawyer while at Carfra & Lawton (as it then
was). Justice Brown advises that while Dean took his work seriously, he
never took himself too seriously. He never had so much fun working “with
anybody, anywhere”. To this day, they continue to share a friendship. On
the topic on mentorship, he says that Dean was a devoted mentor and took
that role most seriously:
Dean has never forgotten—never once—that membership in the profession
is a public office, a privilege, that comes with obligations that could