442 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 79 PART 3 MAY 2021
his side shortly before his death and cherishes the time he had with his
father.
Jeff was elected as a bencher for Vancouver County from 2015 until his
appointment. He embraced this role, chairing committees for Credentials,
the Rule of Law, and Access to Legal Services, among others. Despite his
demanding practice, in his five years as a bencher, Jeff was never too busy
to help lawyers in need of ethical or practical advice.
Jeff’s appointment to the Provincial Court bench came on March 6, 2020,
days before the world-altering pandemic took hold. Over the following
weeks, it became clear to all that the justice system, like much of our society,
would be forever changed. What a fitting time to appoint a judge who
has always embraced the twists and turns on the road of life.
The Honourable Mr. Justice Simon R. Coval
“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
—Plato
Simon was born in Oxford, England in 1962, where
his father, Sam, was obtaining a second Ph.D. His
mother, Meredith, was a child psychologist. He
inherited his father’s love of philosophy and academic
rigour (but also unfortunately his strange sense of fashion) and his
late mother’s empathetic nature and problem-solving abilities.
He attended Queen Mary and University Hill for elementary school and
then St. George’s Senior School, where he made lifelong friends. His leadership
and character were recognized by election as Head Boy in Grade 12,
even though he never could keep his uniform shirt tucked in or find matching
socks.
Following in his father’s footsteps, he studied philosophy at UBC but did
a lot of his debating at the Pit.
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of
conversation.”
—Plato