14 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 79 PART 1 JANUARY 2021
mother during this time. They were married during the depths of the Great
Depression, and Lance was born in 1938 in Edmonton. Although his father
could have been exempted from fighting in the war, he chose to go, believing
it was his duty. Lance always spoke in favourable terms of his parents
and was proud of their steadfastness, courage and gratitude for what they
had. Both of Lance’s parents survived to see their three children enter a life
of service in different ways.
In 1951, his family moved to Vancouver Island, where Lance attended
high school and Victoria College before enrolling in law school at UBC. If
ever asked about this time in his life, he would deflect from any athletic or
academic endeavours and point you to his single greatest achievement,
beginning when he was strolling on the promenade above the pool at UBC
and his eye was caught by a young swim coach below. An uncharacteristically
bold courtship followed, and Lance soon had in Judy what he
described as “my biggest fan, confidante, wife extraordinaire and the one
who seems to make all things possible.” In quieter moments, Lance would
describe Judy as opening the world to him in ways he could not see himself,
bringing an extroverted, wise and joyous perspective to a life necessarily
imbued with the stresses of legal practice. As he described it, “every task
was made easier and every obstacle smaller” with her as a companion.
Lance would graduate in the celebrated class of 1962, which included Frank
Iacobucci, Marvin Storrow and Martin Taylor.
That year, Lance would begin his legal career, which would span five
decades, beginning with articles at Guild, Yule and Co. In his first years of
practice he was rumoured to be running three or four trials a week in small
claims court, which at that time sat in the old courthouse with a monetary
limit of $200. He found mentors in lawyers such as Frank Collier, Ted Hinkson,
Bert Schmitt, Bud Hollinrake, Pat Nowlan and, of course, K.L. Yule. He
rose in the firm as a partner, restricting his practice to insurance defence
work, litigating the full gamut of fires, floods, landslides and motor vehicle
claims. Lance developed a niche specialty in litigating heli-skiing accidents,
keeping his own skiing firmly on-piste.
After 20 years of practice and two terms as a bencher, in 1983 Lance was
appointed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia, where he earned a
reputation as a talented judge, writing clear and incisive judgments. On his
appointment to the Court of Appeal in 1993, he defined his shift as one from
“the quest for truth to the search for error”. Eight years later, Lance would
be appointed as Chief Justice of British Columbia, assuming the mantle
from Chief Justice McEachern. The incumbent would say this of Lance:
“His career follows a typical but not invariable pattern: good practice career,