268 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 80 PART 2 MARCH 2022
Energy buildings. He advised on commercial transactions and corporate
governance. He acted as arbitrator in commercial arbitrations.
Over the last quarter century, Keith also built a thriving international
trade law practice, including acting for the B.C. lumber industry in the longstanding,
multi-round, softwood lumber dispute between Canada and the
United States. Very knowledgeable in U.S. as well as Canadian politics,
Keith relished working with clients, counsel and senior government officials
on both sides of the border.
True to Charlie Wills’s prediction, Keith was Farris’s managing partner
from 1994 to 2007, then its chair until 2017. He said he spent as little time
as possible in his managerial role,2 preferring practice to administration; as
one former colleague notes, he embraced the unlikely, but successful,
planks of enthusiasm and optimism as his management philosophy. He
was always positive about the firm and about ideas to make it better. He
championed causes such as the retention of women lawyers in practice; he
loved dealing with students and awed them at an annual lunch; he courted
potential hires; he defended or cheered up fellow partners experiencing
adversity; and he went to bat for staff (including helping a paralegal with a
Philippine law degree achieve her dream of being called to the B.C. bar). He
greatly valued his long-time assistants, Karen Muir and Heather
Rosensweet. Whether at work or with other friends or family, when Keith
turned his attention to someone, it was “all in”; he listened, was curious and
made them feel important.
Given the powerful voice that overcame even soundproofing efforts,
from Keith’s office wafted intriguing conversations about files, the firm and
politics. As one former colleague joked, Keith was a pioneer of sorts in management
transparency given he could not lower his voice. At Shaughnessy
Heights United Church, he practically drowned out the choir (he claimed a
louder voice put one closer to God; his son quipped that by that measure,
Keith lived a pretty divine life).
Keith was very involved with his community. He played a role in the
reshaping and growth of Vancouver in the 1980s and ’90s by serving as a
director on various boards, including of Expo 86 Corporation. He also
served as the chair of the board of trustees of the Emily Carr College of Art
and Design, founding chair of the board of directors of the BC Achievement
Foundation, director of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and director
of Lex Mundi.
Keith’s greatest accomplishment in any field, however, was convincing
Mary Jane to marry him; they wed in 1970. Mary Jane went on to have an
extremely successful career as an anesthesiologist and clinical professor at