THE ADVOCATE 337
VOL. 80 PART 3 MAY 2022
The first hurdle: no loan without a husband
or father to co-sign. Nancy and Wenda
talked the bank manager around to a civilized
point of view.
The next hurdle: a disciplinary proceeding
before the Law Society when 35 lawyers
complained that the two were advertising,
the result of an article in the Vancouver Sun
about the new and only female law firm in
the city, admittedly accompanied by a picture
of Nancy and Wenda sitting on a sawhorse,
Nancy in a mini-skirt, Wenda in go-go
boots. Their address (which constituted the
“advertising”) appeared in a caption. The
benchers dismissed the complaint without
difficulty.
Nancy and Wenda slowly collected
clients at their office at One Alexander Street,
Vancouver Sun (December 1970)
with the assistance of Stewart McMorran (whose bark was worse than his
bite) and Legal Aid, but Nancy soon began a quick shuffle through various
other legal venues. In 1972, Nancy practised briefly with Bill Deverell,
Frank Harrop, Josiah Wood and Wayne Powell, whom she describes as
“frisky and left-wing, and great fun”, along with articled student Jay Clarke,
a.k.a. author Michael Slade, who says if you want something done right, ask
Nancy. By the fall, she was offered a position on the Provincial Court bench.
Initially very reluctant to put an end to her political interests and her social
life, she refused.
Fate intervened a month later in the person of her old absentee mentor,
Judy LaMarsh, who introduced Nancy to Bruno Gerussi, star of the CBC
series The Beachcombers. Nancy decided settling down a bit would not be
the end of her life, and two months later, encouraged by Bruno, she was
sworn in as a judge of the Provincial Court, stipulating that she would not
wear robes and would continue to give speeches on various issues concerning
women’s rights and law reform, as long as it did not conflict with her
judicial position. Public speaking on controversial issues remained one of
Nancy’s primary occupations throughout her career, and continues to this
day.
Alison MacLennan, Q.C., senior family law practitioner, who asked me to
write this article and collected anecdotes and recollections of Nancy from
her friends, recalls that in the seventies and early eighties, women were not
often asked to speak at professional events. Nancy was the exception. She