In the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel is a senior trial lawyer appointed by the monarch of the country as a 'Counsel learned in the law'.
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts. The Supreme Court is bijural, hearing cases from two major legal traditions and bilingual, hearing cases in both official languages of Canada.
The Faculty of Law is one of the professional graduate schools of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the oldest law school in Canada, and continually ranks among the best law schools in the world. The faculty is known for its holistic approach though highly selective and competitive process for admission. Only 180 candidates are admitted for any given academic year. For the year 2021 class, the acceptance rate was 10%. McGill Faculty of Law has consistently ranked as the top law school for civil law, a top law school for common law, the most number of Supreme Court clerkships of any law school in Canada, and consistently outranks Europe, Asia, and Latin America's top civil law schools.
Beverley Marian McLachlin is a Canadian jurist and author who served as the 17th chief justice of Canada from 2000 to 2017. She is the longest-serving chief justice in Canadian history and the first woman to hold the position.
Frank Iacobucci is a former Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1991 until his retirement from the bench in 2004. He was the first Italian-Canadian, allophone judge on the court. Iacobucci was also the first judge on the Supreme Court to have been born, raised and educated in British Columbia. Iacobucci has had a distinguished career in private practice, academia, the civil service and the judiciary.
Rosalie Silberman Abella is a Canadian jurist. In 2004, Abella was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, becoming the first Jewish woman and refugee to sit on the Canadian Supreme Court bench. She retired from the federal bench in 2021.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode Hall in downtown Toronto, also the seat of the Law Society of Ontario and the Divisional Court of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
The Nova Scotia Supreme Court is a superior court in the province of Nova Scotia.
John Howard Gomery was a Canadian jurist from Quebec. He was a Justice of the Quebec Superior Court from 1982–2007, and appointed Commissioner for the Royal Commission investigating the Sponsorship scandal in 2004.
The Superior Court of Justice is a superior court in Ontario. The Court sits in 52 locations across the province, including 17 Family Court locations, and consists of over 300 federally appointed judges.
Marie Deschamps, CC is a former puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. She retired from the court on August 7, 2012. In September 2019, Deschamps was appointed as a member of the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency.
Judicial appointmentsin Canada are made by the federal government or provincial government. Superior and federal court judges are appointed by federal government, while inferior courts are appointed by the provincial government.
Catherine Anne Fraser is a Canadian lawyer and judge who was the chief justice of Alberta from 1992 until July 30, 2022. As chief justice of Alberta, Fraser was also chief justice of the Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories and the Nunavut Court of Appeal.
James Cornelius Knatchbull-Hugessen, known professionally as James K. Hugessen, is a judge currently serving on the Federal Court of Canada. He is the son of the senator Adrian Knatchbull-Hugessen.
Andrew Cheung Kui-nung is a Hong Kong judge who serves as the 3rd Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal. He previously served as a Permanent Judge of the same court. He was the 4th and longest-serving Chief Judge of the High Court.
Andromache Karakatsanis is a Canadian jurist. She was nominated to the Supreme Court of Canada by Stephen Harper in October 2011. She is the first Greek-Canadian judge on the Court. Since the retirement of Rosalie Abella on July 1, 2021, and of Michael Moldaver on September 1, 2022, she is the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court.
George R. Strathy is a Canadian jurist who has been the chief justice of Ontario since 2014.
Eileen E. Gillese is a justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. She is a graduate of the University of Alberta and Oxford University. Before her appointment to the Court of Appeal, Gillese was a judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Sheilah L. Martin is a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, having served in that role since December 18, 2017. She was nominated to the court by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on November 29, 2017. Before her appointment to Canada's highest court, Martin had served on the Court of Appeal of Alberta, the Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories, and the Court of Appeal of Nunavut since 2016, and the Court of King's Bench of Alberta from 2005 to 2016. Martin is considered an expert in judicial ethics.
Michelle O'Bonsawin is a Canadian jurist serving as a puisne justice on the Supreme Court of Canada since September 1, 2022. Before her appointment to the Supreme Court, she served as a judge on the Ontario Superior Court of Justice from 2017 to 2022. O'Bonsawin is the first Indigenous Canadian to serve as a Supreme Court justice.