My Interest in Business Ethics

Region
Atlantic

Sector
Aboriginal - First Nations ; Private Sector - Consultant ; Private Sector - Corporation

Areas of Interest
Climate Change ; Codes of Conduct ; Consumer Issues ; Consumer Issues - Consumer Rights ; Consumer Issues - Ethical Consumption ; Corporate Governance - Self-Regulation ; Corporate Social Responsibility ; Economic - Environmental ; Education ; Environment & Business ; Health ; Health - Healthcare ; Human Rights ; Indigenous People ; Labour - Health & Safety ; Poverty ; Public Policy ; Public Policy - Regulation ; Resource Extraction ; Sustainability


Me in Brief

I started university as a Physics major based on my success in the sciences in high school. But I found the social sciences more rewarding, and graduated from Dalhousie and the University of King’s College with a B.A., followed by a law degree from Dalhousie University. I am a lawyer in private practice, concentrating in personal injury representing plaintiffs, and civil litigation.

I have also taken construction disputes to trial, successfully. There are few opportunities to “blow my own horn” in this business (which makes me uncomfortable, anyway) but I think it would be fair to say that I am known and respected in the defence bar, which as plaintiffs’ counsel, is the legal community with which I have the most contact; indeed, in one memorable conversation, I was actually told this by Ray Morse, of Patterson Law, Truro! Most of my community involvements have revolved around my children, many education-related, but I am active in some health pursuits which I think help me better serve my clients as a personal injury lawyer.

I am a founding member of the Atlantic Provinces Trial Lawyers Association, website http://www.aptla.ca/AP/index.cfm, an affiliate of the American Association for Justice, website http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/xchg/justice/hs.xsl/default.htm, formerly ATLA, and a member of the Nova Scotia Medical - Legal Society. I chaired the N.S. Lawyers’ Assistance Program, which provides enhanced EAP-type services to lawyers, their staff and families, and was a founding member of that committee, which allowed me to learn about addictions, and use my health care experience to benefit others. As a former hospital board chairman for almost 10 years, my interest in healthcare goes back over thirty years, and I am certainly comfortable in those circles.

I am constantly involved in research in the fields of pain and pain management, with a view to educating lawyers and judges in my own profession, but dependent as we are on the expert opinions of clinicians and academics, such research increases the effectiveness with which I interact with professionals in pain management, and allows me to better serve my clients, as well as the community. My personal and professional interest in the field can be attested to by Dr. Mary Lynch, Canadian Pain Society (CPS) Past-President, and professor at Dal medical school, who has testified for me (on behalf of a client, a patient at her QE II Pain Management Unit) in the past, and has authored numerous reports for my clients over the years.

This has exposed me regularly to issues related to priorities in mental health and the delivery of health care, quality assurance, medical ethics and professional self-regulation. My community and volunteer activities included a number of professional and business-related organizations, but the constraints of private practice have necessitated that I limit myself in recent years to those more closely related to family and my children, notably in music and the arts.