Just Lawyers: Seven Portraits

H. Graham Rawlinson teaches history at York University.

With this collection of short biographies, David Ricardo Williams has
made a useful contribution to 20th-century Canadian legal history. The
portraits treat the careers of seven barristers (Eugene Lafleur, Gordon
Henderson, Frank Covert, Aimé Geoffrion, W.N. Tilley, Isaac Pitblado,
and J.W. DeB. Farris), who, as the book suggests, were content to remain
“just lawyers.” By resisting the lure of politics and the bench,
each of the seven earned a reputation as one of the best lawyers Canada
has produced.

All of the portraits are professional, rather than personal, and all
are based on scholarly research. They are also unashamedly affectionate:
a former barrister himself, Williams approaches his subjects with
palpable reverence and, at times, offers unrestrained praise of their
achievements. On the whole, however, the book is a generally fascinating
and highly readable account of the way these men, each at the pinnacle
of this profession, lived and worked.

The book spans almost the entire century, from Lafleur, who began his
practice in the 19th century, to Henderson, who died in 1993; as a
result, the author is well positioned to consider the remarkable changes
in the way the law is practised in Canada. The rise of the giant law
firm, for example, and the increasing specialization among practitioners
are both frequently noted. Aside from these casual observations,
however, Williams does not venture too far beyond his subjects’ lives.
For legal scholars, he does offer some insight into crucial episodes in
Canadian jurisprudence, since his subjects seemed to be involved in
almost every significant case that Canadian appeal courts heard this
century. But Williams’s objective in Just Lawyers is neither a summary
of important cases nor an analysis of the way the legal professional has
changed. Rather, his goal is to skilfully sketch the best of his
profession in action—something he has accomplished beyond a shadow of
a doubt.