A Multitude of Changes but . . .

• Author: C. Ian Kyer
• Pages: 243-250

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M Epilogue N

A MULTITUDE OF

CHANGES BUT . . .

UMKbusiness law practice continued to focus pri

marilyonnancialinstitutionsinsolvencyminingandhealthlawbuthe

remained the senior partner for only six years. As had happened with Tom

Blackstock six decades before the demands of the oce longhours a nd

frequenttraveltoNewYorkandEnglandtookatollonMacKenzieshealth

In he su ered the rst of multiplest rokeswh ile on a business trip

toNewYorkHiswifeFlorencewasimmediatelyowndowntobewith

him.Althoughhecontinuedtocomeintotheoceforsomeyearsafterthis

devastating event, he was never the same. Unable to practise, he turned his

mind to the past and prepared the memoirs of both Faskens and Rio Algom

referred to in this h istory.

For the next two decades Williston was the star. He continued to gather

about him bright young litigators creating a sort of litigation boutique

withinthelawrmSeveralofthoseyounglawyerswouldbeappointedto

the bench: John Sopinka, who went to the Supreme Court of Canada; John

Laskin and Eleanore Cronk, now on the Ontario Court of Appeal; and Syd

ney Lederman, a judge of the Ontario trial division. Some went on to dis

tinguished teaching careers, including John McCamus, as dean of Osgoode

Hall Law School; Bruce Dunlop at the University of Toronto; and John Evans

at Osgoode Hall. Still others went into politics, like Bill Graham, who beca me

interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, and Alla n Rock, who became

the federal minister of justice, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations,