Alumnus wins CBA award of excellence

Photo courtesy of the Canadian Bar Association

CBA President Kevin Carroll presents the 2009 Louis St-Laurent Award of Excellence to Scott Jolliffe, Law '76, at a ceremony in the King Edward Hotel in Toronto on November 27.

Scott Jolliffe, Law ‘76, received the Louis St-Laurent Award of Excellence for his distinguished and exceptional service in achieving the goals and objectives of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA). CBA President Kevin Carroll presented the award to Jolliffe, Chair and CEO of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, at a ceremony in Toronto on November 27, 2009.

While he sat on the organizing committee and was a speaker at the CBA's Leading the Canadian Law Firm in the 21st Century: Managing the Future conference in 2006, the key reason Jolliffe won the award was for leading the CBA’s Conflicts of Interest task force. In August 2008, the task force released its findings in a report that the CBA described as a “seminal contribution to the practice of law in Canada,” and was used to revise the Code of Professional Conduct. The new Code will be published on the CBA website in December 2009.

“Against the backdrop of a challenging career, Scott has demonstrated his dedication to the CBA and is a steadfast ambassador of the Association,” said Guy Joubert, a past president of the CBA. “He led a blue-ribbon committee through a process that produced a comprehensive report that sets the gold standard on the subject.”

Jolliffe, an intellectual property and technology law specialist with more than 30 years of experience at Gowlings, has been recognized in the 2010 Guide to the World's Leading Trade Mark Law Practitioners, Best of the Best 2009 Expert Guides for Trade Marks in Canada, and Best Lawyers in Canada 2010 for Intellectual Property Law.

“I was fortunate to have been given the opportunity to make a contribution to a matter that is fundamental to the core values of the legal profession, and the rest – working with such a great team – was easy,” Jolliffe said. “It has been especially gratifying to work with and get to know the legal profession across the country, in its many different practice areas and geographic settings, and to help to develop a consensus in this important area of all our practices.”