It was a gala night for lawyers celebrating Canada’s best practitioners – and Queen’s Law alumni were well represented at the 2016 Canadian General Counsel Awards.

Sheila Murray, Law’82 (Com’79), Hugh Kerr, Law’88, and Betty DelBianco, Law’84, all took to the stage on June 1 at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto at a ceremony honouring the best counsel in Canada.

They won in the following categories:

Business Achievement: Sheila Murray, Law’82

As defined by the CGCA Advisory Board, this category recognizes the accomplishments of a lawyer who has transitioned into a director role as a senior executive at a corporation; “who has successfully made that leap, and who has gone on to excel amongst the champions of industry… [and] demonstrated the ability to both develop and implement the overall strategy contributing to the success of the division or the company itself.”

Deal Making: Hugh Kerr, Law’88

This award celebrates “the creativity, broad technical excellence and dexterity necessary to get complex deals successfully completed… [based on] evidence of innovation in a transaction and how it affected the structure or outcome of the deal; overall complexity; how the nominee managed the cross-jurisdictional issues where appropriate; and management of both internal and external teams.”

Litigation Management: Betty DelBianco, Law’84

The CGCA recognizes that litigation management is “not only about managing a court process but also managing the entire legal team-including outside counsel. It's not the size of a lawsuit that defines exceptional accomplishment in this category but rather, its complexity.” The award recognizes “effective quarterbacking of overall legal strategy as well as evidence of hands on management of external advisers; how decisions made in legal strategy underpinned the company’s brand; and management of multi-jurisdictional issues.”

Congratulations to all three winners!