After 14 years as a judge in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, former dean of Queen’s Law Alison Harvison Young has accepted an appointment to serve on the Court of Appeal for Ontario.
After 14 years as a judge in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, former dean of Queen’s Law Alison Harvison Young has accepted an appointment to serve on the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

After 14 years as a judge in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, former dean of Queen’s Law Alison Harvison Young has accepted an appointment to serve on the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

“This is a marvelous appointment to the Court of Appeal,” says Bill Flanagan, Dean of Law. “Following her successful tenure as dean of Queen’s Law [1998-2004], Alison has built a highly distinguished record as a trial judge, and she’s now well placed to make a leading contribution to the OCA.”

Harvison Young says she’s looking forward to the challenges in this next phase of her legal career, although she’s also quick to add that she “very much enjoyed” her time as a trial judge. “When you’re in the courtroom, it’s not only about making legal decisions and calls, but also about managing process, and that means managing people. People make up the process, and I’m very much a people person.”

That attribute was never more apparent than during Harvison Young’s six years as dean of Queen’s Law. The first “outsider to take the reins in the faculty,” she arrived at a time when faculty, students, staff, and alumni were engaged in a spirited and at times emotional debate about the school’s direction.

During her tenure, Harvison Young, with the support of the faculty as a whole and what she fondly remembers as her “wonderful administrative team,” forged ahead with an ambitious and highly successful process of faculty and infrastructure renewal.

“The law school has always been student- and teaching-centered. The faculty was strong, but no one had been hired to a tenure track position for quite a few years,” says Harvison Young. “We were able to recruit superb new professors who built on the student-focused orientation of the faculty, but who also brought a new focus on research to the school and fresh energy and ideas.”

In addition, a well-orchestrated fundraising effort that Harvison Young spearheaded raised money for much-needed infrastructure improvements at Macdonald Hall – including a main-entrance atrium and the installation of an elevator that made accessible all three floors of the building. Dean Bill Flanagan continued with the renovation program, and as a result the law school building is today welcoming, bright, and modern in every way.

“I have fond memories of my years at Queen’s Law. They were a time of great academic renewal and collegiality,” says Harvison Young.

Since leaving academia in 2004, she has heard cases in diverse areas of the law, while maintaining her passion for teaching and mentoring.

In her off-hours nowadays, Harvison Young strives “to fend off the effects of a sedentary working life, as she says with a laugh. She loves to hike, garden, read, walk her dog, and cycle with husband Justice Herman Wilkes-Siegel of the Superior Court. “We have three beautiful grandchildren with a fourth on the way. My life is full and busy these days,” Harvison Young says.