Marguerite (Meg) E Shaw (President)
A native of Lethbridge, Alberta, Meg has lived in B.C. since 1969. She graduated from UVic in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and from UBC in 1988 with her law degree. Articles in Kelowna were with the then firm of McAfee Harder. Meg is a partner with Hattori & Shaw, where her areas of specialization are family law, child advocacy, and wills and estates. As well, Meg has practised as a family protection mediator and contract counsel for the Coroner’s Service of B.C. She was an invited participant in discussion groups hosted by the Law Society on the regulation of mediation, and also an invited participant in discussion groups hosted by the Federal and Provincial Governments on proposed changes to custody and access in the Divorce Act. Meg is the President of the Kelowna Bar Association for 2005-2006. Meg first served the CBABC as Chair of the Okanagan Family Law Section for three years, and was Co-Chair of the Okanagan ADR Section. She served as an Officer on the Executive Committee for CBABC for two years, and continues to serve on various committees, such as Chair of the Social Services Task Force Committee. Meg served as Secretary-Treasurer of the CBABC in 2003-2004 and Vice-President in 2004-2005.

Other community involvement included serving as a Director on the Board of the Registered Nurses Association of B.C., the Board of the Kelowna-Westbank YM-YWCA, and the Board of the Institutional Research Review Committee for the Kelowna General Hospital. Meg has also been a guest lecturer at Okanagan University College, Cariboo College, and the Continuing Legal Education Society of B.C., she has provided pro bono services for the Central Okanagan Hospice Association and the Elizabeth Fry Society.

Michael C. Woodward (Past President)
Michael Woodward is a graduate in mathematics, and in law at UBC, and called to the Bar in 1986. He is a founding partner in the law firm Woodward Walker, which acts in local government legal matters throughout the province.

An elected member of CBA Branch Council since 1997, Michael was first elected to the Executive in 2001, and in 2004 was elected as President of the Branch, where he chaired the Executive Committee. He also sat on National Council, and on the National Board of Directors.

He is past Chair of the Municipal Law Section, and a member of the Labour and Environmental Sections. He has presented papers at several CLE courses, has authored the municipal law chapter for CLE’s Annual Review of Law and Practice for the past seven years, and was course coordinator for the most recent municipal law CLE program. He frequently lectures for the Local Government Management Association, the Union of B.C. Municipalities, the Municipal Administration Training Institute, and the Capilano College Public Administration Program.

Following articles and three years as a labour/school law associate at Campney & Murphy, Michael spent two years with the municipal law firm Lidstone, Young, Anderson, followed by 11 years as a partner in the municipal law firm Thompson & McConnell. He and his law partner Robert Walker founded Woodward Walker in mid-2002.

Michael is 47 years old, and resides in Vancouver. His three children are Dan, 18, Mark, 16, and Zoe, 11. Summer Saturdays he rows boats, and is a founding director of the Nicomekl Rowing Club. In the winter, he skis, after a fashion.

Frits E. Verhoeven (Vice-President)
Frits Verhoeven is a partner in the Vancouver law firm of Edwards, Kenny and Bray, and practises in the field of civil litigation.

Born in Vlaardingen, the Netherlands, in 1956, and raised in British Columbia, Frits obtained degrees in commerce and in law at UBC. After articling with Edwards, Kenny & Bray, he was called to the bar in 1983. He was managing partner of the firm from 1997 to 1999.

Frits was elected to the CBABC Provincial Council in 1999, and re-elected in 2002. He served on the CBA’s Member Services Committee for four years, from 1999 to 2003. He was a member of the national CBA Special Committee on Financial Services, 2001/2002. During 2002/2003, he served as the Chair of CBABC’s Business of Law Committee. He has served on the Branch Executive Committee since August 2003, and is the Secretary-Treasurer of the Branch for 2004/2005.

F. Kenneth Walton (Secretary-Treasurer)
F. Kenneth Walton obtained his law degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1972. He was called to the Saskatchewan Bar in 1973 and to the B.C. Bar in 1975. Save a year with the B.C. Department (as it then was) of the Attorney General, Ken has been in private practice throughout his career, in Victoria since 1975. At one time or another, Ken has done almost every aspect of courtroom work, plus some selected solicitors work mostly in Wills and Estates.

Ken served on the Victoria Bar Association in the late 1980s. An elected member of CBA Council this year, Ken was the Victoria Wills and Trusts Section Chair in 2003-04. Ken has sometimes been a CLE lecturer in the area of ICBC Part 7 no-fault benefits. He has written articles for the Verdict on, among other things, experts’ fees and Canada Pension Plan Long Term Disability.

Ken comes to serve his fellow practitioners from a lengthy history of community service with Kinsmen, Rotary, K-40, the Y, Goodwill, and the board of an elder home.

Ken hopes to help us all by promoting the interests of lawyers, a profession of which he feels privileged to be a member.

Eugene Raponi (Officer)
Eugene Raponi has been practising law since 1982, primarily in the area of civil litigation with a significant focus in family law. He is also an experienced family-law Mediator. Eugene is a partner in the firm Waddell Raponi, which he helped found in 1987.

Eugene has been active in the Canadian Bar Association for many years. He first came to Provincial Council in 1993 as Chair of the Victoria Family Section. He was then elected to the Executive of the National Family Law Section and served as its Chair in 1999/2000. Eugene became an elected member of Provincial Council in 2003.

Eugene has taught as a sessional instructor at the University of Victoria and is an ongoing contributor to Continuing Legal Education courses and publications in the area of family law. He is a member of the CLE Family Law Advisory Committee.

Eugene was born in Prince Rupert in 1954. He later moved to Castlegar, where he completed his elementary and secondary schooling. He received both a Bachelor of Arts (1976) and a law degree (1981) from the University of Victoria. He is married to Barbara and has two children, Michael, age 18, and Andrea, age 16. He occasionally plays squash and enjoys running (slowly, but consistently).

James M. Bond (Officer)
James is an Associate Counsel in the Vancouver office of Lang Michener LLP. James practises in the areas of franchise and distribution law, privacy, technology, and intellectual property law, and has been ranked for the last two years as a “Leading Lawyer” in Canada by the legal publication, Lexpert.

James is an active volunteer, and is a former Member of the Executive Committee of the Vancouver Bar Association, a former Legal Advisor and a current Member of the Canadian Franchise Association Pacific Region Council, and a Member of the Canadian Franchise Association Franchise Service Supplier Council. He is also a former Member of the Board of Governors of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and the University of Alberta Senate. He was also recently Chair of the Continuing Legal Education courses on Privacy and was Chair of the Continuing Legal Education courses Franchising (2001) and Privacy (2004 and 2005).

James regularly writes and lectures in primary practice areas, and has published several articles, taught courses, and presented papers at a number of conferences. He holds a B.A. from the University of Calgary, where he was a Queen Elizabeth II Scholar, and an LL.B from the University of Alberta. He was called to the British Columbia Bar in 1996.

Lisa C. Fong (Equality Committee Representative)
Lisa Fong is a partner in the firm, Ng & Ariss. She graduated from Queen’s University, Faculty of Law, in 1996 and was called to the British Columbia Bar in 1998. As a undergraduate she attended the University of British Columbia, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy (Hons).

Lisa practises general civil and commercial litigation, professional disciplinary and labour litigation. She has a special interest in education law.

Her professional activities include chairing the CBABC Equality Committee for 2005/2006, volunteering as a clinic lawyer for the pro-bono legal clinic at SUCCESS, sitting as a member on the Law Society Equity and Diversity Committee, and supporting the Women’s Legal Education Action Fund and West Coast Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund.

Personal interests include music, overland traveling, and reading.

Timothy D. Klaassen (Officer)
Tim Klaassen merged his Smithers sole practice with Talstra and Company in Terrace in 2005. He had taken over the Smithers general practice of Judge Mark Takahashi in 1996, after practising in Houston B.C. for a year with Currie and Company. Tim is a generalist with a criminal law speciality. He acts as defence counsel and as federal prosecutor. Bilingually educated, Tim speaks French and has tried cases in French in the courts of B.C. Tim appears in all levels of court in the province. Tim was born in London, Ontario on Halloween in 1963 and has three degrees from the University of Saskatchewan; B.Sc. Chemistry (1986), Honours certificate Anthropology/Archaeology (1987) and LL.B. (1994). Prior to going to law school he was employed with the Canadian Federation of Students as the Fieldworker for New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Tim worked as a summer student with Saskatchewan Continuing Legal Education in 1993 and articled with the Manitoba Department of Justice in the Winnipeg office the next year. Tim was called to the Bar of British Columbia in 1995, the same year as his call in Manitoba. Tim’s involvement in professional associations from 1996 to 2005 includes Prince Rupert County Bar President, Smithers local bar organizer and representative on court committees, Chairperson of one and member of three CBABC committees, CBABC Section Chair, six-year year Elected Representative on CBABC Provincial Council, member of CBA National Council, and Officer of the CBABC Executive committee in 2004-2005.

A Terrace resident, Tim lives with his partner Rita Kis and their two dogs Scout and Jerry. Tim is a member of the Terrace Community Band, plays French horn and enjoys outdoor activities in the North.

Miriam A. Maisonville (Officer)
Born and raised in Vancouver, Miriam Maisonville graduated from the University of British Columbia law school in 1985. She was called to the Bar in British Columbia in 1986 and to the Bar in Alberta in 1991. Miriam practised civil litigation and conducted criminal defence work prior to joining the Ministry of Attorney General Appeals and Special Prosecutions, Commercial Crime section in 1994. She is a past Chair of the Vancouver Criminal Section and was elected to Provincial Council in 2004.

Stephen G. McPhee (Young Lawyers’ Representative)
Stephen began his legal career in South Africa and was called there in 1997. His law degree was earned at the University of Stellenbosch, situated in the heart of the South African winelands, which makes any successful academic endeavour there even more impressive. He immigrated to Canada in 1997, obtained his Canadian legal accreditation in 2000, and was called to the Bar in B.C. in 2002.

He practises as a litigation associate with Ramsay Lampman Rhodes in Nanaimo, and his practice comprises commercial, family, and general civil and insurance litigation.

Stephen is the Young Lawyers’ Representative on the Executive Committee. He is an elected member of Provincial Council for Nanaimo County, has been the Nanaimo ADR Section Chair, and has been Secretary of the Nanaimo Family Section since 2003. He also organizes the Inns of Court dinners in Nanaimo for young-lawyer practitioners and judges.

This article was published in the August 2005 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2005, all rights reserved.