ONTARIO JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS ANNOUNCED

OTTAWA, March 7, 2014 – The Honourable Peter MacKay, P.C., Q.C., M.P. for Central Nova, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today announced the following appointments:

The Honourable Paul W. Nicholson, a lawyer in Oshawa, is appointed a judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Family Division (Newmarket), to replace Mr. Justice C.S. Nelson, who elected to become a supernumerary judge as of February 25, 2014.

Mr. Justice Nicholson received a Bachelor of Laws from Queen’s University in 1988 and was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1990.  He practised in association with Paul Mack and Neil Kisbee in Oshawa from 1990 to 1997 and has been a sole practitioner since 1997. His main area of practice was family law, but also included real estate, wills and estates, administrative law, and civil litigation.

Mr. Justice Nicholson has been a panel member for the Ministry of the Attorney General Office of the Children’s Lawyer since 1992.  He has been a mediator on child protection matters for the Durham Child Protection Alternative Dispute Resolution Panel since 2005 and a member of the Durham Region Child Protection Best Practices Committee since 2004.  He is a member of the Executive of the Durham Region Law Association.

The Honourable Gregory J. Verbeem, a lawyer with Bartlet & Richardes LLP in Windsor, is appointed a judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Windsor) to replace Mr. Justice R.C. Gates, who elected to become a supernumerary judge as of November 5, 2013.

Mr. Justice Verbeem received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Windsor in 1994 and was admitted to the Bar of Ontario in 1996. He served as a judicial law clerk for the Regional Senior Justice, Southwest Region, of the Ministry of the Attorney General in 1996 and has been an associate and partner with Bartlet & Richardes LLP since 1996.  His main areas of practice were personal injury litigation and commercial litigation. 

Mr. Justice Verbeem has been a member of the Canadian Bar Association since 1994 and the Essex Law Association since 1996.  He was a guest lecturer on Civil Trial Advocacy at the University of Windsor Law School from 2004 to 2008 and a skills assessor for the Bar Admission Course, Law Society of Upper Canada, from 2003 to 2007.

These appointments are effective immediately.

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