Jerry McHale, QC and Art Vertlieb, QC have been selected to receive CBABC’s most prestigious honour, the Georges A Goyer, QC Memorial Award for Distinguished Service. The Award will be presented to Mr. McHale and Mr. Vertlieb at the 2009 Bench and Bar Dinner on November 4, 2009.

The Georges A Goyer, QC Memorial Award for Distinguished Service was initiated in 1992 and is named in honour of a respected member of the BC Branch who passed away on November 5, 1992 after a courageous battle with cancer. Georges A Goyer, QC served the CBA as Chair of the National Legal Aid Liaison Committee, Chair of the BC Branch Criminal Justice (Vancouver) Section, Elected Member of the BC Branch and National CBA Councils, Member of the BC Branch and Law Society of BC Communications Committees, Board Member of the Canadian Bar Insurance Association, and Assistant Professor/Director of the UBC Legal Clinic, Faculty of Law.

The Georges A Goyer, QC Memorial Award for Distinguished Service has been created to recognize the exceptional contributions and/or achievements by any resident of British Columbia:

• to the legal profession in British Columbia; or
• to jurisprudence in British Columbia or Canada; or
• to the law or development of the law in British Columbia; or
• a significant law-related benefit to the residents of British Columbia.

[posted October 21, 2009]