BarTalk thanks the members of the 1999/2000 Executive Committee for providing the following biographies.

D Mayland McKimm, President
Mayland was born in Calgary in 1957 and graduated from the University of Toronto in 1979 with an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1983, he graduated from the Northwestern College of Law at Lewis & Clark College in Oregon, with a Juris Doctor degree. He was called to the Oregon State Bar in 1983, and then to the BC Bar in 1984.

Mayland served as Chair of the Young Lawyers Section from 1986 to 1988 and as Chair of the Criminal (Victoria) Section from 1988 to 1990. He has served as a member of the BC Branch Provincial Council from 1992 until the present and was elected to the Executive Committee in 1997. From 1996 to the present he has also served as representative to the Policy and Planning Council for the Legal Services Society. Mayland is a past Chair of the Legal Aid Committee and a member of the Government Relations Committee and Lawyers Assistance Program. He served in the past on the National Task Force on Para Legals, and most recently on the National Task Force on Fee Increases. Mayland is our current representative to the Board of Directors of the National CBA.

Mayland operates his own firm, Mayland McKimm & Associates, in Victoria.

Doug F Robinson, QC, Past President
Doug was born in Vancouver and graduated from UBC with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1971 and a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1972. He was called to the BC Bar in 1973.

He served as an executive of the Vancouver Bar Association from 1980 to 1982 and was elected to two terms as member for Vancouver County of the BC Branch Provincial Council from 1992 to 1996. He was first elected to the Branch Executive Committee in 1992 and again in 1994, serving until 1995. In 1996, he was elected Secretary/Treasurer of the BC Branch. He has served as Chair of the Branch Legal Aid Subcommittee, BC Chair of Government Relations, Chair of the BC Membership Committee and the National Membership Committee.

Doug also served as a member of the task force on Court Delays (National), on the Dickson National Task Force on Judicial Delays and was Chair of the BC Branch Working Group with respect to the Systems of Civil Justice Task Force. Doug served nationally as a member of the Implementation Committee on the Civil Justice Task Force. He is the Chair of the Board of the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice.

He serves as a director on the boards of several private companies and is a past director of Foundation Inc. (the funding arm of the Vancouver-Richmond Association for Mentally Handicapped People). He is also active in a variety of community groups, clubs and associations.

From 1979 to the present, Doug has served as a Litigation Partner with the Vancouver firm of Lawson Lundell Lawson & McIntosh. He is also a director of the BC Law Institute and serves on the committee for the Coalition for Access to Justice.

Margaret Ostrowski, Vice President
Margaret graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours B.Sc. in 1971, from the University of Western Ontario with an M.A. in 1973, and from UBC with a LL.B. in 1979. She has been very involved and committed to the CBA for a number of years. She began her active involvement by serving on the executive of the General Practitioners’ Section years ago and was elected as a Vancouver County Representative to the CBA in 1995. She was elected to the Executive Committee in 1996 as Member-at-Large and has served on the Executive diligently ever since. She has chaired numerous committees, boards and task groups over the years including the Planning and Priorities Committee, Unclaimed Intangible Property Committee, Co-Chaired the first and very successful President’s Forum on Solicitor’s Issues, BarTalk Editorial Board, Solicitors’ Issues Committee, and our Awards and Recognition Committee. She has been the Executive Liaison for our Title Insurance Committee and is presently the liaison for the Real Estate Practice Committee and the Equality Committee. As our CBA representative on the Law Courts Education Society, she is now its Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer and also the Chair of the 10th Anniversary Fundraising Celebration Committee. She has brought many new ideas to our organization.

She has been a guest lecturer at People’s Law School, PLTC, CLE, and the Wills and Trusts Section, and has authored many articles. She has also been active in community and public service activities and local politics. She was the lay appointee on the Board of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists and the Chair of the Dental Technicians and Denturists Board. She is a past member of the legal committee of LEAF and the Point Grey Mini School Consultative Committee Executive. She has two teenaged sons, one of whom is a ranked Canadian athlete and an undergraduate at Harvard University.

Margaret was called to the Bar in 1980 and was one of the organizers of their recent class reunion. She is a sole practitioner in the wills and estates area of law and has acted on many occasions as a Custodian appointed under the Legal Profession Act.

Ken Sarnecki, Secretary-Treasurer
Ken has spent his entire professional life serving the law—in several different capacities. From 1970 to 1979, he was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He was awarded a Commanding Officers commendation for outstanding investigative ability in a particular homicide investigation. While attending law school, in the summers of 1980 to 1982, Ken worked as an immigration officer in Windsor, Ontario. In 1982, he graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Windsor and articled with the firm of Salloum Doak in Kelowna where he is now one of 11 partners practising criminal and civil litigation.

He served on the Canada Pension Plan Appeals Committee as Chairperson from 1992 to 1997. He is a standing agent for the Attorney General of Canada for Federal prosecutions in the Kelowna and district area.

Ken has served on the Executive of the Kelowna Bar Association as Vice-President and President from 1987 to 1990. He was the lawyer representative of the New Kelowna Courthouse Committee.

This is Ken’s third term on the Executive Committee. This is his third year as Chairperson of the Government Relations Committee and member of the Membership Committee. He also chaired the Provincial Court Judges Salaries and Pension Committee. Ken also participates in various community organizations.

Kenneth Armstrong, Officer
Kenneth Armstrong attended law school at the University of British Columbia. He articled with Roberts and Griffin in downtown Vancouver, and was called to the bar in 1996. He then joined Stone and Alexander in Burnaby, practising family law and wrongful dismissal litigation. In October, 1997 he joined Michael R. Hoogbruin, practising plaintiff’s personal injury litigation and wrongful dismissal litigation, and joined Kane, Shannon and Weiler in August 1999, where he currently practises ICBC defence litigation and wrongful dismissal litigation.

Ken has been active in the community since his undergraduate days at UBC, where he was active in the Arts Undergraduate Society and Alma Mater Society. At law school, Ken was an editor and Treasurer of the Alberta Law Review, and served on the Law Faculty Council. In December 1997 Ken was a founding co-chair of the Young Lawyers (Westminster County) Subsection, a post he held in June, 1999. He is currently the co-chair of the Young Lawyers Subsection, which is based in Vancouver, BC. Ken also sits on the Legal Aid Committee, and was a member of the Council Reform Task Force.

Heather Holmes, Officer
Heather was born in England in 1954. She moved with her family to the Vancouver area (actually Surrey) at the age of 12. She received an Honours B.A. in 1975 from UBC and an M.A. and LL.B from the University of Toronto in 1976 and 1979 respectively. She was called to the British Columbia Bar in 1981 after clerking for the Court of Appeal and articling with Shrum, Liddle and Hebenton. She has spent most of her career with the BC Crown Counsel office - punctuated by four years as counsel with the Department of Justice’s Criminal Law Policy Section in Ottawa - and is currently Administrative Crown Counsel with the Securities Fraud Office in Vancouver.

This is Heather’s debut with the Executive Committee, following in the year after her election to Provincial Council in 1998. She was a member of the Legislation and Law Reform Committee for two years beginning in 1997, and is Chair of that committee for the upcoming year. She served on the program committee and was a session chair for the 1999 President’s Forum. Previous (pre-Ottawa) CBA involvement includes serving as Chair, Vice-Chair, and Secretary (in reverse sequence) of the Criminal Justice Section, Vancouver, as member of the Judicial Council Advisory Committee for the Provincial Court, and the National Task Force on the Criminal Code. She has contributed extensively to CLE, including as coordinator of the 1997 course on Commercial crime, and as co-author of chapters on criminal law and procedure in the 1998 and 1999 Annual Review. She has been guest lecturer for CLE, PLTC, and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and is an almost annual volunteer for Law Day.

Heather has long been a dedicated and well-behaved soccer mum of her teenaged daughter and son. She also wishes it to be known that only a short year ago she managed to ride with her family in a self-powered bicycle-camping trip from Amsterdam to Vienna.

Carman J Overholt, Officer
Carman was born in London, Ontario in 1958. He received an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in History in 1981 from the University of Western Ontario. In 1984, Carman received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Queen’s University. He was called to the British Columbia Bar in 1986 after articling with Russell & DuMoulin.

Carman is a Past President of The Advocates Club. He is also a past Director of the Law Courts Inn and a past member of the Executive of the Vancouver Bar Association. Carman has been involved in the activities of the CBA throughout his time at the bar, including service as a member of the organizing committee for the 1989 annual conference in Vancouver and the 1996 Joint CBA Commonwealth Law Conference in Vancouver. More recently, Carman organized the President’s Forum on ‘The Business of Law’. He is also the Co-Chair of the Task Force on Multi-Disciplinary Partnerships. A frequent lecturer for the Continuing Legal Education Society, in recent years Carman has organized and chaired the annual Employment Law CLE.

Carman is a litigation partner with the Vancouver firm of Douglas Symes & Brissenden where he has practised since 1989.

David A Paul, Officer
David graduated from the University of Victoria’s Law School in 1986. Since being called to the Bar in 1987, David has spent his professional career in Kamloops, where he was born and raised. His practice areas include Criminal Law, Family law, and Personal injury. He worked with Jensen Mitchell & Company in Kamloops from 1986 to 1992, and with Paul and O’Fee from 1992 to 1997. In 1997 he established the law firm of Paul & Company where he now practises with his sister, Lorianna Bennett.

Prior to his election to Provincial Council, David was actively involved in the profession at the local level. He served the Kamloops Bar Association from 1990 - 1994 where he filled various executive roles until his presidency in 1993-94. As well, David participated on the Law Day Committee and he sat on the Advisory Committee for the University College of the Cariboo. Locally, David’s interest also included his participation with the Knights of Columbus and the Sacred Heart Cathedral - he is a former chair of their Parish Council.

David was first elected to Provincial Council in 1995 and he is currently serving his second three-year term on Provincial Council. David is an enthusiastic supporter of Sections; he belongs to two in Kamloops and is serving his second year as the B.C. Branch’s Section Coordinator. Additionally, David participates in the Communications Committee and he chairs both the Section Task Force and the Bar Talk Editorial Board. This is also David’s second term on the Executive Committee.

Margaret Sasges, Officer
Margaret graduated from the University of Victoria Law School in 1989 and was called to the BC bar in 1990. She is a solicitor and a partner in the firm of Berge, Sasges & Co. in Victoria, and has focused her practice on the areas of wills and estates and elder law.

Margaret’s involvement in the CBA began when she was an articled student and was elected chair of the Victoria Young Lawyers Section. She ultimately became chair of the national Young Lawyers Conference and at the national level, she also served on the CBA Finance & Planning Directorate, Executive Committee, Nominating Committee, Law Practice Management Task Force and was a member of the CBA Executive Director Hiring Committee. As chair of the YLC, she spearheaded the Future of the Legal Profession initiative, and was instrumental in producing publications and resources that are of use to young lawyers across Canada.

Meanwhile, back in BC, she served on the organizing committees for the CBA Annual Meeting (Vancouver ’96) and the CBA Mid-Winter (Victoria ’98). She is currently a member of the CBA (BC) Planning & Priorities Committee, Solicitors’ Issues Committee and was chair of the recent Provincial Council Reform Task Force. Margaret has also served on the Board of Directors of the Continuing Legal Education Society since 1995 and is now serving as chair of the CLE Society for 1999/2000. Beyond the legal front, Margaret is currently serving her third year as President of the Craigdarroch Castle Historical Museum Society, which is successfully restoring and managing one of Victoria’s most impressive landmarks.

This article was published in the October 1999 issue of BarTalk. © 1999 The Canadian Bar Association. All rights reserved.