The Honorable Ian Binnie, Justice of the Canadian Supreme Court (Retired)

Ian Binnie , C.C., K.C. is Of Counsel to Lenczner Slaght

One of Canada's most respected arbitrators and advocates, the Honourable Ian Binnie served for nearly 14 years as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. When he retired in 2011 he was described by The Globe and Mail as "arguably the country's premier judge" and by La Presse as "peut-être le juge le plus influent au Canada dans la dernière décennie."

During his time on the country's top court (as only the fourth modern Justice appointed directly from the bar) Ian authored more than 170 opinions, including in landmark cases involving corporate and commercial disputes, issues of contractual interpretation and torts, patent interpretation and validity, aboriginal rights, copyright and protection of trade-marks, media law, punitive damages, expert evidence and many other aspects of constitutional, criminal and administrative law.

In his role, Ian shares strategic and practical advice, as well as his dispute resolution expertise, with his colleagues and the firm's clients. In doing so he draws not only on his judicial insights, but also his wealth of courtroom experience as one of Canada's top litigators. Over the course of three decades, he argued cases in most of the common law provinces and appeared regularly before the Supreme Court on a range of constitutional, civil and criminal matters.

Throughout his career as a litigator, Ian has often taken on public service roles as well. In the early 1980s he served for four years as Canada's Associate Deputy Minister of Justice. He was later appointed Special Parliamentary Counsel to the Joint Committee of the Senate and the House of Commons on the Meech Lake Accord. An elected member of the International Commission of Jurists, he has appeared before the International Court of Justice and various international tribunals in governmental litigation matters, and has acted as Canadian representative in high-profile disputes involving France and the U.S.

The Honorable Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court (Retired)

Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye is president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that works to improve public policy in California through independent, objective, nonpartisan research. She assumed this role in January 2023.

Prior to joining PPIC, she served as the Chief Justice of California for 12 years. Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye established herself as one of the country’s leading proponents of equal access to justice, civic education, and reform of court funding practices that unfairly affect the poor.

When she was sworn into office in January 2011 as the 28th Chief Justice of California, she became the first person of color and the second woman to serve as the state’s chief justice.

Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye raised awareness of the unfair financial impact of fines, fees, and the bail system on the poor. She also sought to advance bail system reform that would address concerns about fairness and public safety.

As leader of California’s judicial branch and chair of the Judicial Council, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye improved the branch’s efficiency, accountability, and transparency in how it conducts business, sets policy, and discloses information. She opened meetings of the Judicial Council and its advisory bodies that were once closed to the public and made public comment more accessible. Judicial Council meetings are now webcast, as are state Supreme Court oral arguments. She oversaw changes in court rules that improved how judicial branch entities prevent and address harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and inappropriate workplace conduct. During the COVID-19 pandemic she advanced remote court operations and issued hundreds of emergency orders so that courts continued to operate safely. She also launched a program to make retired judges available to fast track the resolution of certain criminal cases.

She has been recognized for her early work on domestic violence issues, support for minority bar associations, and advancing the role of women and minorities in the legal profession. She helped revitalize civic learning as chief justice through her Power of Democracy initiative. She, along with other state leaders, fulfilled one of this initiative’s goals in July 2016 when the State Board of Education unanimously approved an instructional framework that encourages civic learning. In 2019, she was honored with the Sandra Day O’Connor Award by the National Center for State Courts for her work inspiring, promoting, and improving civics education.

As California’s chief justice she convened leaders to address such issues as implicit bias, human trafficking, and truancy. All of her initiatives while leading the judicial branch supported her vision for a branch that provides physical access through safe and secure courthouses, remote access through technology initiatives, and equal access to all Californians.

Before she was elected statewide as the chief justice of California, she served more than 20 years on California appellate and trial courts and was appointed or elevated to higher office by three governors. Earlier in her career she served as a deputy district attorney for the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office and on the senior staff of Governor George Deukmejian, first as deputy legal affairs secretary and later as a deputy legislative secretary. She holds a BA and a JD from the University of California, Davis.

 Dwight Newman, KC, DPhil (Oxford) is Professor of Law at the University of Saskatchewan, where he has been on faculty since 2005.  He served the maximum two terms in a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Rights in Constitutional and International Law from 2013 to 2023.  He has also served a term as Associate Dean Academic.  He has over 200 publications of various types, including 15 books.  His writing is regularly cited as an authority in judicial decisions, and he has been cited in at least 14 Supreme Court of Canada decisions.  He has presented and published some of his work in French.  He has been on academic fellowships or visitorships at a range of prestigious institutions, including Cambridge, Oxford, McGill, Princeton, l’Université de Montréal, and the University of Western Australia (UWA).  He is a member of the bars of Ontario and Saskatchewan and maintains a small part-time constitutional law practice.  He was a law clerk to Chief Justice Antonio Lamer and Justice Louis LeBel at the Supreme Court of Canada and has also worked for Justice Canada (seconded part of the time to the Pay Equity Task Force Secretariat) and for human rights organizations in Hong Kong and South Africa.  His initial studies were in his home province of Saskatchewan (BA in Economics at Regina and JD at Saskatchewan), and he completed three graduate degrees at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar (BCL, MPhil, DPhil). 

He recently completed two additional graduate degrees that deepen his interdisciplinary understandings and sense on the social place of law (MATS in History of Christianity and MSc in Finance and Financial Law).  He has served in various board or committee roles, including at different times as Co-Chair of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) Rights of Indigenous Peoples Interest Group, member of the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on the Implementation of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, voting member of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) national council, Vice-President of the Canadian Law and Society Association, and member of the boards of organizations involved in public interest litigation.  He has a longstanding role as a volunteer judge for the Jessup International Law Moot, judging up to advanced rounds in Washington DC, and previously competed for the Saskatchewan team (top English-language oralist in Canada, Dillard Prize for Memorials, Baxter Prize for best respondent memorial in the world).  In addition to all Canadian provinces and territories, he has travelled to over 80 countries.