Why Everyone Should Care About Access to Justice

The Honourable Thomas Cromwell was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada on December 22, 2008. He had previously been appointed to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal on August 27, 1997.

Justice Cromwell went to school in Kingston. He then attended Queen's University, where he obtained a B. Mus. in 1973 and an LL.B. in 1976. He also obtained an A.R.C.T. diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music in 1974 and attended Oxford University, where he earned a B.C.L. in 1977.

Justice Cromwell practised law in Kingston and Toronto and taught in the Faculty of Law of Dalhousie University. He worked as Executive Legal Officer to Chief Justice Antonio Lamer for three years, 1992-95. He has also held many other offices: Secretary, Board of Governors, National Judicial Institute, 1992-95; Vice-chair, Nova Scotia Labour Relations Board and Construction Industry Panel, 1991-92; labour arbitrator and adjudicator, 1984-97; President, Continuing Legal Education Society of Nova Scotia; President, Canadian Association of Law Teachers, 1988-89; President, Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice, 1999-2001; Chair of the Board, Canadian Forum on Civil Justice, 2007-8; Research Director, C.B.A. Court Reform Task Force, 1989-91; Chair, C.B.A. Interim Organizational Committee for the National Organization on Civil Justice Reform, 1996-97; and Commissioner, Law Reform Commission of Nova Scotia, 2002-7. He currently serves as Chair of the National Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters.

Justice Cromwell was an active member of the Canadian Judicial Council's working committee that prepared the publication entitled Ethical Principles for Judges as well as the Council's working committee on Jury Charges and Education Committee. He was also a faculty member of the programs for new federally and provincially appointed judges, the National Judicial Institute's Intensive Evidence Program, and many other national and provincial continuing education programs, including the Effective Written Advocacy Program of the Advocates' Society. He has authored or contributed to six books and numerous articles and served on the editorial boards for CRIMJI and the Canadian Journal of Administrative Law and Practice. He is Chair of the Editorial Board of the Canadian Bar Review.

Justice Cromwell has received many awards: the C.B.A.'s Louis St. Laurent Award of Excellence, 1992; Her Majesty's Jubilee Medals, 2002 and 2012; the Dalhousie Law Students Society and Dalhousie Law Alumni Association Award of Teaching Excellence, 1992; and the Dalhousie Law Students' Society Class of 1986 Class Ring. He is an Honorary Director of the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice, an Honorary member of the Golden Key International Honour Society, and an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College Oxford and of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He holds honorary doctorates in law from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Queen's University, Kingston and the Law Society of Upper Canada.