In Ottawa on June 14, the Hon. Jody Wilson-Raybould, minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, announced the following appointments under the new judicial application process announced on Oct. 20, 2016: Carla L. Forth, QC, partner at Guild Yule LLP, Michael Tammen, QC, a sole practitioner, Warren B. Milman, a partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, and Nitya Iyer, QC, a partner at Lovett Westmacott, were appointed judges of the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
The new judicial application process emphasizes transparency, merit and diversity, and will continue to ensure the appointment of jurists who meet the highest standards of excellence and integrity.
Milman, a member of the Jewish community, practised litigation with the Vancouver office of McCarthy Tétrault LLP for 24 years, with a focus on insolvency, commercial litigation, class actions defence and constitutional law. In the course of his practice, he also acted on many occasions for both for the Crown and for the defence in criminal and regulatory prosecutions.
Milman came to the law after earning a bachelor of arts from McGill University and pursuing graduate studies in classical archeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem from 1985 to 1988. He obtained his LLB and BCL from McGill in 1992. He was called to the British Columbia Bar in 1993 and admitted to the State Bar of California in that same year.
In addition to his private practice, Milman has devoted a substantial part of his career to promoting meaningful access to justice for ordinary Canadians. He has taken on numerous pro bono cases before courts and regulatory tribunals. In addition, he served as chair of Pro Bono Law of British Columbia, both prior to and during the organization’s merger with the Access Justice Society to form Access Pro Bono in 2010. He was appointed a governor of the Law Foundation of British Columbia in 2010 and served as chair of its board of governors in 2015 and 2016.