Canadian Lawyer

over a martini, Gray pitched the idea to Dunnigan of doing a spot on his show. Dunnigan said he liked the idea but it would never happen. In spite of consider- ing it a good idea doomed to failure, he agreed to let Gray "run it past his boss." The boss was, and is, Gail Vickery, chief judge of the Provincial Court. Gray remembers her asking a lot of very tough questions, primarily "what do you want out of Sean?" She also wondered if Dunnigan became an on-air regular, would the public esteem of the court be lowered? Finally, with Gray's persuasion and Dunnigan' agreed. But now Gray had to convince the CBC having a judge on the show would be good radio. A judge rattling on about arcane legal issues might not make the most engaging radio. But Gray convinced his bosses Dunnigan was anything but a bore and in the end they went for it. The woman who handles the segment s silent support, Vickery want him to be a host, they just want to pick his brain. Dunnigan is a funny, outgoing man lutely serious about his job as a Provincial Court judge. "It' always ready with a quick quip. He remains a favourite after-dinner speaker and was formerly a popular president of the Law Society of Alberta. But he is abso- you've got someone's life in your hands." s a different world once He says in radio or real life that is a fact he never forgets. — GEOFF ELLWAND writerlaw@gmail.com and is charged with making sure it results in interesting radio is producer Jenn Blair. She talks to Dunnigan before the show and says it is easy to find issues that resonate with listeners. "He can't speak to specific cases that are before the courts . . . but he can explain things from a position of experience and authority. "he's doing a valuable thing to come out as " a public media figure . . . to explain legal issues to a broad audience. " She believes to regularly go public, but he is not the first. British Columbia' Court chief judge, the late Hugh Stansfield, appeared often on radio and television and held public "meet the judge" forums around the province. In Ontario, Justice Harvey Brownstone, a sitting Ontario Provincial Court family law judge, hosts a television show called Family Matters, which is looking to launch a second sea- son. Dunnigan is one of the very few judges s former Provincial the Quebec Provincial Court about what he is doing. Incidentally Dunnigan spent much of his youth in Quebec and prides himself on "a pretty good" Quebecois accent. He says the Quebec court doesn't Dunnigan has received inquiries from ntitled-4 1 19% You told us you'd like to work more efficiently. How's faster sound? Quicklaw ® ® Focus on delivering work for your clients, not switching between programs. Now, when you're creating a Word document or working in Outlook® for Microsoft Office. , you can pull content directly from Quicklaw, the open web and your computer with intuitive simplicity and reduce the time required to conduct background research by up to 19%*. We've teamed with Microsoft to bring this innovation to our customers' existing workflow processes. It's just one example of intuitive tools created for legal minds, by legal minds. Another LexisNexis® innovation that enables better outcomes. For more information go to www.lexisnexis.ca/quicklaw-office *A study conducted in the United States in July 2011 by KS&R and CDI Market Research, in conjunction with National Legal Research Group (NLRG), involved 600 time-test observations with multiple legal scenarios and documents. LexisNexis and the Knowledge Burst logo are registered trademarks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under licence. Quicklaw is a registered trademark of LexisNexis Canada Inc. Microsoft and Outlook are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other products or services may be trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective companies. © 2012 LexisNexis Canada Inc. All rights reserved. QLMO-Ad-08/12 www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com N O VEMBER / D ECEMBER 2012 11 12-09-06 2:38 PM

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