Mr. Moishe Reiter

This interview with Moishe Reiter provides a comprehensive account of his career and significant contributions to The Advocates’ Society, particularly his role as founding editor of The Advocates’ Society Journal. Reiter discusses his early life as the son of Russian Jewish immigrants during the Depression, his education at University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall Law School, and his articling experiences at various firms including the TTC legal department. He describes facing discrimination as a Jewish lawyer in the 1960s legal profession, noting that many established firms would not hire Jewish lawyers unless they “could pass for White.”

The interview focuses extensively on Reiter’s involvement with The Advocates’ Society from 1964 onwards, initially as a junior member attending conferences and conventions to learn from senior colleagues like John Robinette and G. Arthur Martin. In 1980, he became a director and was approached by Ted Rachlin to help establish a journal for the Society. Working with Brian Brock and Tony Keith, Reiter became the founding editor of The Advocates’ Society Journal in 1982, developing it as a “Popular Mechanics for trial lawyers” that would serve the broader legal profession rather than just the personal injury bar that dominated the Society’s early years.

Reiter provides detailed insights into the journal’s editorial philosophy, production process, and impact on the Society’s growth and prestige. He describes how the journal helped transform The Advocates’ Society from a small, elite group into a larger organization with broader appeal, contributing to membership growth from around 50 members in 1964 to approximately 2000 by the late 1990s. However, he argues that this growth ultimately changed the Society’s character, making it less focused on advocacy and more like the Canadian Bar Association with various sub-groups, thereby losing the tight camaraderie and sacred trust that characterized its founding generation.

This description was written by AI and may contain some inaccuracies.