The Hon. Richard Holland

This extensive interview with Justice Richard Holland provides detailed insights into the founding of the Advocates’ Society in the early 1960s and the ambitious Campbell House restoration project. Holland, along with colleagues like Walter Williston, Bob Montgomery, Bob Reid, and Charlie McKeon, conceived the Society to unite litigation lawyers for two primary purposes: influencing government policy (particularly regarding automobile insurance reform) and providing educational programs for junior counsel in advocacy skills.

The interview reveals the complex process of selecting prestigious founding members like John Robinette, Joseph Sedgwick, and Arthur Martin to lend credibility to the organization, while the actual organizational work was done by younger lawyers. Holland provides fascinating details about the Society’s most ambitious undertaking – the acquisition, relocation, and restoration of the historic Campbell House from its original Adelaide Street location to the current site near Osgoode Hall.

The Campbell House project, spanning from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, involved intricate negotiations with multiple parties including Coutts Hallmark Cards, Canada Life, the City of Toronto, and the provincial government. Holland describes the financial challenges, opposition from some members, the famous fundraising trip to Ireland, and the dramatic Good Friday 1972 move of the entire building through downtown Toronto streets. The project established the Advocates’ Society as a significant force in Ontario’s legal community and created a lasting institutional home for litigation lawyers.

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