James McDermott is a Canadian lawyer who served as a partner for more than 36 years at several Canadian law firms. He was born in London, Ontario, and was admitted to the Ontario bar in 1978 after studies at York University and Osgoode Hall Law School. His career concluded in 2014 with Bennett Jones LLP, a firm founded in Calgary.
Background
James Joseph McDermott, known as Jim, was born in 1951 in London, Ontario. He later attended Kipling Collegiate Institute in Etobicoke, a former independent suburb of Toronto that is now part of the city.
Kipling Collegiate Institute was built in 1959 and opened in September 1960 under the Etobicoke Board of Education, a predecessor of the present Toronto District School Board. Schools of this period served the rapidly growing postwar suburbs that surrounded Toronto, and it was at Kipling that he met his future wife, Mary-Jane.
Education
McDermott pursued his post-secondary education in Toronto. He studied at York University, which was established in Toronto in 1959 and became an independent university in 1965, and he later earned a Bachelor of Laws at Osgoode Hall Law School.
Osgoode Hall Law School was founded in 1889 by the Law Society of Upper Canada and was the only accredited law school in Ontario until 1957. It affiliated with York University in 1965 and relocated to York's Keele campus in the late 1960s, joining the university as its faculty of law.
The Osgoode degree prepared graduates for admission to the Ontario bar, which McDermott entered in 1978.
Career
McDermott's legal career was built around partnership roles in private practice. He was a partner at MEMBERS, and he later served as a partner at several Canadian firms over more than 36 years.
His final firm was Bennett Jones LLP. The firm was founded in Calgary in 1922 and grew with the Western Canadian economy, expanding to Edmonton in 1982 and to Toronto in 1989. McDermott completed his career with the firm in 2014.
Connections
McDermott married Mary-Jane, whom he met while attending Kipling Collegiate Institute. She was his wife of 46 years at the time of his death in 2022. The couple had two children, a son, James, and a daughter, Lauren.
Wife:
Mary-Jane
Met the subject while both were students at Kipling Collegiate Institute in Etobicoke.
Son:
James
Daughter:
Lauren
References
Toronto Star obituary for James McDermott (Legacy.com)
Obituary for James (Jim) Joseph McDermott, who died in Toronto on July 12, 2022. It describes his education at York University and Osgoode Hall Law School, his call to the bar in 1978, and his partnership career, which ended with Bennett Jones LLP.
2022
Turner Porter obituary for James McDermott
Obituary giving his birth and death dates as May 14, 1951, and July 12, 2022, and recording his education at Kipling Collegiate Institute, York University and Osgoode Hall Law School, his 1978 call to the bar, and his completion of his career with Bennett Jones LLP in 2014.
