Jeff practices primarily in the areas of professional regulation, administrative law, commercial litigation and professional negligence.
Called to the Bar in 1987, Jeff practices in Winnipeg as a partner with Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP, primarily in the areas of professional regulation, administrative law, commercial litigation and professional negligence.
He is a graduate of the University of Manitoba, receiving his B.A. in International Relations in 1983 and his LLB in 1986.
His administrative law practice is centered on professional regulation and governance for self-governing professions and he provides advice to a number of those professions as counsel to discipline and complaints committees, as a prosecutor, and with respect to policy development. Jeff also assists several self-governing professions with issues related to The Regulated Health Professions Act of Manitoba.
Jeff has represented and continues to represent counsel on professional negligence cases and has both prosecuted and defended members in Law Society proceedings. He has been selected multiple times for inclusion by Best Lawyers in Canada for Administrative and Public Law.
Jeff is an advocate for enhancing Canadians’ ability to obtain legal services and access to justice. From 2010 to 2018, he served on Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin’s National Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters where he was a member of the Steering Committee.
Jeff is a past President of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada (2015-2016). The Federation is the national coordinating body of the 14 provincial and territorial law societies in Canada which have the responsibility to regulate Canada’s 136,000 lawyers, Quebec’s 4,200 notaries and Ontario’s over 10,000 licensed paralegals. In 2016, Jeff represented the Federation on the inaugural Independent Advisory Board for Supreme Court of Canada Judicial Appointments.
Jeff is also a past President of the Law Society of Manitoba (2009-2010) and a Life Bencher having served from 2002 through 2010. In 2008-2009, Jeff chaired the Law Society’s Special Committee on the Independence of the Legal Profession. He served as Chair of the Law Society’s Complaints Investigation, Discipline, Nominating and Equity Committees. Jeff has also served on the President’s Special Committee on Re-Visioning Regulation as well as a representative to the Queen’s Bench Statutory Rules Committee and the Community Legal Education Association. He continues to sit as a member of the Law Society’s Discipline Committee and the CPLED Appeals Subcommittee. Jeff also served on the Court of Queen’s Bench Access to Justice Committee.
In 2016, Jeff received the Richard J. Scott Award at the 2016 Isaac Pitblado Lectures. The Award honours former Chief Justice Scott of the Manitoba Court of Appeal and is presented annually to an individual who advances the rule of law through advocacy, litigation, teaching, research or writing.
Jeff has been a frequent lecturer and seminar leader on regulatory matters, board governance, civil procedure, motions practice, examinations for discovery, negotiation skills and ethics for the Law Society’s articling transition programs.
From 1995 to 2014, Jeff taught the third year Remedies course at Robson Hall. From 2017 to 2020, he created and taught Access to Justice as a sessional lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba.
Jeff is a past member of the executive of both the-then Manitoba Theatre Centre and the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre.
Jeff and his wife, Liz Murray, are lifelong Winnipeg residents.
Education
University of Manitoba, B.A., International Relations, 1984
University of Manitoba, LL.B., 1986
Contact info:
(204) 934-2336
jbh@tdslaw.com