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New Law Society President and Vice President Elected
December 13, 2018At Convocation on December 6, 2018, the Benchers elected Leslie Belloc-Pinder, as President, and Gerald Tegart, Q.C., as Vice President, for 2019. We congratulate our new President and Vice President and would like to thank our outgoing President, Craig Zawada, Q.C., for his tireless work in 2018. Please see our website for a full list of our newly elected Benchers.
Leslie Belloc-Pinder, President LL.B, BA
Leslie Belloc-Pinder graduated at 22 from the College of Law, University of Saskatchewan in 1984. She articled and worked as a junior lawyer with McDougall Ready Wakeling for a couple of years and then joined Legal Aid in the Saskatoon Rural Office. In 1989, she began her 29 year career with her partners at Hnatyshyn Gough.
Ms. Belloc-Pinder’s practice focused primarily on civil litigation with an emphasis on child protection until her appointment as an adjudicator with the Indian Residential Schools Independent Assessment Process from 2009 to 2016. In that capacity, she travelled across Canada listening to the evidence of claimants seeking compensation for abuse they experienced in residential schools and writing hundreds of original and appeal decisions.
In other adjudicative roles, Ms. Belloc-Pinder chaired the Saskatchewan Farm Land Security Board for 10 years and was recently appointed Chair of the provincial Criminal Injuries Compensation Appeal Board. In 2016, the federal Minister of Labour appointed Ms. Belloc-Pinder to decide complaints under the Canada Labour Code and in 2017 the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change named her a review officer responsible to conduct hearings pursuant to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999.
Beginning in January 2018, Ms. Belloc-Pinder assumed a part-time position with Canada’s largest administrative tribunal, the Immigration and Refugee Board. She now sits as a member of the Immigration Appeal Division in the Western Region.
Ms. Belloc-Pinder was a sessional lecturer for both the Colleges of Commerce (in business law) and Law (in civil procedure) at the U of S for a decade. She has devoted much time and energy advocating for women and social justice initiatives with such organizations as the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) and the Saskatoon Women’s Network. She is also an avid athlete, and retired soccer team manager.
Within the Law Society of Saskatchewan, Ms. Belloc-Pinder was elected as a Bencher in 2015, Vice-President for 2018, and President for 2019. To date, she has served on the Ethics, Professional Standards, Conduct Investigation, Legal Resources and Justicia committees.
Gerald Tegart, Q.C.
Gerald Tegart was called to the Bar in 1977. He attended university in Regina and Saskatoon and has lived and practised law in Regina since graduating from the U of S College of Law in 1976. He articled with what is now the Ministry of Justice and subsequently served in the government for 37 years, as a prosecutor, a legal advisor to multiple government agencies and a legal manager, including four years as Saskatchewan’s Deputy Minister of Justice. He now practices as a sole practitioner with a focus on arbitration and other adjudicative work. He also provides advisory services to businesses and government institutions.
Gerald has been an active volunteer, both in the community and with a variety of law-related organizations. He is a past president of the Regina Bar Association, has served on the CBA Saskatchewan council and was a member of the CBA Task Force on Conflicts of Interest. He is a past member of the Law Foundation of Saskatchewan and the board of directors of the Canadian Centre for Court Technology.
In 2014 he was elected by the benchers to fill a vacancy created by a judicial appointment. Since then he has carried out regular bencher functions and has served on several committees, including Ethics, Governance, Admissions and Education, Discipline Executive and Access to Legal Services.
In 2017, he was appointed by the Minister of Justice to co-chair the Legal Services Task Team.