A History of Edmonton’s Legal Discussion Clubs

By Brenda McCafferty, LASA Archivist

Edmonton Legal Discussion Club

Two of the driving forces behind the establishment of the Legal Discussion Club were L.Y. Cairns and John A. Weir. The Law School at University of Alberta came into formation in 1922 with the hiring of Weir who was made Dean in 1926 and served in that capacity until his death in 1942. Most of the members of the Legal Discussion group were graduates of the LL.B. degree program between the years 1924 and 1930. L.Y. Cairns, Q.C. was a model barrister and student of the law. He was also an accomplished public speaker, with a widely admired sense of humour and was much in demand as an after-dinner entertainer. He played the piano and made up his own songs. After WWII Cairns taught courses at the University and was named Chancellor in the late 1950s.[i] He was a judge, U. of A lecturer, president of the Law Society of Alberta, Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, and U. of A. Alumni Association. Cairns was also the first president of the campus Literary Society that oversaw the Glee Club, the Debating Society, Mock Parliament and a series of talks by faculty members.[ii]  He made up a poem about the Exemptions Act, to assist his articling students during the Depression era that was used for many years by the Faculty of Law (according to Wilbur Bowker), in remembering what items were exempt from seizure.

The Bar admission dates of lawyers who were members of the Legal Discussion Club span from 1916 to 1930. The Club consisted of older established lawyers like L.Y. Cairns, and Harold Hawe and younger members of the club who were graduates of the University of Alberta between 1926 and 1930.

We know based on the 1940 photograph that gatherings of the Legal Discussion Club were held at the Mayfair Golf Club. It is likely gatherings were also hosted by members like L.Y. Cairns who by 1946 was a Law School lecturer and was known to throw parties at his Ravine Drive home. The group comprised a Who’s-Who of Edmonton lawyers and finest legal minds.

The well-known Edmonton horse trainer Spud Murphy included in the photograph was not a lawyer but may have attended as an invited guest or speaker at the event.

The Hon. Ernest Brown, K.C. was a member of the early club and much of the club history was contributed by his son, The Hon. William E. Wilson, Q.C. who passed away in 2022. A letter written to Ernest Wilson on 31 January 1940 while serving overseas in World War II, from his law partner L.Y. Cairns provides the following anecdote:

“You are regularly mentioned at our meeting of the Legal Discussion Club and all the boys wish you the very best of everything.”

Cairns proceeds in the letter to give an update of some health concerns on the Edmonton home front of two Edmonton Legal Discussion Club members namely:

Stuart Fraser who had been hospitalized with  a heart attack and three broken ribs and Malcolm MacLeod who was in the hospital for x-ray examination.

After Ernest Wilson died, his son Bill Wilson found among his father’s effects a whiskey flask that had been given to his father by members of the Legal Discussion Group at a send-off dinner held in Edmonton on 23 November 1939. The names of all the members of the Club were engraved on the flask and bears a short poem (thought to have been written by L.Y. Cairns):[iii]

“He is not drunk who from the floor

Can rise again and drink some more

But he is drunk, who senseless lies

And who can neither drink nor rise”

The engraved silver flask (16-ounce capacity), bears the names of club members:

George James Bryan, K.C., Laurence Yeomans Cairns, K.C., Douglas Walter Cobbledick, K.C., Thomas Lynde Cross, Angus Frazer Duncan, K.C., Howard Tracy Emery, K.C., L. Stuart Fraser, James Joseph Frawley, K.C., Harold Lawrence Hawe, K.C., Louis Davies Hyndman (Sr), K.C., Edward William Scott Kane (Sr), K.C., Bruce Van Wart Massie, K.C., John Nicholson McDonald, K.C., C. Malcolm Macleod, K.C., Stanley Harwood McCuaig, K.C., George Lyman Parney, William Edward Simpson, K.C., Sidney Bruce Smith, K.C., and Henry Jackson Wilson, K.C.

After a decade of interruption resulting from the Second World War and tumultuous aftermath, Edmonton saw the emergence of the Legal Forum club.

Edmonton Legal Forum

According to Wilbur Bowker, the Edmonton Legal Forum came into existence after World War II and its founders were Bill Morrow and Andre Dechene. William Haddad was appointed the first Secretary of the Legal Forum. The Club picked up from where its predecessor the Legal Discussion Club left off and following the appointment of L.Y. Cairns to the District Court of Northern Alberta in 1957. The next year (1958) represents the first photographic evidence of the Legal Forum’s existence at LASA. Over the years membership in the Legal Forum hovered around twenty-five members but since 2000, the club membership expanded, now includes women, and continues to meet 67 years later.

In his April 2002 Edmonton Bench & Bar oral history interview, Garth Fryett related the following information regarding the establishment of the Edmonton Legal Forum:

The ‘Four Aces’ was the restaurant near the old courthouse and lawyers would get together before going to Chambers. It was a place where you sat down and could meet and talk with the older members of the Bar. You learned so much by talking to them. I think it was arising out of that that Bill Morrow decided we should have a legal discussion group. The idea was that there were going to be representative lawyers [small firms, mid-size firms, large firms etc.] in the Legal Forum, about 25 of them. The idea was that each lawyer would take responsibility in turn to present a paper to the Legal Forum, which would be delivered and then would be discussed. They had bylaws but no president, only a secretary. The rules were that if you missed a meeting you got fined 50 cents. If you became a Q.C. or Judge you had to resign from membership. However, the bylaws were quickly amended when Bill Morrow and Andre Dechene, in short succession, received their Queen’s Counsel appointments! They eventually created the alternative of being responsible for the meeting, you could either give a paper or bring a guest speaker.[iv]

Many men active in the Legal Forum and its predecessor the Legal Discussion Club, also served as Law Society of Alberta Benchers, and Presidents or officers of the Edmonton Bar Association. Some of these men include Stanley McQuaig, J. B. McBride, E.W.S. Kane, Harold Hawe, Howard Emery, L. D. Hyndman (Sr.), Ronald Martland, D.W. Cobbledick, William Morrow, Andre Dechene, William Haddad, D.B. MacKenzie, Gig Field, J.H. Corbett, Bruce Whittaker, Garth Fryett, Andrew Andrekson, William A. Stevenson, Tom Jackson, and A. T. Murray.

Today, the Edmonton Legal Forum includes many recognizable names of members of the judiciary, and mastheads of prominent firms.[v]

Edmonton lawyer Garth Fryett, Q.C. of the Brownlee law firm played an active role in the Legal Forum. Fryett was an energetic participant not only in the Forum, but also with the Edmonton Bar Association, and the Legal Archives Society of Alberta (LASA). The membership of the Legal Forum prospered during the years he was active between 1960 and 2000. Garth Fryett served a term as Secretary of the Legal Forum in 1970-1971. In 2015, following his passing, LASA acquired a donation and amongst those records were a few Legal Forum group portraits of members spanning the years 1959 to 1999.

Textual records acquired from Fryett included a file providing a list of members and copies of minutes revealing activities and events sponsored by the club during his term as Secretary in 1971-1972. The file consists of meeting minutes and agendas, 1969-1972; and September 1984. One letter of correspondence received from Wilbur Bowker in 1998 was also donated. According to the file contents, the Legal Forum met monthly with members taking turns presenting papers on various legal topics. Often, guest speakers were invited to meetings and every speaker was asked to distribute copies of their paper to forum members. For instance, in 1971, Dean Wilbur Bowker presented a paper to the Legal Forum on the topic of “Deeds”. The address described the instrument and its legal incidents. Bowker pondered whether deeds needed reform and whether they were needed at all. If so, for what transactions, and should the seal be retained?[vi] Informal discussions take place after papers are presented.

Monthly meetings (excluding July and August) over the years have taken place at the Prince of Wales Armoury – Garrison Club, the Edmonton Club, and at the Mayfair Golf Club. Membership in the early days was by invitation and determined by secret ballot. Dues were collected to fund Forum activities. The annual Christmas party was a black-tie affair that included members wives and dancing. In 1970, the Christmas party was held at the U. of A. Faculty Club followed by “nightcaps” at the Secretary’s home.

A three-page copy of the club Bylaws ( as they were in 1971) are included amongst Fryett’s records. According to Al Cawsey, he was the first member of the club who resided outside of Edmonton.[vii]

Edmonton Legal Circle

Oxford Rhode scholar, The Hon. David C. McDonald, Q.C. was the impetus behind the formation of Edmonton’s Legal Circle which was active between 1963 and 1995. The Legal Circle was comprised of legal scholars, many of whom were affiliated with the University of Alberta law academia.

Similar legal discussion groups operated in the USA, UK and other countries abroad and may have inspired McDonald to form the Legal Circle in Edmonton based on the same model. The Legal Circle contributed an annual scholarship to the University of Alberta Law School, undertook fundraising on behalf of the Faculty of Law, hosted regular speaking events, and toured /attended lectures in other jurisdictions. The aspirations of the Legal Circle were to encourage debate and legal academic scholarship.

Following McDonald’s death in 1996, and the end of his participation, the Legal Circle activities dwindled. The David C. McDonald records (fonds 80-00-00) at LASA include several files related to the Legal Circle.

At face value, there appears to be many similarities between the Legal Forum and the Legal Circle mandates. According to Don Bishop, K.C., a member of the Legal Forum, “every now and then there was talk of a merge”.[viii] Another Legal Forum member H.G. Field, commented the following “the Legal Forum represented one generation of lawyers and the Legal Circle was comprised of the next generation down.”[ix] On November 14, 1990 a joint Legal Forum – Legal Circle gathering took place on the occasion of The Hon. William A. Stevenson’s appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada.

University of Alberta lecturers and professional role-models associated with the Edmonton legal profession presented scholarly papers at Legal Circle events. Notable cross-referenced members through the years of these clubs, span family’s and generations: L.Y. Cairns, Ronald Martland, Wilson (Ernest B. and William E.), McQuaig (S.H. and Eric.), Field (Sem and Harris “Gig”), Miller (Abe and Tevie), Spud Moir, Wilbur Bowker, Bill Hurlburt, William A. Stevenson, Joseph Brumlik, and Jean Côté.

[i] LASA Architypes Newsletter – four-part series by The Hon. William E. Wilson,  ‘Memories of an Old-time Law Office,’ Issues 16-18, 2007

[ii] Law Society of Alberta, ‘Just Works – Lawyers of Alberta 1907-2007’ (2007), pp. 145.

[iii] LASA Architypes Newsletter – four-part series by The Hon. William E. Wilson,  ‘Memories of an Old-time Law Office,’ Issues 16-18, 2007

[iv] LASA Edmonton Bench & Bar oral history program recording with Garth Fryett, April 8, 2002

[v] Law Society of Alberta, ‘Just Works – Lawyers of Alberta 1907-2007’ (2007), pp. 255.

[vi] From the records of Wilbur Bowker LASA fonds 44-00-00, file 55 (1971)

[vii] LASA Edmonton Bench & Bar, oral history program recording with Al Cawsey, September 21, 1998

[viii] LASA Edmonton Bench & Bar, oral history program recording with Don Bishop, Feb. 6, 2014

^[ix] LASA Edmonton Bench & Bar oral history program recording with H.G. Field, April 8, 1998