Two months after retiring from the Supreme Court of Canada, Justice Thomas Cromwell, Law’76, LLD’10 (Mus’73), was warmly welcomed back to Queen’s Law for a four-day visit during the first week of November. He gave a lecture on access to justice, guest-lectured in five classes, toured the downtown Queen’s Law Clinics, attended a reception for local lawyers and judges, and participated in a roundtable with graduate students.

He also took time to sit down with Queen’s Law Reports editor Lisa Graham to share his perspective as a judge serving on Canada’s top court, to discuss what comes next professionally, and to talk about his continuing involvement with his alma mater. 

QLR: How would you sum up the experience of serving on Canada’s top court?
 
Cromwell: Number one, it’s a huge responsibility. Any judging is a big responsibility, but the nature of the cases that come to the Supreme Court often engage the national interest on a pretty large scale, so you certainly feel that sense of responsibility heavily all the time. Second, it’s a tremendous honour. The chances of being appointed to the Supreme Court are probably worse than getting struck by lightning, so you feel very fortunate that you were given the chance to do the job. Third, it’s a great professional joy because you’re working on some very challenging legal questions with very, very excellent legal minds: colleagues, a wonderful assortment of bright young law clerks, and excellent counsel arguing their cases. 

QLR: What do you want your legacy to be? 

Cromwell: To be honest, I’m not somebody who thinks about a legacy as such. It seems to me that the judge’s responsibility is to judge justly according to law in every case, so I never approached my judicial work with a sense of making a particular contribution beyond that, but I think every judge hopes to be remembered as somebody who was diligent, worked hard, did his or her best to be impartial, really tried to find the principles in play in a case and, in some cases, tried to develop and apply those principles in a rigorous and a just way. If some people think that I managed to do that, I’ll be quite happy.

QLR: You also worked concurrently as chair of the National Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters. What becomes of that now?

Cromwell: I’m very excited to be continuing in that work. The Chief Justice (Beverley McLachlin) asked me to stay on as chair, so I’m going to do that with great enthusiasm, and it will be really tremendous to do that without the pressures of ‘the day job.’ I think almost everybody who’s involved in that initiative is very heavily committed professionally elsewhere, so I feel very lucky that I’ll have a little more time to devote to that work. 

QLR: What are your other plans for the future? 

Cromwell: I still have a quite lot of judicial work to finish up. Supreme Court members have up to six months to participate in matters that were heard before retirement; that will take me to the end of February – if I need all of that time. I’m hoping I’ll have concluded all the matters I’m involved in by late this year. After that, I hope to find a new professional home, but I can’t think too concretely about that, given that I’m still very involved in my judicial work.

QLR: What advice would you give law students and legal professionals interested in judicial careers?

Cromwell: Become the very best lawyer you can be, develop the highest reputation for not only professional competence but professional ethics, and take an interest in your community. I think increasingly the appointing authorities are not only interested in people’s legal capabilities, talent and work ethic, but also in their engagement with the community. After all, judging is a very human process and I think the judges who bring a lot of volunteer and other community-based experience to the bench thrive and make a big contribution. Don’t view it as your only career aspiration, because simple numbers will tell you that the odds of one of the 38,000 members of the Canadian Bar Association getting appointed to one of the 1,000 federally appointed judicial openings or the other judicial openings at the provincial court level statistically aren’t in your favour. So don’t pine after it, but prepare yourself in case the opportunity presents itself.

QLR: You’ve remained engaged with Queen’s Law, attending Homecoming and other alumni gatherings, as well as speaking at events for students and faculty. Why is such engagement important to you? 

Cromwell: It’s really important to be involved with the law school for at least a couple of reasons. One is you hope you can at least make a minor payment by instalment on all of what we were given as students at Queen’s. I think all of us are grateful for the time, effort and personal interest that our faculty and our fellow students devoted to us to help us become better lawyers. Also, in my case at least, it’s just a stimulating and enjoyable experience. I’ve been here a day and a half of my week back at the Faculty and I’m already just so impressed with the brightness of the students. I find it invigorating and very enjoyable, so it’s not selfless to make the time to spend with law students and faculty at Queen’s.  

QLR: Does a particular Queen’s Law experience stand out for you?

Cromwell: On the academic side, I remember a lot of very intense intellectual conversations with many faculty members outside of class. Doors were always open and professors seemingly were able to spend hours with us debating points. I remember one professor, who after a two-hour exchange on some point, looked at me and said, ‘Why do you expect me to be so perfect?’ Obviously I was a very demanding young lawyer at the time. 

Some practical experiences in clinical law were also highlights. I was lucky enough to be in the second class of what was then called the Correctional Law Project with Professor Ron Price. The first time I was ever in the office of the Chief Justice of Canada was with Professor Price in connection with a case he had before the Supreme Court. It never dawned on me when I was sitting there in awe of Chief Justice Bora Laskin and the surroundings that I would be working for Chief Justice Antonio Lamer in 20 years (as Executive Legal Officer), let alone I would be in the office next door as a member of the court 30 years later. History plays some funny tricks on us, but those kinds of experiences – going to court, being involved in test case litigation, seeing judges and lawyers in action – those are other highlights of my student time.

Read more about Justice Cromwell’s visit and watch a video of his lecture on Access to Justice.