The Queen’s Law community is remembering Professor Nancy McCormack – a lauded and beloved teacher, mentor, writer and librarian – who passed away on July 17 following a period of illness. She was 56.

“Nancy served with great distinction since joining the Faculty in 2002, including five years as Head Law Librarian,” says Dean Mark Walters, Law’89. “Nancy will be missed as a caring and thoughtful teacher, scholar, and colleague, someone valued for her love of legal learning, for her sense of pragmatic wisdom, and of course for her generous spirit and wonderful sense of humour. She was a treasured member of our community.”

As part of her faculty role, she taught Torts and Advanced Legal Research for JD students and Legal Research and Writing for graduate students. It was in 2018-19 that she taught Torts, for the first time, to half the first-year class.  

“Professor McCormack had a wonderful teaching style and made Torts the most amazing and enjoyable class,” says Diana McBey, Law’21. “She made us laugh and had a really organized way of teaching the material. She went out of her way to make sure that every single one of us not only knew the material but also truly understood it.

“She was also an amazing mentor,” continues McBey. “I was always able to go to her if I needed good advice. She was always so approachable and checked in with all her students whenever and wherever she saw us. She cared about each one of us and made sure we knew she would be there for us, should we ever need to talk.”

Darian Doblej, Law’21, shares those sentiments. “Professor McCormack, ‘Nancy,’ as she told us to call her, was defined by our year as being dedicated to students’ lives. Her exceptional skills as a professor and ability to clue in on students’ feelings and anxieties made her an all-around amazing person to have in a central place of the law school – our library – and her door was always open to us. For those that took her up on her offer to come visit her in her office, she imparted skills and thoughts necessary for student success: whether it be personal advice, research how-tos, statutory interpretation tips, editing your writing for outside-of-school stuff, and more. 
 
“Nancy stood out as a professor, mentor and friend for many reasons: her kind spirit and demeanour, openness, curiosity into Indigenous laws and culture, and ability to call you out when you're wrong, to name a few,” Doblej adds. “She could be counted on to step up and ask what her part could be.”

McCormack held five degrees (BA, MA, MLIS, JD and LLM)  and co-authored numerous books, including the Annotated Federal Interpretation Act, The Practical Guide to Canadian Legal Research, Introduction to the Law and Legal System of Canada, and Updating Statutes and Regulations for all Canadian Jurisdictions. She published widely on the subjects of legal research, Canadian legislation, statutory interpretation and law librarianship. In recent months, she was completing her work as the sole editor and compiler of the 5th edition of The Dictionary of Canadian Law (Thomson Reuters), a Herculean task at approximately 1,400 pages and 31,000 entries.

“Nancy was particularly interested in parliamentary and political law,” says Gregory Tardi, executive editor of the Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law. “Her contributions to the work of the Institute of Parliamentary and Political Law and to the Journal were considerable. In fact, the next issue of the Journal will include a book review that she has written. It is possible that this is the last text she has prepared during her life. Nancy’s work will definitely outlive her: the next edition of The Dictionary of Canadian Law, to be published in a few months, is one of her major accomplishments!”  

McCormack was the keynote speaker at Canada’s New Law Librarians’ Institute, and spoke nationally and internationally on both academic and library-related issues. She served as Associate Editor of the Canadian Law Library Review published by the Canadian Association of Law Libraries. She was awarded the Denis Marshall Memorial Award for Excellence in Law Librarianship in 2014 and the Michael Silverstein Prize, in 2018, for enhancing the understanding, analysis and appreciation of primary law.

When current Law Librarian Amy Kaufman, Law’04, was a student, she recalls, “Like many students, I got to know Nancy as a librarian who was friendly, smart, helpful and funny. She was a wonderful mentor who got me interested in legal research and law librarianship as a career, guiding me toward a profession I love.  

“But Nancy’s legacy goes beyond her considerable contributions to the Queen’s community,” continues Kaufman. “Held in high esteem by her colleagues across the country, she was awarded the Denis Marshall Memorial Award, one of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries’ highest honours.”

For Leslie Taylor, Reference/Technical Services Librarian, McCormack “made a huge impact” by mentoring her as a student when she was unsure of what direction to take her career. “Nancy encouraged me to cultivate my interest in legal research and to consider a career in law librarianship,” she says. “After I graduated from library school, I was hired as a law librarian at the Lederman Law Library and Nancy became my mentor once again! She taught me many things about legal research and about being a good librarian right up until the end.”    

“Nancy left an indelible mark on the students she engaged with and on Queen’s Law,” says her first-year student, Darian Doblej. “Her work and legacy will live on in us soon-to-be lawyers.” 

Please send condolences to Alumni Relations Officer Dianne Butler and they will be conveyed to Nancy McCormack's family.