Claude R. Thomson

Claude R. Thomson QC (September 30, 1933 – November 24, 2010) was a Canadian lawyer in Toronto, Ontario.

He was a well-known courtroom lawyer, and also a pioneer of alternative dispute resolution in Canada, including mediation and arbitration.

He won the Canadian University Debating Championship, arguing that communist China should be admitted to the United Nations.

The reputation will help to attract clients, allow one to engage in productive and efficient dealings with other members of the profession, and perhaps most importantly, will help to pry open the sense of justice in the most closed minded judge.

[4] Thomson spent most of his legal career as a general litigator and partner with the law firm Fasken Martineau in Toronto, developing a reputation as an intense courtroom lawyer with formidable tactical skills, and acted for parties in a large number of high-profile cases.

The federal government appointed a royal commission of inquiry, chaired by Justice McDonald, to investigate the allegations and to make recommendations.

Thomson acted for one of the nurses who came under suspicion, vigorously defending her and chastising the commissioner, Justice Samuel Grange, for putting her under trial in the court of public opinion.

Eventually, the two newspapers were prosecuted under the federal Combines Investigation Act offences governing mergers and monopolistic conduct.

Two notable cases were interventions on behalf of interested parties in Borowski v Canada, dealing with the abortion issue,[8] and in Reference re Bill 30, which considered the constitutional guarantee for separate schools in Ontario.

He developed a practice in combined mediation and arbitration and spoke frequently on methods and processes for alternative dispute resolution.

[10] After leaving Fasken Martineau late in his career, Thomson joined ADR Chambers in Toronto, which provides mediation, arbitration and other dispute resolution services.

On accepting the award, he called on lawyers to oppose nuclear arms, saying: "Such weapons are illegal because they have the potential to destroy us all.

On one fishing trip off the Queen Charlotte Islands with Bryan Williams, another former CBA president, Thomson had a strike from a salmon.

Although Williams encouraged him to let it go, Thomson persevered and after an epic struggle that lasted an hour, he landed the salmon, which weighed thirty-nine pounds.