Neil McKelvey

After he returned to Canada, McKelvey attended Dalhousie Law School in Halifax, graduating with a degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1949. He was called to the Bar of New Brunswick in the same year, and began practising with the firm of Porter, Ritchie & Riley.[6]

In 1955, McKelvey founded the firm of McKelvey Macaulay Machum.[2] That firm later merged with several other firms in the Atlantic provinces in 1990 to become Stewart McKelvey Stirling Scales, now known simply as Stewart McKelvey, the largest regional firm in Atlantic Canada. McKelvey continued on in the new firm as senior partner and counsel.[5]

McKelvey eventually served as a director on several corporate boards, including NB Power and Bell Canada/BCE Inc.[7]

McKelvey was recognised as a top litigator in New Brunswick, throwing himself into his court cases. He appeared more than twenty times in the Supreme Court of Canada. His last Supreme Court case, in 1990, was taken on a pro bono basis on behalf of a woman who lost the sight in one eye following a cataract surgery. McKelvey successfully argued that the evidence led at trial was sufficient to prove a legal claim of negligence. The decision remains a leading case on the burden of proof of causation in malpractice cases.[2][8]

As a lawyer in the Maritimes, McKelvey appeared several times in cases involving shipping issues, such as an inquiry under the Canadian Shipping Act into the 1957 collision between the Saint John harbour boat and the freighter Fort Avalon. He also represented the Canadian Coast Guard before a Royal Commission inquiring into the grounding of an oil tanker, Arrow, in Chedabucto Bay, Nova Scotia, in 1970. The grounding resulted in the spill of 108,000 barrels of oil, leading to questions about the way the Coast Guard had responded to the environmental hazard. For many years, he was also counsel for the owners of the Irving Whale, an oil carrying barge that sank in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1970 and posed a potential environmental hazard.[2]

In the early 1960s, McKelvey faced a decision about his career path, when his name was mentioned for a possible appointment to the New Brunswick Court of Queen's Bench. McKelvey turned down the appointment, preferring to remain a litigator. Years later, he explained his decision: “I had to choose whether I wanted to be a judge or to remain a lawyer; I concluded that the secluded life of the bench, listening to lawyers argue cases and then having to prepare a decision, was not for me.”[9]

In 1969, McKelvey served as President of the Saint John Law Society, the local organization for lawyers in Saint John.

McKelvey was involved in the Canadian Bar Association both provincially and nationally. In 1962, he was the president of the New Brunswick Branch of the CBA.[10] A decade later, he serve as the national president of the Canadian Bar Association in 1973-1974.[1] During his time in office, the CBA produced a model code of professional conduct. McKelvey was a strong believer in the value of solid ethics for lawyers, and toured the country to promote the new code.

He was a strong advocate for the role of lawyers in society: “Lawyers are the lubricants of society. Just as lubricants keep a machine functioning, lawyers minimize the frictions in society to keep it functioning.”[2]

McKelvey served as president of the International Bar Association in 1979-1980, the first Canadian to hold that post.[3] The IBA is one of the leading international associations of lawyers and law societies. When he took the position, the IBA's finances were in a poor shape, but by the time he left, it was on a sound financial footing. One of his major concerns while with the IBA was defending the independence of the legal profession. He stated that lawyers must have the “… courage to disregard influences of third parties whose interests may differ from the client, even though those third parties may be in a position to bring strong pressure to bear, financial or otherwise, on the lawyer.”[2]

McKelvey was a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the American Bar Association, the ADR Atlantic Institute, the American Arbitration Association and ADR Chambers Canada.[6]