Page 99 - ACTL Journal Win24

didn’t get either. John and his team were able to achieve a sizeable settlement. The plaintiff went on to develop sophisticated sport wheelchairs for paraplegics, invent- ing a patented articulating frame.
Brock’s practice took a different route – he mostly handles red-blooded criminal de- fense matters, with a little bit of prosecution work. He has also worked on several public inquiries, which tend to swallow a lawyer whole for about three years each. (Public inquiries are employed in Canada to allow for an independent review of an intractable problem or serious incident; they are usually led by a judge, with lawyers leading evidence much as they would in a trial.) He purposely didn’t opt for medical malpractice defense as he didn’t want to spend the next twenty or thirty years operating in his dad’s shad- ow. Brock stumbled sideways into criminal law when he realized he liked the gritty cases and people, and the legal issues. His practice is centered in Vancouver, British Columbia.
One of Brock’s most memorable cases to
date was his work as defense counsel in the “Surrey Six” murder case. In 2007, six people were executed in a gang hit at an apartment in a Vancouver suburb. One of the victims was involved in the illegal drug trade and
had been using the condo as a drug stash house. It was alleged that he failed to pay a “tax” to the Red Scorpion gang and that was the motivation for his murder. But two innocent people were also killed: one had been servicing fireplaces in the condo complex at the time of the murders, and the other lived in a suite across from the condo where the others were killed. With six deaths in a residential apartment, the case was shocking and had some local notoriety.
The trial was like a movie script — with no end of twists and turns and surprising new developments. Even though the suspects were arrested in 2009, the appeals process concluded only in 2023 with a decision from the Supreme Court of Canada. What also made it memorable was the amazing group of lawyers involved on both sides, and the skillful management of the case by a highly regarded trial judge (British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge). There was one astounding multiple-murderer witness whose testimony was like watching Academy Award Best Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman in his finest role.
But Brock’s most gratifying work has been his involvement in three public inquiries. These forced him to step outside of his usual work, to try to get at the heart of a great big question and recommend changes to the govern- ment. One involved a homeless First Nations man who died after being in police custody; the second involved the fate of the Fraser River sockeye salmon, and the third involved money laundering. All three resulted in reports recommending fundamental changes and reforms to the system.
John says Brock’s greatest strength is his intellectual ability, and suggests that the real brains skipped his own generation, resulting in Brock’s having his grandfather’s intellect. He says Brock is a very sound and capable lawyer.
Brock puts it the other way around, and suggests the real brains ended in John’s generation: “I feel incredibly close to Dad, and now see things through different eyes as I’m both a dad and a lawyer. And those two don’t always go together without one of them suffering.” The quality of John’s that stands out to Brock is his humanity — the open-mindedness, the em- pathy, and the ability to read someone and figure out what matters to them.
It is readily apparent that the intellectual abilities and the humanity didn’t skip any generations here. We can only hope that one or both of Brock’s two children will choose to follow father and grandfather into this noble profes- sion and give the Canadian system a fourth generation of quality lawyering.
Carey Matovich Billings, MT
WINTER 2024 JOURNAL 98
Brock has inherited his father’s musical abilities as well as his legal acu- men. When he has free time he reaches for a guitar or plays drums. He admits he has brain-washed his kids, now thirteen and sixteen, with 1960s rock and roll. Few normal teenagers can identify if the singer is Paul, John, George or Ringo.