Law Society names new CEO

Robert Lapper becomes CEO of the LSUC
Robert Lapper becomes CEO of the LSUC

The Law Society of Upper Canada on Thursday announced the appointment of Robert Lapper as its new CEO, effective February 2012.

 Lapper is currently British Columbia’s deputy minister of labour, a post he’s held since 2009. From 2007 to 2009, he was a deputy cabinet secretary and associate deputy minister of cabinet operations and intergovernmental relations. Prior to that Lapper was B.C.’s assistant deputy attorney general in the Legal Services Branch, where he oversaw an organizational and service transformation, according to a LSUC news release.

Lapper received a Queen’s Counsel appointment in December 2002. He clerked with the British Columbia Supreme Court and practised law as an associate and later partner in a firm in Sidney, B.C. for 10 years. Aboriginal law was Lapper’s area of expertise and he spent years representing the B.C. government on aboriginal issues and in treaty negotiations.

He serves on the board of Our Place Society, a service provider for the homeless and street-involved community in Victoria.

Lapper is a member of the alumni association of the University of Victoria. He graduated from UVic with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1978 and received his LLB from the university in 1981. He also sits on the B.C. branch of the Professional Development Committee of the Canadian Bar Association.