When the University of Toronto Faculty of Law announced that a donation by Henry Jackman was the school’s largest gift ever, we got to wondering about which Canadian law schools have raked in the most cash from wealthy benefactors and how that cash got spent. Here, we account for $48.36 million worth of giving from the past five years.
Page turners
These two new gripping reads by Toronto lawyers tell extraordinary stories in familiar places.
Stray Bullets by Robert Rotenberg (Touchstone)
You can tell author Rotenberg practices criminal law in Toronto; he nails the characters in his third whodunnit. There’s the charming career crook Larkin St. Clair. The Mr. Perfect crown prosecutor Ralph Armitage. The best: dogged criminal lawyer Nancy Parish with her nine-year-old Honda and gift for picking up boy-toy waiters. These players plus a Tim Hortons parking lot shooting equals fiction that feels real.
28 Seconds: A True Story of Addiction, Injustice, and Tragedy by Michael Bryant (Viking Canada)
One might assume that Bryant would be the star of his tellall book about overcoming alcohol addiction and the bizarre events that lead to the death of a cyclist, which landed the former attorney general in jail in 2009. But the real star of the book is Marie Henein. Described by Bryant as the best barrister he’s ever met, the top-notch, no-nonsense defence lawyer shines in this behind-the-scenes look at what it took to get the charges dropped.
Photos: Legend begins, Don Erhardt. Hal Jackman, Justin Ladrillo