Law professor at University of Manitoba on FCA, Osler lawyer on Federal Court
Minister of Justice and Attorney General David Lametti has announced the appointments of Dr. Gerald Heckman as judge of the Federal Court of Appeal and John C. Cotter as an associate judge of the Federal Court.
Heckman is a professor at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law in Winnipeg, where he has taught administrative law, constitutional law and language rights since 2006. He also served as co-director of the Concentration in Access to Justice in French.
Heckman served as a law clerk at the Federal Court of Canada before practising labour, employment, and human rights law at a national firm. He served on the boards of several national organizations, including the Council of Canadian Administrative Tribunals and the Canadian Association of Law Teachers. He graduated from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law in 1995 and was admitted to the Ontario bar in 1998. He also holds a doctorate in law from York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School. He will replace Justice W.W. Webb as the Federal Court of Appeal judge.
Cotter is a partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Toronto. He started his practice with the firm as an associate lawyer after he was admitted to the Ontario bar in 1998. He also served as chair of the firm’s intellectual property department for four years. He began his career as a general litigator, focusing on intellectual property disputes.
Cotter was actively involved in the National Intellectual Property Section of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA-IP Section) and the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada. He served as chair of the CBA-IP Section’s Professional Development Committee and on the Section Executive. He regularly spoke and wrote on intellectual property topics, including co-authoring chapters for copyright and trademark-related texts.
Lametti congratulated Heckman and Cotter on their appointments and expressed his confidence that they would serve Canadians well as new members of the court.
