NEW JUDGE SWORN-IN ......

The Honourable Justice Pierre Léon Muise was sworn in at a ceremony in the Yarmouth courthouse on September 16th.

The ceremony was web-cast live on this website. Video of the swearing-in ceremony will be available soon.

Justice Muise was appointed to the Supreme Court on Friday, August 6^th by the federal Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, the Honourable Rob Nicholson, P.C., Q.C., M.P. for Niagara Falls.

Justice Muise became the Province’s first Metis Judge when he was appointed to the Provincial Court in June of last year. He is fluently bilingual and is able to conduct trials in both English and French.

He came to the Bench from the Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service where he was a Crown Attorney from 2001 to 2009. He was also an associate with the law firm of Pink, Macdonald, Harding from 1998 to 2001, a lawyer with Nova Scotia Legal Aid Commission from 1997 to 1998, and an associate with the law firm of Patterson, Palmer, Hunt, Murphy in Truro from 1996 to 1997. His main area of practice was criminal law.

Justice Muise earned his law degree from Dalhousie University in 1995. He was admitted to the Nova Scotia Bar in 1996.

While a member of the Bar, Justice Muise had been Secretary and Director of the Yarmouth County Barristers’ Society as well as its President. He was also a member of the Diversity and Equity Committee of the Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service and of the Restorative Justice Regional Committee as well as a French-language training coordinator and liaison with the Association des juristes d’expression française de la Nouvelle-Écosse.

He has been a Judge of the Provincial Court in southwestern Nova Scotia since June of 2009.

Justice Muise replaces former Supreme Court Justice David P.S. Farrar who was appointed to the Court of Appeal in February of this year.

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The Honourable Patrick J. Murray was sworn in at a ceremony in the Sydney courthouse on Friday, September 10th. He was appointed, along with Justice Muise on August 6th by the federal Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, the Honourable Rob Nicholson.

Justice Murray attended the University of New Brunswick until 1978, majoring in Economics and Political Science. He earned his Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree from Dalhousie University in 1981. He was admitted to the Nova Scotia Bar in 1981 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1999.

Justice Murray began his legal career at the Dalhousie Legal Aid Clinic in 1981 and then at the law firm of Gillis & Murray from 1981 to 1983. He has also practiced with the law firm of Boudreau, Beaton, LaFosse, with Stewart, McKeen and Covert and with Stewart, McKelvey, Stirling, Scales. He had been with Murray, Gouthro, Wall, in Sydney since 2002. His main areas of practice included general litigation, real estate, corporate/commercial, wills and estates, labour and employment law.

Justice Murray has been a past president of the Cape Breton Bar. He was a member of the Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Barristers’ Society since 1981 and a member of the Canadian Bar Association since 2006. He was appointed to the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society Discipline Hearing Committee in 2006 and to the Barristers’ Society Advisory Committee on Queen’s Counsel Appointments in 2008. Justice Murray has also been a director of the Nova Scotia Legal Aid Commission for almost two decades and most recently he served as its Budget Committee Chair.

Justice Murray sits in Sydney, replacing Justice Frank E. Edwards, who elected to become a supernumerary Judge as of April, 2010.