The late Brendan O’Brien was a distinguished lawyer whose years of practice focused mainly on civil litigation. His career spanned six decades, beginning with his graduation from Osgoode Hall (1932). Mr. O’Brien began as a junior with the firm of Phelan and Richardson, rising to become a Senior partner before the firm’s merger with Aylesworth Thompson (1986). He was a professor at Osgoode Law School for several years during the 1950s and in the Bar Admission Course until 1959. Mr. O’Brien was elected a Bencher of the Law Society (1959) and Treasurer (1966). During his term he contributed to outlining a plan that would eventually serve as the basis for the Law Foundation of Ontario.
In 2005, he was awarded The Law Society of Upper Canada’s highest honour, the Law Society Medal. On that occasion one of his nominators said: “over the past seventy-two years, Brendan O’Brien has made immense contributions to the legal profession.”
In 1979 Brendan O’Brien became the first president of the Osgoode Society.
Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History Books
Speedy Justice: The Tragic Last Voyage Of His Majesty’s Vessel Speedy (Toronto: Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 1992), pp. 167.
