January 25, 2010

Abbotsford local agent appointed QC

In December 2009, Allan Parker and Chris Maddock were both appointed QC. See the next issue of ELAN for a profile of Allan Parker, QC.

Abbotsford legal aid local agent Chris Maddock, QC, may have fallen into the practice of law, but his recent appointment as a Queen's Counsel was by no means a lucky turn of fate.

Chris has spent years as a proponent for a legal system that delivers justice to all, regardless of wealth, through his work as everything from a native community law office staff lawyer in Burns Lake, to a supervisor of the Law Foundation's Abbotsford farmworkers project.

Chris has also spent years as the face of legal aid in Abbotsford and Chilliwack, representing a high volume of criminal clients in the area.

"To be honest, the more I've focused on the legal aid side of things, the more I've been impressed with the quality of the other people who work with legal aid," he says.

"Personally, it's been the most rewarding work for me … because it's nothing to do with the business end of law. Most of the work that we do is for the group of people who are most in need of it. Access to justice is important and it's important to make sure that people with legal needs get as much help as possible."

Advocacy and representing clients in criminal court is a far cry from the University of Victoria student who had every intention of completing post-graduate studies in English — not law.

"The opportunity to go to law school came up and at the last minute, I decided to go for it and ended up studying law in New Brunswick," he recalls. After returning to Vancouver Island to complete his articling, Chris specialized in company and real estate law, and dabbled in some legal aid family work.

"In 1981 I was a sole practitioner in Duncan and I'd started doing a little bit of legal aid work when I received a phone call from Jim Quail (current executive director of the BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre) who was then at legal aid, and he asked if I would be interested in opening an Aboriginal law office in Burns Lake.

"Again, it wasn't something I planned on doing and when I got there, it was like landing on a different planet, because I was a naïve young Englishman with a law degree and not much experience, and I ended up in an Aboriginal community where many people who were over 50 were still speaking the Carrier language.

"In the early days there I often had grandchildren of the clients in the office to translate from Carrier into English. It was a very interesting experience."

In 1988, after a short stint at LSS in Prince George, Chris moved to Abbotsford and became the managing lawyer of the Legal Services Society office, where he was key in implementing a number of legal advocacy projects, including one of the first pilot projects in the province hiring staff lawyers to take on criminal and family cases.

"At the high point of that project we had seven staff lawyers. It was a great team of dedicated lawyers including Brian Juriloff, who is one of the most experienced criminal lawyers in Abbotsford, and Ken Skillnick who is now a provincial court judge."

When the office closed in 2002, Chris became a sole practitioner and applied for the local agent contract — partly to continue his work providing legal help to the whole community.

This led to his participation in the Poverty Law Advocacy Program in Abbotsford and Chilliwack, funded by the Law Foundation. There he supervises three legal advocates who give advice and information in areas of poverty law, including disability claims, tenancy, and welfare appeals. Chris says his colleagues, particularly Ellen Boyes, deserve most of the credit for the success of this project.

"The good thing about the local agent arrangement is that in my particular case I have located my office in with Abbotsford Community Services … which helps keep me more connected with projects in the community and the people who come to get help at Community Services," he explains.

"The legal aid office is co-located with other services that people come in needing help with (which) … allows us to be flexible in the services that we offer people. The local agent contract has become a vehicle to continue the work that the legal aid office has always done, and it's been very satisfying."

But it's not just his work with legal aid that Chris finds satisfying, rather his role in keeping justice accessible to everyone.

"One thing that has kept me going is the idea that in order to have a justice system we're proud of we need to give legal help to those who need it, not just those who can afford it."