Rob Lapper Q.C. | Board of Directors

Robert Lapper Q.C. is currently David and Dorothy Lam Chair in Law and Public Policy at the University of Victoria. He is a professor in both the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Human and Social Development (School of Public Administration) where he teaches and researches justice policy and legal professionalism issues. He is a senior public law lawyer with an extensive background in professional regulation and governance, aboriginal law, and negotiations with First Nations. A graduate of University of Victoria Faculty of Law, he spent several years in private practice. In 1994, he joined the Government of the Province of British Columbia as counsel to the newly created treaty negotiation process, and was appointed Senior Counsel, Aboriginal Law. He was subsequently appointed to senior executive positions in the Government of the Province including Assistant Deputy Attorney General – Legal Services, Deputy Minister of Intergovernmental Relations, Deputy Cabinet Secretary and Deputy Minister of Labour, Citizens Services and Open Government. Robert moved to Toronto in 2012 and took up the position as Chief Executive Officer of the Law Society of Upper Canada (Ontario). He moved back to British Columbia, in 2018. He serves as a member of the National Policy Committee of the Canadian Bar Association, as Chair of Governance for the Yellowstone to Yukon Wilderness Preservation Initiative, as Canadian director of the Commonwealth Lawyers’ Association and as a member of the Steering Committee for Access to Justice BC. He is a Director with Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, and serves as Co- Monitor of issues in Cameroon.