Chief Justice
Crédit: Balfour
Paul Crampton was appointed Chief Justice of the Federal Court on December 15, 2011. He was appointed to the Federal Court on November 26, 2009 and to the Competition Tribunal on March 18, 2010. From 2004 to 2009, he was a partner in the Competition and Foreign Investment Law Group at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, Toronto. In 2006, he was included in Lexpert’s Guide to the 100 Most Creative Lawyers in Canada. In 2002 he was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal. Between 2002 and 2004, he was Head of Outreach, in the Competition Division of the OECD. In that capacity, he was responsible for overseeing the OECD’s work in the competition field with developing and transitioning countries.
In 1998, he was ranked by the Global Competition Review among the top ten competition law lawyers worldwide under 45. From 1992 to 2002, he was a partner in the Competition and Foreign Investment Law Group at Davies, Ward, Phillips and Vineberg LLP. He also is the author of Mergers and the Competition Act, a leading text on the merger provisions of the Competition Act, and of numerous articles published in domestic and international journals. In addition, he was a co-author of APEC’s Principles to Enhance Competition and Regulatory Reform, which were issued in 2000.
Between 1987 and 1991, he held various positions within the Competition Bureau, including Special Advisor to the Commissioner of Competition (formerly the Director of Investigation and Research). In that capacity, his duties included advising on a broad range of cases and policy matters and being the principal drafter of the Bureau's 1991 Merger Enforcement Guidelines. He coordinated the Competition Law course in York University's LL.M Programme in International Trade and Competition law (1997-1998), and was the principal lecturer of competition law courses at University of Ottawa Law School (1988-1990), and University of Toronto Law School (1992).