Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Lamek, a former treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada, died at home on Aug. 29. 2001 He was 64.

Colleagues and friends remember Lamek as a respected, warm, humorous, generous man with a keen legal mind. He is further described as a raconteur, a "lover of the fine things in life," as well as an exceptional practitioner of law.

"In terms of his contribution to the law, he did everything," said John C. Murray, who, as chair of Genest Murray in the 1980s, discussed poetry with Lamek on the day he tried to lure the litigator to his firm.

"Apart from having a wonderful education, which served him well and fired up his enthusiasm for learning in and out of law, [Lamek] practised law, he became learned counsel, he was treasurer of the law society, and he became a judge. There isn't really much more in the practice of law that an individual can do."

Lamek came to Canada after obtaining his law degree in 1960 from Oxford University. After completing his studies, he taught at the University of Pennsylvania for two years and then at the Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto from 1962 to 1967.

His teaching experience made him a natural mentor for his students and juniors working with him at the two firms where he practised. He was at Fraser Beatty Tucker McIntosh & Stewart from 1967 to 1989, and then joined Genest Murray DesBrisay Lamek.

"I always thought he had an outstanding legal mind," said Gavin MacKenzie, the chair of the law society's professional regulation committee, who practised with Lamek at Genest Murray. Lamek was the chair of the law society's discipline committee when MacKenzie came to the law society as senior discipline counsel in 1990.

"You could always rely on the soundness of his legal analysis and his judgment was almost always reliable," said MacKenzie. "Both those attributes made him an especially effective sounding-board for anybody who had a problem in litigation practice. You'd always come out of a discussion with him much, much wiser than you went into it."

Lamek joined Genest Murray after his work as a lawyer for the Grange commission, which cleared Toronto nurse Susan Nelles of responsibility for 36 baby deaths at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. Lamek was also counsel to Horace Krever in the 1990s, during the inquiry into the hepatitis C, tainted-blood scandal.

A top-notch litigator, Lamek graced his colleagues with an understated sense of humour. "He recognized that in the matter of advocacy, it was necessary to, at times, get the attention of the court," said Angus McKinnon, a friend of Lamek's. "I recall him opening an argument in a case, quoting from the Beatles."

Lamek had a flair for the theatric. He performed not only in the courtroom, but also in the annual revue of Arts and Letters Club. His love of the arts was broad-ranging: He loved a piano concerto by Mozart as much as he liked Smokey Robinson & The Miracles' hit tune, "I Heard it Through the Grapevine."

Lamek's creative, artistic flair — combined with his ability to show dignity and respect for the traditions of the law — illustrated his "complicated" personality, said MacKenzie.

In 1993, Lamek won a three-way vote for treasurer of the law society by one vote. He held the position for two mandates.

"I think his legacy, both in his professional life as a civil litigator and in his professional contribution here as a bencher and treasurer of the law society, was that he practised law as an honourable gentleman," said current law society treasurer Vern Krishna. "I think his legacy to the profession is as a role model as to how it should be done and can be done - particularly in this day and age where we hear so much about discourtesy, and offensive language, and impoliteness in the courts.

"Paul was the other extreme from all of that. It would be unimaginable for him to have ever been discourteous to counsel or to the court."

Lamek brought his courtesy and civility with him to the bench in 1999, said his fellow Superior Court Justice James Spence.

"His constant adherence to the standards of excellence in all aspects of the law" will be Lamek's enduring legacy, Spence said. "He was fair-minded, dedicated, conscientious, and decisive. His style was always courteous, elegant, articulate, and good-humoured."

This article was submitted by Peter Barton a starter from 1951 Peter adds:- One of the few ex BGS pupils who ended up as I did in Canada was Paul Lamek. He died in August last year after a distinguished career this side of the Pond. To help you recall who he was you could glance at the 1955 whole school photo where he is 3rd row up, 4th from the left on Part 2. Lamek was Deputy Head Boy and one of the intellectual lights in his time at the school. He would have been a starter from 1948.

"Ahmal" - as we first knew him, before he changed his name, and I never really understood why he did that – was one of the older fellows to whom we looked up. He was a role model before the term gained currency, our very own Peter Ustinov character, very civilised and urbane. He had an enormous talent to entertain, so much that I regret he became a lawyer. He could have entertained the world with such sparkling wit. I had spotted him on the school panorama, two seats away from Trevor Richardson, the virtuoso pianist/organist. Trevor, I last heard, was vicar of a parish in Camden (close to Euston). It was about 15 years ago.

At Oxford, Paul Lamek and Trevor Richardson had a very good cabaret act. If they had taken it to the Edinburgh fringe, they’d have beaten the Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Johnathan Miller, Alan Bennet team to the satire boom.