2025 Event Speaker
The Honourable James Turnbull
Former Judge of the Superior Court of Justice; President of Turnbull Resolutions Inc.
The Honourable James R. Turnbull, B.A., LLB., LLM, Q. Arb. was born and raised in Hamilton. He graduated from Westdale Secondary School and then obtained his B.A. from McMaster University. He obtained his LLB from Queen’s University. After being called to the Bar in 1973, he began practicing criminal and civil litigation in Hamilton. In 1978, he obtained his LLM from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. In 1987, he was the president of the Hamilton Law Association (HLA) and was recognized in 1989 as the second recipient of the HLA’s Emelius Irving award for outstanding service to the Association. He was honoured to speak at the Billy Graham Crusade in Hamilton on October 28, 1988.
In April 2005, he was appointed to the Superior Court of Justice where he presided over civil, family and criminal cases. From 2012 to 2016, he was the Regional Senior Judge of the Central South Region of the Superior Court of Justice. Upon his retirement from the bench in 2021, he began mediating and arbitrating cases to help litigants resolve their disputes out of the court system in as expeditious and inexpensive a manner as possible.
Jim has been involved with the LeaderImpact Group for forty years, which is an interdenominational men’s Christian ministry started by the former hockey star Paul Henderson. He has also been actively involved as one of the founders and board members of Joy and Hope of Haiti for over 35 years. It is an interdenominational Christian charitable organization dedicated to providing a transformational Christian education to over 5,000 children in Haiti.
Jim has been married to Joan for over 51 years and they have two children, Mark and Ann and are the proud grandparents to Georgia (5) and Remi (21 months).