James Cooper Morton

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)

The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for biographies. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted.
Find sources: "James Cooper Morton" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous.
Find sources: "James Cooper Morton" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

This article uses bare URLs, which are uninformative and vulnerable to link rot. Please consider converting them to full citations to ensure the article remains verifiable and maintains a consistent citation style. Several templates and tools are available to assist in formatting, such as reFill (documentation) and Citation bot (documentation). (September 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

(Learn how and when to remove this message)

James Cooper Morton, C.S., LL.M. (born 1969) was once a Canadian lawyer with political aspirations, teaching law part-time, blogging and writing in the legal and popular press. In June 2018, he was charged with two counts of forgery of court documents, uttering forged documents, attempting to obstruct justice, signing what purported to be an affidavit without authority, bigamy, and procuring a feigned marriage. The Law Society of Ontario suspended Mr. Morton from practicing law in August 2018 [1] and he pled guilty to criminal charges in April 2019.[2]

## Biography

[edit]

### Early life

[edit]

Morton was born in Painesville, Ohio, and raised near Hamilton, Ontario. He received a B.Sc. from the University of Western Ontario, an LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School and an LL.M. from University of Leicester. Morton graduated from Osgoode as Silver Medallist, clerked with the Chief Justice of Ontario, stood first in the Bar Admission Course, and practiced with the law firm with Tory Tory DesLauriers & Binnington.

### Career

[edit]

Mr. Morton was the principal at Morton Barristers when his legal career ended because of his criminal conduct. Prior to that he was a founding partner at Morton Karrass LLP, and a founding partner and head of the litigation group at Steinberg, Morton, Hope and Israel LLP. His practice focused on commercial, criminal and constitutional litigation. He took an active role in the field of legal education, lecturing in the area of evidence and advanced evidence at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University and Thomas M. Cooley Law School at Lansing, Michigan. Mr. Morton also taught Administration at the Law Clerks Institute, and has taught in the areas of Civil Litigation, Professional Responsibility, Bankruptcy and Business Law of the Bar Admission Course. Mr. Morton published 18 legal textbooks, was past President of the Ontario Bar Association and a regular media commentator. He was a certified specialist of the Law Society of Upper Canada in the area of Civil Litigation. In 2013, he received the Ontario Bar Association's Distinguished Service Award.[3]

### Politics

[edit]

Morton was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada and has served in positions at the riding and party levels. In 2011, he ran for office as the Federal Liberal candidate in 2011 in the Ontario riding of Oshawa. He is the former President of the Thornhill Federal Liberal Riding Association (TFLRA) and resigned the position of executive vice president of the riding on November 26, 2013, in order to contest the federal Liberal Party nomination.[4]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ http://canlii.ca/t/hvm3k
2. ^ "Prominent Ontario lawyer pleads guilty to bigamy, forging divorce documents | Globalnews.ca".
3. ^ "OBA Distinguished Service Award".
4. ^ Thornhill Federal Liberal Riding Association (TFLRA)[permanent dead link]

## External links

[edit]

* https://web.archive.org/web/20180821233431/http://mortonbarristers.ca/
* https://web.archive.org/web/20120521113506/http://www.smhilaw.com/lawyer_morton.htm
* http://jmortonmusings.blogspot.ca/
* https://www.thespec.com/news-story/9518656-ex-wife-of-hamilton-bigamist-says-her-life-has-been-ripped-apart-after-fake-divorce/
* https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-friday-edition-1.5198571/it-was-a-lie-says-law-clerk-who-married-her-boss-only-to-learn-he-faked-his-divorce-1.5226521

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data

Other|

* IdRef