Goderich's Donnelly leading national law federation after provincial stint
BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN
Later this year, Goderich’s Teresa Donnelly, the long-time Huron County prosecutor, will conclude her term as the president of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada after being appointed to the top national position last November.
Donnelly sat down with The Citizen in her Goderich home to reflect on her time in the position and working her way up through the provincial and national ranks, all the while serving in her capacity as a prosecutor in Huron County and beyond.
While she has been a prosecutor with the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General since 1994, it was over 20 years later that she first decided to wade into the waters of the Law Society of Ontario. In 2015, she was elected as a bencher with the society - a bencher, in law parlance, is a member of the society’s board of directors - and re-elected four years later. She says she moved into legal regulation because she cares deeply about the practice of law, the provision of legal services and the important role that lawyers and paralegals play in our society. A commitment to professionalism, collegiality, a diverse bar and independence of the legal professions, which is a hallmark of a free and democratic society, are at the heart of what she believes.
Then, from 2020 to 2022 she was elected as the treasurer of the society. Unlike the treasurers we’re familiar with in municipalities and service clubs - the folks who sign the cheques and keep the books - the treasurer of the law society is its leader for the term; its top elected official. She was, at the time, just the fifth woman to hold the position in 223 years.
As a result of her treasurer term, during which she took a leave of absence from her role as prosecutor, a portrait of Donnelly hangs in Toronto’s prestigious Osgoode Hall. The Osgoode Hall art collection dates back to 1846 and includes nearly 400 pieces, predominantly portraits of Law Society Treasurers and Chief Justices of Ontario. (It can be perused virtually at the Law Society of Ontario website at lso.ca or via the society’s app.)
Following her stint with the Law Society of Ontario, Donnelly was nominated to the Federation of Law Societies of Canada Council in 2022, representing Ontario. Then, in November of 2024, she became the president of the national federation, representing 14 provincial and territorial law societies (one for each province and territory and two in Quebec).
This work, Donnelly said, has been tremendously rewarding, taking her beyond the courtroom and the cases she has worked for nearly 35 years and putting her in front of regulations, best practices and the professional standards of the country’s lawyers and paralegals. Furthermore, at a time when lawyers are being undermined and encroached upon by increasingly controlling governments around the world, fighting for a lawyers’ role in the courtroom and the ability for a lawyer to operate as an independent professional in Canada is more important than ever.
It began with her time as treasurer in Ontario, during which time she focused on diversity, equity and inclusion within the field, as well as Indigenous reconciliation and mental health within the legal profession. She began as treasurer in June of 2020, so the mental health of those working in law was of paramount concern for the society during that time, as the world was just months into the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through that time, the society expanded its mental health resource outreach, including the creation of a mental health summit and online modules that have, since their creation, been viewed thousands of times. Donnelly has served as the co-chair alongside Beth Beattie, of the Law Society of Ontario’s Mental Health Summit for Legal Professionals since its inception five years ago. This year’s event attracted nearly 5,000 attendees.
She continues to be involved with improving the mental health of the legal profession through the federation and its National Study on the Psychological Health Determinants of Legal Professionals in Canada, the findings of which confirmed the high stress levels, burnout and psychological distress within the world of law. Donnelly says the federation’s research is the most comprehensive of its kind in the country.
She also said that the focus on mental health, a reckoning that occurred in many professions as the COVID-19 pandemic took its toll, has been truly rewarding for the profession. The realization that a lawyer or paralegal can’t help anyone if they’re not well is important, as is using the resources available to them if they need help.
Donnelly says she’s proud of the work that has been done in Ontario regarding inclusion, reiterating that the province’s body of lawyers should reflect its citizens and that Ontarians should have the freedom and ability to find a lawyer or paralegal who they think will best serve their needs, which is why diversity within the profession is so essential.
Reflecting on her 34-year career in law, Donnelly says that many of her most rewarding moments have come in the wake of domestic and sexual violence, in trying to provide access to justice to the victims of which are almost always women and children. Over 30 years as a criminal prosecutor, she has dealt with all types of criminal cases, from theft to murder, but quickly found her vocation in intimate partner violence and sexual assault prosecutions.
As a lawyer, she always wanted to help people and she found a career that enabled her to do so. All the victims and survivors she has dealt with, primarily women and children, have left an impact on her. She says they motivated her to seek justice for them; to amplify their voices so they could be heard in a justice system that can be hostile and suspicious of victims of sexual assault and intimate partner violence. From these people, mainly women and children, she learned compassion, empathy, courage and resilience.
For those who know their Huron County history, they’re aware that Donnelly is a third-generation lawyer in her family. Her grandfather, Frank Donnelly, defended Steven Truscott in his Supreme Court of Ontario trial in Goderich in the late 1950s and her father, Jim Donnelly, put together a career of nearly 70 years as a lawyer, judge, town councillor and prolific author. Jim and his wife Mary had 10 children, half of whom - all four boys and one of the six girls, Teresa - became lawyers, however, Teresa notes that unlike her grandfather, father and brother Mike, who were all defence lawyers, she is the only full-time prosecutor of her generation, as is her now-retired husband, Mike.
Jim passed away in 2022, just as Teresa was finishing her treasurer term with the society. He knew his daughter’s portrait would be prepared soon, which was no doubt a source of pride for him, though he didn’t live to see it hung.
And while that generation of Donnellys continues to serve in the courts, a fourth generation - a niece and nephew of Teresa’s - has now taken up the mantle.
As for Teresa’s in-court work, much of it has focused on domestic and sexual violence and, specifically, violence against women. She began work as a prosecutor in 1994 in the Kitchener and Waterloo areas before returning to her native Huron County in 2007. Shortly thereafter, in 2015, she was named the West Region Sexual Violence Crown as one of seven Ontario prosecutors focused on improving access to justice for victims and improving the quality of those prosecutions. She only stepped back from that position during her 2020-2022 leave of absence.
Before that, she was involved in the founding of the Family Violence Project in Waterloo Region, which provided wraparound services for victims of family violence. She moved on when she returned to Huron County, but the work of the project persists.
Teresa’s work continues, reaching beyond Canada’s borders. Last April, she was asked to be one of four lawyers, along with a psychologist, to travel to Kenya to work with lawyers there as part of Fiona Sampson’s The Equality Effect and its 160 Girls Project, which is, “a unique legal initiative that challenges impunity for child rape. Born from a landmark Constitutional claim involving 160 rape victims (three to 17 years old), it drives systemic change by ensuring the law protects every girl from rape, consistent with the 160 Girls High Court decision,” in Kenya, according to The Equality Effect’s website.
Travelling to Kenya and working with prosecutors on the ground there, knowing that the work will make a difference in the lives of so many, Teresa said, was incredibly fulfilling and the professional experience of a lifetime.
For Teresa, the greatest reward of being a lawyer has been learning from the people she’s served.