28 years ago today, on September 24, 2992, I was called to the Ontario bar.
I only learned this – well, the exact date – recently. After finding a ticket stub for a Call to the Bar Ceremony on February 7, 1992, I emailed the Law Society to find out whether I’d been called to the Bar on that date – which seemed wrong. My worry was I had become a lawyer on the date on which my mother would die 25 years later. In a very weird twist of fate, they responded to advise me that actually my call to the Ontario Bar was on the day my father would pass, 19 years later.
My becoming a lawyer that day in 1992 was a massive milestone. I had just survived a lethal carcrash, a divorce, a firing & more in the year before, all at 25. My parents, and especially my father, were incredibly proud. They immigrated to Canada in large part to give me a life that would be better than (then Communist) Hungary had to offer me.
And then, 9 years ago today, my father died. And I lost my loudest cheerleader.
Pics are then & now(ish). Missing it all.
My proud Mom and Dad & indeed, these days, the gowns.
Call to the Ontario Bar, Law Society of Upper Canada (as it then was) – photo outside 361 University Avenue Courthouse, Side-Entrance, with my Mom and Dad, September 24, 1992Outside Courtroom 10, Osgoode Hall, where Most our appeals are heard (Criminal Cases) – photo taken December 18, 2018
• Called to the Bar (1992)
• U of T Law grad (1990)
• Sole practitioner (33 years)
• Partner in small law firm (Hiltz Szigeti) 2002 - 2013
• Mom to two astonishing kids, Scarlett (20+) and Sebastian (20-)
• (Founding) Chair of Mental Health Legal Committee for ten years (1997 to 2007)
* Founding President of Law and Mental Disorder Association - LAMDA since 2017
* Founder and Secretary to Women in Canadian Criminal Defence - WiCCD - since 2022
• Counsel to clients with serious mental health issues before administrative tribunals and on appeals
• Former Chair, current member of LAO’s mental health law advisory committee
• Educator, lecturer, widely published author (including 5 text books on consent and capacity law, Canadian civil mental health law, the criminal law of mental disorder, a law school casebook and a massive Anthology on all things mental health and the law)
• Thirty+ years’ experience as counsel to almost exclusively legally aided clients
• Frequently appointed amicus curiae
• Fearless advocate
• Not entirely humourless
anitaszigeti 