The Honourable Judge Paul M. Dohm.

The scion of a family of judges, Paul Michael Dohm was sworn into the office of Provincial Court judge in the chambers of the Honourable Chief Judge Hugh C. Stansfield on December 2, 2005. All who know him have confidence that his translation from bar to bench will be seamless.

Born on February 3, 1963, Paul Dohm is the third of the seven children of the Honourable Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm and his wife Barbara. Paul was raised in Kamloops, attending Kamloops Senior Secondary until the summer of 1980, when the family moved to Vancouver upon his father's induction to the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Consequent upon the move, Paul finished his high school education at Prince of Wales Senior Secondary and then attended UBC, where he obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree in the spring of 1989. After articling with Robertson Peck Thompson, he spent a year as legal counsel at the Industrial Relations Council and then 15 months as an associate at Siddal & Cashman in Vancouver. In October 1993, he joined the provincial Crown counsel office, working initially in the Fraser Region, and then, between April 1997 and October 2001, in the Crown counsel office, Nelson, B.C., where he rose to the position of administrative Crown counsel. In the fall of 2001, he returned to Vancouver and worked at the Crown counsel office until his appointment. Paul now resides in Vancouver with his wife, Susan, and their two children, Harlan and Justin.

The Dohm family has a unique relationship with the legal profession in the province, reaching back well over a half century. Paul's uncle, Thomas A. Dohm, Q.C., worked in the Office of the City Prosecutor from 1942 through 1947 and was a deputy police magistrate (under the legendary Gordon W. Scott) from 1954 to 1956, after which he was appointed to the B.C. Supreme Court, where he sat until 1972. Patrick Dohm practised in Kamloops from May 1962 to October 1972, when he was appointed to the County Court of Yale and became the resident judge in Kamloops until his move to the B.C. Supreme Court in May 1980. Paul's cousin, the Honourable Judge Thomas (Tony) Dohm, graduated from UBC Faculty of Law in 1974, spent his practising years at the Department of Justice in Vancouver, and now sits on the Provincial Court bench in Kamloops. With Paul's appointment, the Dohm family has now contributed four of its members to serve on the bench.

Our new judge's persona is an amalgam of the qualities of courtesy, patience, industriousness, intelligence and civility. Let it also be noted that his intellect is leavened with a salutary infusion of common sense. These qualities bespeak the very essence of a sound judge, who, it is anticipated, will serve the legal profession in the province well for many years to come.