Retired Imperial Oil legal chief honoured

WILLIAM HARTNETT

GEOFFREY MORGAN CALGARY • Anyone who has benefited from legal aid or pro-bono work in Ontario or Alberta has, in an indirect way, William Hartnett to thank.

Hartnett, who retired as vice-president and general counsel of Imperial Oil Ltd. at the beginning of this year, has been instrumental in improving access to legal help in both provinces and has had an impact across the country through other contributions.

In the mid-1980s, he chaired an inquiry into legal aid in Ontario, which considered problems affecting public access to justice in the province. He was also a founder and managing committee member of the Volunteer Lawyers Service in Alberta — now part of Pro Bono Alberta.

Nationally, Hartnett has also made big contributions to modernizing the country’s civil justice system as he was a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Canadian Bar Association Systems of Justice Task Force.

In addition to helping Canadians access legal help, Hartnett’s long career as counsel with Imperial Oil and its subsidiaries, and his influence among energy sector lawyers, has earned him the Western Canadian General Counsel Association’s lifetime achievement award this year.

The award will be presented next month at a gala in Calgary. The Financial Post is a sponsor of the awards.

Hartnett joined Imperial in 1980 after two years of private practice and has worked as counsel for the company and its subsidiaries on regulatory files, in litigation and acquisitions and divestitures.

By the end of his career, he was overseeing a team of 20 along with 14 support staff across the country providing legal advice and services to Imperial and parent company Exxon Mobil affiliates.

Hartnett and his team provided legal oversight as Imperial sold off its network of Esso-branded retail gasoline stations for $2.8-billion last year, and when Imperial spent $3.1-billion to acquire Celtic Explorations Ltd. in 2013.

He also oversaw the resolution of roughly $2.4 billion in claims by contractors on the $22-billion Kearl oilsands project.

In the 1990s, he also served as president of the Association of General Counsel of Alberta and was a director for the Canadian Petroleum Law Foundation.

“Bill’s record of contributions to the profession is outstanding,” litigation and dispute resolution lawyer Jack Marshal said in documents supporting Hartnett’s nomination for the award.

“I can think of no one more deserving of receiving this recognition than Bill.”

The lifetime achievement will add to Hartnett’s long list of previous honours.

He won the Canadian Bar Association’s Distinguished Service Award in 1990, the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association’s Robert V.A. Jones Award in 1992 and the ADR Institute of Canada’s Lionel J. McGowan Award in 2001.

Hartnett is a director of the ADR Institute of Canada — he was the president of a predecessor organization called the Canadian Foundation for Dispute Resolution — and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution.