The Honourable Ritu Khullar was appointed to the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta in 2017 and was elevated to the Courts of Appeal of Alberta, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut in 2018.
From 1998 until her appointment to the judiciary, she practised with Chivers Greckol & Kanee (now Chivers Carpenter Lawyers), where she focused on labour and employment, privacy, administrative, human rights, and constitutional law, and served as managing partner for eight years. She appeared before numerous administrative tribunals and every level of court in Canada including the Supreme Court of Canada.
Throughout her legal career, Chief Justice Khullar lectured at the University of Alberta and served on numerous committees of the Canadian Bar Association. She was also a member of the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for the province of Alberta in 2003, and more recently, she was the Chair of the Government of Alberta’s Advisory Panel on Coal Communities. She also acted pro bono in significant cases, including representing Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) before the Supreme Court of Canada.
Chief Justice Khullar has been active on a number of court committees and has continued to show her commitment to ongoing education through her work with the National Judicial Institute, the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice, and the Legal Education Society of Alberta, as well as speaking to a variety of audiences.
Chief Justice Khullar earned a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Alberta and a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B. – Honours) from the University of Toronto. She clerked at the Alberta Court of Appeal and the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench before going into private practice.
Chief Justice Khullar was born in Fort Vermilion, Alberta, to parents who had immigrated from India. She spent her childhood in the small town of Morinville, Alberta. She and her spouse, Robert, have two adult sons, and one dog.