The Honourable James O’Reilly is a widely respected member of Canada’s legal community. He was appointed a judge of the Federal Court in 2002 and of the Court Martial Appeal Court in 2003.
After being called to the Ontario Bar in 1985, Mr. O’Reilly had a varied legal career. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he served as Consultant to the Law Reform Commission of Canada (now the Law Commission of Canada), Legal Advisor in the Department of Justice Canada, sole practitioner specializing in legal policy and law reform, and Executive Legal Officer at the Supreme Court of Canada. In 2002, he became Associate Executive Director at the National Judicial Institute and Counsel to the Collusion Investigation in London, United Kingdom.
Mr. O’Reilly is the author of many reports and publications and has taught law at Carleton University, the University of Ottawa, McGill University, Western University, and the Law Society of Upper Canada. He served as Co-Chair of the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice (CIAJ)’s Judgment Writing Seminar and was appointed CIAJ’s President in 2019. He is also a Fellow of McLaughlin College at York University and the recipient of the 2023-24 Inns of Court Fellowship at the University of London’s Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.
Mr. O’Reilly holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Western Ontario (now Western University), a Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School, and a Master of Laws from the University of Ottawa.