Rodney Hull was the founding partner of Hull & Hull LLP and one of the most well-known and respected estate lawyers in Canada. He will be remembered for his invaluable contributions, his wisdom and his generosity to the practice of law in Canada. He was a leading expert in his field.
Rodney was a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada and was called to the Ontario bar in 1957. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1971. He was the author of the seminal reference works, Canadian Forms of Wills (4th ed.) and McDonnell, Sheard and Hull Probate Practice (4th ed.), and made extensive prolific contributions to academic and professional journals and publications in Canada relating to estates, trusts and fiduciary matters.
Rodney was certified by the Law Society of Upper Canada as a specialist in civil litigation in 1988 and was the recipient of the Award of Excellence by the Ontario Bar Association, Wills and Trusts section, in 2005. In 2007, he was awarded The Law Society Medal by The Law Society of Upper Canada. He was appointed a Deputy Judge of the Small Claims Court for the Central East Region in 2008.
For over 50 years, Rodney’s reputation has been synonymous with outstanding excellence, dedicated professionalism and pure passion. He has set the standard for our profession, and we are all privileged to have had the opportunity to know, to learn from, to be taught by and to have worked alongside him over the years. We will honour Rodney’s legacy and his memory – and the leader, mentor, advisor, advocate and gentleman that he was.
Rodney Hull will be greatly missed by all those whom he touched in his special way.
In keeping with the tradition of honouring the founding partner of our firm, the Rodney Hull Q.C. LSM Memorial Award is given annually to the Hull & Hull LLP employee who exemplifies Rodney “at his best” during the course of the year. The recipient receives a monetary gift.
Award Winners:
- 2019-Janis Langner
- 2019-Nicole Brion
- 2017-Carol Wilcox
- 2016-Julia Graham
- 2015-Melissa Calce
- 2014-Jennifer Sousa
- 2013-Patricia Ward
If by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream-and not make dreams your master,
If you can think-and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings-nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And-which is more-you’ll be a Man, my son!