They joined the board on January 30
The British Columbia government has appointed public representatives John James Greschner, David Allan Perry, and Kathleen Ruth Wittenberg as BC Law Society benchers.
They joined the organization’s board of governors on January 30. The executive council approved the appointments, and lieutenant governor Wendy Cocchia issued the order.
Greschner was appointed to the Law Foundation of BC’s board of governors for a three-year term in 2018. Meanwhile, Wittenberg had once led the BC Association of Institutes and Universities as president; in her 10-year stint in the role, which spanned 2010 to 2023, she advised on strategies and approaches to collaborating with the government, such as in policy and legislation and board governance.
Based in Victoria, Wittenberg has worked in the academic, government and voluntary sectors for over four decades. She was with the British Columbia Public Service for over three decades; she was the assistant deputy minister responsible for the post secondary education division at the ministry of advanced education and labour market development from 2006 to 2010; she was also assistant deputy minister of the management services division at the ministry of education and of financial and administrative services at the ministry of human resources.
She was chief information officer in the ministry of finance and the manager of financial systems and policy at the ministry of transportation and analyst on the Treasury Board.
Wittenberg has heard lawyer misconduct and admission matters as a public representative on the LSBC Tribunal. She has chaired the BC Assessment Authority Board and has been on the faculty of the United Way Public Policy Institute, which concentrates on progressing public policy positions of strategic interest for the non-profit sector.
She also joined Yorkville University’s board of governors last year.
Greschner, Perry, and Wittenberg join Simran Bains, Michèle Ross, and Natasha Tony as three of six appointed benchers. Appointed benchers are chosen from outside the legal profession, collaborating with 25 lawyer benchers elected from across BC.
Bains, a public health consultant, was appointed in 2023. Ross, a Heinrichs Richards LLP designated paralegal, was appointed in March 2022, as was Tony, Elevate Inclusion Strategies’ founder and principal.
The BC Law Society concluded its bencher elections in November last year, electing six new benchers and re-electing 16.
