FACULTY PROFILE
Watch David Mullan receive his honorary LLD and deliver his Convocation address
Queen’s Law community grateful for his paths not taken BY KEN CUTHBERTSON
David Mullan, LLD’15, delivers his address to the Class of 2015.
A
s poet Robert Frost pointed out, sometimes it’s the paths not taken in life that shape it most significantly. That’s certainly the case with one of Queen’s Law’s most beloved teachers – not only a graduate of the Faculty, but also its newest honorary graduate. Professor Emeritus David Mullan, llm’73, who received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at spring Convocation, is universally hailed as one of Canada’s foremost scholars in administrative law. “David remains loved as a teacher by generations of Queen’s Law graduates,” says Dean Bill Flanagan. “In the classroom he was nothing less than an intellectual tour de force. During my past 10 years as Dean, an extraordinary number of alumni have fondly recounted to me their stories of what an enormous impact David had on their development as law students and professionals.” Today, at age 69 and “semi-retired” since 2004, Mullan smiles as he recalls how his life and his career – at least to date – haven’t worked out as he once anticipated. “When I was young, I wanted to be a criminal lawyer,” he says. He never dreamed he’d one day leave New Zealand for Canada, build a life around Queen’s University, and have a major scholarship established in his honour. (When the Faculty launched its David Mullan Entrance Scholarship initiative in 2007-2008, Mullan’s colleagues and former students pushed the endowment to $1.4 million – at that time, the largest fundraising success in the law school’s history.)
Australian-born, David Mullan was still a toddler when his parents moved to Wellington, New Zealand, in 1947. At age 19, academically gifted and intent on becoming the next Rumpole of the Bailey, Mullan enrolled in law school at Victoria University of Wellington. However, his career aspirations soon changed. “I was fascinated by the concepts of administrative law and got my best marks in the courses I took in this area of study,” he says. “And when I became a grad student, I was lucky enough to land a job as a junior lecturer at the law school.” The comment is typical: as those who know him will attest, luck had less to do with it than ability, but Mullan is as self-effacing as he is unassuming. “David has a lively, inquiring mind, and he’s always open to fresh ideas and to discussing legal concepts. He has an incredible zest and energy. When he teaches, his enthusiasm is infectious,” says Mullan’s friend and sometimes faculty colleague, Justice David Stratas, Law’84, lld’12, of the Federal Court of Appeal. When Mullan graduated from Victoria in 1970, he still planned a legal career in New Zealand but decided it would be fun to “see a bit of the world” first. When he visited Canada, his reputation for academic excellence had preceded him; he received what he remembers as “a generous Master’s scholarship offer” from Queen’s. “I came intending r to stay a year,” he recalls. Q U E E N ’ S L AW R E P O R T S 9
GREG BLACK
David Mullan: