MB
Mark Benton
Action Committee on Access to Justice, Canada
Vice Chair
Biography
Mark Benton, K.C. has been a lawyer since 1980 and served as the CEO of Legal Aid BC from 2003 to 2022. His legal practice experience includes advising and representing low-income clients and groups in courts and tribunals, appellate advocacy, and teaching as an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law.
Mark has extensive experience leading legal aid programme innovation, design, implementation, governance and administration. He has chaired the Association of Legal Aid Plans of Canada and contributed to a number of Canada’s government and non-government justice task forces. His work has additionally included presentations to Canadian Parliamentary and Senate Committees about systemic problems in the justice system and advising governments and NGOs on the development and administration of legal aid programmes outside Canada. Mark served as a member of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations 2019 High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
As a co-founder of Access to Justice BC, alongside the Chief Justice of British Columbia, Mark has worked to improve access to justice. He is a founding member and current vice-chair of Canada’s Action Committee on Access to Civil and Family Justice. Additionally, he is an active member of the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice and is a board member of the Canadian Forum for Civil Justice.
Mark holds a BA from the University of British Columbia, a LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School, and an LLM from Dalhousie University.
Loading