Julian Porter

Julian Harris Porter, QC (born December 4, 1936), is a Canadian lawyer.

The son of Canadian lawyer and former Attorney General of Ontario Dana Porter, he is a graduate of the University of Toronto, and the Osgoode Hall Law School. He was called to the bar in 1964, and appointed Queen's Counsel in 1976. Porter was appointed as a Commissioner to the Toronto Transit Commission in 1977 and elected Chairman by his fellow Commissioners in 1979, following the resignation of G. Gordon Hurlburt. Porter was Chairman of the TTC until 1987.

Prior to joining the TTC, Porter was President of the Canadian National Exhibition. He was the youngest person to hold that position to that time. He represented Canada at the UNESCO World Conference on Copyright in Paris and was a Director of Toronto Life magazine, the Cancer Research Foundation and Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.

Subsequent to his tenure on the TTC, Porter has continued practising law, and is recognized by the Law Society of Upper Canada as a specialist in civil litigation. He has been a sole practitioner since 2000, and has given numerous lectures to the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Canadian Bar Association to libel lawyers. He is the co-author of the legal text, Canadian Libel Practice. He has also been a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada since 1999.^[1]

He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Progressive Conservative party in the 1985 Ontario provincial election. He contested the riding against personal friend Ian Scott who won for the Liberals and was appointed Attorney General in the government of David Peterson.

Porter has been a Director of the Stratford Festival. He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and has received an honorary LL.D from Queen's University.

He is married to the publisher Anna Porter.

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