A political approach to shipping and the law

SENATOR David Angus - 'Goose' to those who know him - doesn't sit still for long. He is also an eternal optimist. The Angus family history may explain why.

A pioneer spirit appears to flow through the Angus blood. David's maternal grandparents were Scottish presbyterians from farming and missionary stock who lived a hardy and lean lifestyle. His grandfather arrived in Canada in 1904 with $100 in his pocket. His paternal grandparents were cheese makers who operated the general store in Stratford, Ontario. Principled pillars of the local church and community, their modest dreams would have precluded them from imagining that they would produce a son with a remarkable talent for trading ships and a heart for charity work, and later a grandson who would become a maritime lawyer and a member of the Canadian senate.

David's father, Mel Angus, graduated from the University of Toronto during the depression, having worked his way through college with the Dominion Mortgage and Finance Company. It was his job to foreclose businesses. That exposed him to a level of human adversity which made a lasting impression on this young man. It also bred in him a work ethic that thrived despite difficult circumstances. He would later pass this on to his son.

The best way to get the attention of owners was to beat them as a plaintiff.

David Angus was born towards the end of the great depression and as rumblings of war rolled across Europe. The first child and the only son of his parents, he arrived in Toronto in the summer of 1937. He came into the world as a breach baby. He believes this was a fortuitous start, "I always seem to have had the good fortune to land on my feet," he says.

At elementary school, David discovered the benefit of a surname starting with A. In a one-roomed schoolhouse in the Maritimes, he was placed at the head of his Grade 2 row. Simultaneous to his own lessons he was able to learn those of the other grades sitting in the rows next to him. Ultimately, he matriculated at the age of fifteen.

To earn his pocket money, David took a summer job in the pro shop and as a caddie at the local golf club. By the time he was thirteen he was playing to a single-digit handicap. He was a regular caddie for Jack Fuller, ceo of Shawinigan Water & Power Co. A Princeton graduate, Fuller was impressed by David and encouraged him to apply to the university. David was subsequently admitted at the age of fifteen.

But David's father had other ideas. Now a prominent Canadian shipowner, he felt his son was too young to derive the maximum benefit from a Princeton education, so instead arranged for him to join the merchant navy. David and a friend flew to Glasgow, and became apprentices on one of the tramp vessels operated by the Lyle Steamship Company, joining the British merchant marine apprentice programme.

Shipping out with rough and ready Irish, Scots and Geordie crews, the two lads worked on the north Atlantic run for over a year. By the time he arrived back at Princeton in the fall of 1955 at eighteen years of age, David had experienced aspects of the seamier side of life which would stand him in good stead throughout his later career.

During his last two years at Princeton, David wrote a thesis on the feasibility of establishing a permanent Canadian merchant marine fleet, subsidised by the government. But when he left Princeton his dream was to achieve fame as a journalist.

Meanwhile, the family shipping business was growing from strength to strength. Mel was keeping a close eye on his son, hoping that one day he would take over the company, but was smart enough to let David's enthusiasm for crime reporting on the local paper burn out early.

Somebody else was watching the budding young reporter. The publisher of The Montreal Gazette noted David's exploits on the police and court beat. Impressed by his ability to analyse and interpret legal matters as they unfolded in court, he suggested to David that he might consider another career and tried to persuade him to join the law faculty at McGill University while continuing with his job at The Gazette.

David rose to the challenge, entering law school in mid-November 1959. He graduated three years later with first class honours. He was also president of the law undergraduate society and editor of the McGill campus newspaper.

Rather than join one of the traditional maritime firms in Montreal, David decided to join a relatively new business law firm started in 1952 by Hewerd Stikeman and Fraser Elliott. David joined Stikeman, Elliott as a part-time student in May 1961, became a partner in 1968, and has been there ever since.

There was no maritime department when David joined the firm. One of the lawyers, John Turner, who served briefly as prime minister of Canada in 1984, had begun to develop some shipping clients and, when he left to further his political career, David was asked develop a fully-fledged maritime law practice.

He found that the established Canadian maritime law firms had a lock on the hull and P&I work, so he started developing the practice with cargo recovery, and stevedores' and terminal operators' liability cases instead, acting more often than not against shipowners. He decided the best way to get the attention of owners was to beat them as a plaintiff.

His shipping practice grew and expanded in the late sixties and seventies. During the eighties he became more involved in insurance matters, having got to know the London market through his shipping practice. As a result, David became well known in the City of London and developed relationships with leading law firms and underwriters. He found that, more often than not, shipping and insurance cases were controlled by London solicitors, even if they had a Canadian element. These firms naturally became his clients.

David served from 1988 to 1991 as president of the Canadian MLA and is active at an international level with the CMI, being elected to its executive council in Sydney in 1994. And it was through his MLA activities that David met ILU chief executive Tony Funnell, in 1993. Funnell subsequently asked him to be the Canadian eyes and ears of the ILU, which David has represented for a number of years as its first Canadian corporate lawyer. Funnell acknowledges that ILU members have benefited greatly from David's knowledge of both maritime and regulatory affairs.

"My political activities are a natural complement to my professional practice. They enhance rather than detract from it."

David insists he is a team man, albeit one with an element of independence. He believes it is essential to bring in his partners and young associates to meet the decision-makers in the market.

His January lunches at Stikeman, Elliott's London offices, overlooking the Thames and the Lloyd's building beyond, have become a feature in the insurance market diary. "We bring senior people together in the same room in an informal atmosphere with their competitors, united by a common interest in the markets they serve," he says. "Market law, gossip and the latest Clinton jokes are freely shared."

David's talent for bringing people together to pursue a common goal is not confined to the law, but spills over also into his passion for politics. David joined the Young Progressive Conservatives on returning to Canada from Princeton in 1959 and has been involved in the PC Party ever since. After campaigning actively at constituency level in several general elections, he graduated to the national scene and was the party's chief fund-raiser from 1983 to 1993. He was a strong supporter of and close adviser to Brian Mulroney through two leadership campaigns. Following the second of these, Mulroney became leader of the PC Party in 1983, and was elected prime minister in 1984.

One of Mulroney's last acts before retiring as prime minister in June 1993 was to appoint David to the senate. David found a natural home on the senate's banking, trade and commerce committee, which deals with most business and finance matters which come before the Canadian parliament. And his experience in the senate of dealing with the regulation of financial institutions provided another link between his political and professional activities.

David was in London this February as part of a delegation of eleven members of the senate's banking committee, who were gathering information on recent and proposed legislative and regulatory reforms affecting the financial services sector in the UK and other selected European countries. The committee was particularly interested in examining mergers in the banking and insurance sectors, and met with representatives from government and major banks, as well as with academics and economists.

David is sometimes teased for being more of a politician than a lawyer. But he argues, "My political activities are a natural complement to my professional practice. They enhance rather than detract from it."

It was his father who made David sensitive to the obligation to participate in community affairs and endeavour to put back into the system from which he had benefited. This has not only been done through his political activities but also through his active involvement in community affairs.

David is not one of those sixty-year-olds who is dreaming about retirement. He is still driven, partly perhaps by the insecure notion which seems to dog so many lawyers that they are only as good as their last deal.

There is no sign of David letting up, either in the law, in politics or in his community service. Perhaps the only hint could be his involvement in the setting up of the St Andrew's Presbyterian Homes Foundation, thus ensuring his place at one of its old-age homes in years to come. Hard to imagine. This particular Canadian goose intends to be flying high long after the millennium.