Nicholas Kasirer is Canadian jurist who is currently a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. He was sworn into office on September 16, 2019.[1][2]
Nicholas Kasirer was born in Montreal on February 2, 1960. His mother was Patricia Heeney and his father, Paul, was a medical doctor. Nicholas’s grandfather was Canadian lawyer and diplomat Arnold Heeney.[3]
Kasirer attended Marianopolis College for his secondary studies, graduating in 1978, before matriculating at University of Toronto for his Bachelor of Arts in economics and political science, graduating in 1981.
He then went to McGill University to complete his Bachelor of Law in common and civil law, finishing his studies in 1985 and where he served as an editor for the McGill Law Journal,[4] and where he also later served as a professor from 1989 to 2009 and dean of the Faculty from 2003 to 2009.[5]
Kasirer also has a postgraduate diploma in international public law from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University.[6]
After law school Kasirer was an articling student with Stikeman Elliott and then a law clerk with the Supreme Court of Canada for Justice Jean Beetz.
Kasirer was previously a puisne justice with the Quebec Court of Appeal between 2009 and 2019 during which he delivered judgments on Property Law, Contract and Civil Liability Law, Human Rights Law, Succession Law, Patrimonial Family law, Fiduciary Law, International Private Law, Land Registry, and Commercial Law.[5]
He has written more than a dozen books on legal matters and taught classes on the law of obligations, property law, family law, and wills and estates law in both civil and common law.
On July 10, 2019, Kasirer was nominated to the Supreme Court of Canada by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. On August 7, 2019, he was officially appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada effective as of September 16, 2019.[7]
On September 22, 2012, the Université de Sherbrooke granted an honorary doctoral degree to Kasirer.[8][9][10]