Case closing: veteran city lawyer Tapper dips toes into retirement

Longtime Winnipeg lawyer Robert Tapper is, after more than a half-century in the profession, taking his first cautious steps into retirement, and has left the downtown firm that bears his name.

He still has an email address with the word “lawyer” in it.

“I’m never not going to be a lawyer… it’s all I know,” he told the Free Press. “It’s all I know how do do.”

Tapper said he made the decision to step away last winter after representing a corporate client in a months-long $60-million civil trial against the City of Winnipeg.

“I’m 75 1/2 years old, for crying out loud,” he said. “I looked in the mirror and said, “You know, you’re a moron.’ I have not had a holiday in six years… because I work every day. Really, I’ve got to do something.”

Lawyer Brett Williams, a partner at Tapper Cuddy, said there are some law firms that force partners to relinquish that role at age 65 and walk out the door at 75.

“We are not that office,” Williams said. “But the long and short of it is, he is 75 years old and this is just a matter of Robert’s retirement. He has a few things he still wants to do.

“He has earned himself a bit by a beach.”

Tapper was called to the Manitoba bar in 1974 and the Ontario bar in 1981.

He was honoured by the provincial government with a Queen’s (now King’s) Counsel appointment in 1992.

Tapper’s first mention in the Free Press was on the front page on Feb. 1, 1975. He’d helped a widow get the $11,000 in winnings from a horse race wager her husband had entrusted an acquaintance to make on his behalf. The man had pocketed the winnings and returned the $14, claiming he hadn’t arrived at the track in time to place the bet.

The acquaintance was later convicted of theft.

Tapper’s many high-profile cases included representing former mayor Sam Katz and former city chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl in various matters relating to the selection of the construction company that built the problem-plagued, over-budget Winnipeg Police Service headquarters.

Best Lawyers, a global legal ranking organization, named Tapper Lawyer of the Year in Manitoba for personal injury law in 2011 and 2018, and he was named a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America in 2015.

Tapper — whose dog is named Sugar Ray — has also served as a judge for the World Boxing Council and head official for boxing with Manitoba Combative Sports.

A couple of his own personal injuries waylaid his summer plans.

“I was going to spend the whole summer golfing, then I banged up my left arm and my right hip,” he said. “I haven’t hit a ball.”

Tapper said that among other things, he wants to travel and enjoy some deep-sea diving, something he has done over the years.

“I need to have, before I croak, you have that 10 seconds before you croak saying, “You dumb ass, why didn’t you do something more interesting?”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca