Our History
Fulton & Company LLP is proud of its long and distinguished history. The firm has been closely associated with the growth and emergence of Kamloops as a major transportation and economic centre in British Columbia. The firm’s legacy, which began over a century ago, is one of excellence and trust.
In 1885, shortly after British Columbia joined Confederation, English lawyer William Ward Spinks arrived in Kamloops by stagecoach to establish the first law office in Kamloops. As the region expanded, Spinks was named Deputy Sheriff and High Bailiff for the Kamloops District. In 1889 Spinks was appointed the first County Court Judge for Yale County. He travelled his circuit by horseback throughout the vast area of Yale, Okanagan and the Kootenays.
A young British solicitor, Frederick John Fulton joined Spinks' practice in 1889. Fulton had studied law at Cambridge University where he developed a love for rowing and other outdoor sports. He was admitted as a Solicitor of the High Court of Judicature in England in 1889 before the lure of adventure brought Fulton to Canada. Upon arriving in Canada, Fred Fulton took a memorable train ride on the recently completed national railway and noted the best fishing holes along the way. At the end of his journey, Fulton chose to practice in Kamloops.
Frederick John Fulton, in a pattern to be repeated by his son, gravitated towards politics and was elected to the provincial legislature at the turn of the century. In 1905, after serving as Provincial Secretary and Minister of Education, Fulton was made Attorney General and Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works. In his capacity as Attorney General, Fulton prosecuted the "gentleman bandit" Bill Miner. Bill Miner, the romanticized outlaw who coined the term "Hands Up", was the most infamous train robber of his day, possibly any day. After a string of daring train robberies in the United States and Canada, the Northwest Mounted Police, using local trackers and bloodhounds, caught Miner and his gang in a forested glen on the Douglas Lake Ranch. The outlaws were arrested and returned to the Provincial Jail in Kamloops where a crowd of more than 1,000 was waiting. With Frederick Fulton acting as prosecutor, Bill Miner was convicted and given a twenty-five year jail sentence.
In 1917, the popular Fulton was elected as a Member of Parliament for the Cariboo riding. After dissolution of the wartime coalition government in 1920, Fulton retired from Federal politics but continued to hold many civic posts in Kamloops, including a seat on the Royal Inland Hospital Board and acting as City Solicitor. One of Fulton's partners, Henry Lawrence Morley, continued this tradition and acted as solicitor for the City of Kamloops for another thirty years.
Following in his father's footsteps, Edmund Davie Fulton joined the firm in 1936. Born and raised in Kamloops, Davie Fulton attended St. John's College at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar before practicing law. After an enlistment during World War II, the younger Fulton returned to Kamloops and the practice of law and saw his political career blossom. Fulton was elected as a Member of Parliament for Kamloops in 1945 and again in 1949, 1953, 1957, 1958, 1962 and 1965. In Ottawa, Davie Fulton served as federal Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada from 1957 to 1962, and as Minister of Public Works in 1962 and 1963.
The firm has continued to flourish and grow through the efforts and achievements of its partners. Over the years, Fulton & Company LLP lawyers have served as Members of Parliament, MLA's and cabinet ministers; as well as on civic, service and hospital boards. Our lawyers have served as judges and justices in the courts of British Columbia, including His Honour Justice William W. Spinks, the Honorable Mr. Justice E. Davie Fulton, Mr. Justice David R. Verschere, Mr. Justice Arthur H. Kelly, Mr. Justice Robert B. Hunter as well as two current Judges of the Provincial Court and one Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. In 1989, the firm name was permanently changed to "Fulton & Company" in recognition of the firm's history and of the great contribution made by the Fulton family to the legal history of British Columbia and Canada.