The Ontario Government has announced the appointment of the Honourable Sharon Margaret Nicklas as the new Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Justice. Doug Downey, the Attorney General of Ontario, made the announcement on May 1.
Nicklas was first appointed as a judge of the Ontario Court of Justice in Kitchener in 2007, where she presided over criminal and family law cases. From 2013 to 2019, she was the Regional Senior Judge for the Central West Region. In 2019, she was appointed Associate Chief Justice – Co-ordinator of Justices of the Peace.
Nicklas has a degree in law from the University of Toronto, which she earned in 1992. She was called to the bar in 1994 and worked as an Assistant Crown Attorney in Hamilton, Brantford, and Waterloo Region from 1994 to 2003. In 2003, she became the Deputy Crown Attorney in Waterloo Region, and shortly before her appointment in 2007, she was the Acting Crown Attorney in that region.
Nicklas is set to replace Chief Justice Lise T. Maisonneuve, whose eight-year term ends on May 31, 2023.
