Ritu Khullar

Ritu Khullar, is a Canadian jurist who currently serves as the Chief Justice of Alberta and Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories and the Nunavut Court of Appeal. She was appointed on November 28, 2022 and sworn in on February 23, 2023.

Prior to the Court of Appeal, Justice Khullar was appointed to the Court of King's Bench of Alberta in 2017. She is the first woman of South Asian descent to be appointed as a provincial chief justice in Canada.

Early life and education
Khullar was born in 1964 in Fort Vermilion, Alberta to Punjabi teacher parents who emigrated from India, and was raised in the rural communities of La Crete and Morinville. She also briefly lived in Jamaica from 1969 to 1972. Her mother’s family was Sikh and her father’s Hindu. She attended Old Scona Academic High School in Edmonton, graduating in 1981.

She received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, graduating magna cum laude from the University of Alberta in 1985, and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1991, and was admitted to the Bar of Alberta in 1992.

Legal Career
After law school, Khullar served as law clerk to the Alberta Court of Appeal and Queen's Bench from 1991 to 1992.

Justice Khullar was a partner with Chivers Carpenter Lawyers from 2002 to 2009 and then managing partner from 2009 to 2017. According to the firm, “her practice was focused on litigation relating to public law issues including labour and employment, privacy, administrative, human rights, and constitutional law.” She also represented public and private sector unions.

She has also appeared in front of numerous administrative trials and every level of court in Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada where she acted as counsel for United Nurses of Alberta, and the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund in Vriend v Alberta and R v Ewanchuk. She also acted as counsel for the intervener in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v. Saskatchewan. She was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2014.

Khullar was appointed to the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta in 2017, and in March 2018, Jody Wilson-Raybould, then Attorney General of Canada announced Khullar's elevation to the Court of Appeal.

On November 28, 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Khullar's appointment as Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal, replacing then Chief Justice Catherine Fraser. Regarding her elevation to the role, she commented, “the opportunity to serve the people of Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut in this way is an enormous privilege and responsibility to which I am wholly committed.”

Teaching Career
Khullar has taught labour, constitutional, and administrative law at the University of Alberta, Faculty of Law alongside various seminars on privacy and labour arbitration.

Awards

 * 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award.(Women In Law Leadership Awards)
 * 2023 Canadian Inspiration Awards.(South Asian Awards)

Personal life
Khullar is married to constitutional lawyer and public servant Rob Reynolds with whom she has two sons.