Nolan, Ciarlo LLP is pleased and proud to congratulate our senior partner, Dermot P. Nolan, C.S., on his retirement from the practice of law after an exemplary 50 year career in the service of the Hamilton Community.
Dermot was a Deputy Judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Small Claims branch) from 2014 until 2022
Dermot was called to the bar in 1975 after graduating from McMaster University and the Common Law faculty at the University of Ottawa. He was certified by the Law Society of Ontario as a Specialist in Civil Litigation in 1990 and he served as a deputy Judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Small Claims branch) from 2014 until 2022. He has been recognized in the Best Lawyers in Canada directory in the fields of Personal Injury litigation and Corporate & Commercial litigation since 2017 and as Lawyer of the Year in Corporate & Commercial litigation in 2019, 2021 and 2024.
He is a founder and former president of the Ontario Trial Lawyers’ Association, the founder and first editor of its Journal, The Litigator and a co-author of the OTLA Code. He served as president of the Hamilton Law Association and the Hamilton Medical Legal Society and is the recipient of the Emilius Irving award, the Law Associations’ highest honour, as well as its Edward Orzel award for excellence in trial advocacy. He spearheaded the initiative which led to the consolidation of Hamilton’s courts in the John Sopinka Courthouse and was instrumental in the establishment of the Lawyers’ Legacy for Children - The Ray Harris Fund, an endowment fund of the Hamilton Community Foundation. He continues to serve on its Advisory Committee.
Dermot receiving the Order of Hamilton from mayor Andrea Horwath in 2025
In 2025, the City of Hamilton awarded him with the Order of Hamilton for "unparalleled voluntary contribution to Hamilton’s civic, cultural and philanthropic life." He received McMaster University Student Union’s Lifetime Leadership Award and was inducted into McMaster’s Gallery of distinguished graduates in 2000 and in 2015 he was named Hamilton’s Irish Person of the Year. He served as Chair of St. Peter’s Hospital and the Hamilton Public Library, as a trustee of the Hamilton Board of Education and as a director of Hamilton Health Sciences and numerous other community, arts and charitable organizations. He has been a director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra since 2006.
Before entering law school, he was a professional actor with the Stratford Shakespearean Festival where he appeared with such stage luminaries as Christopher Plummer, Alan Bates and Zoe Caldwell. His busy practice and community leadership have not kept him from the stage. He performed at Hamilton Place (now First Ontario Concert hall) in the inaugural New Faces production of The Sound of Music in 1985 and was a founding member of the Hamilton Lawyers’ Show cast in its inaugural production of 12 Angry Men in 1983. The Lawyers Show concept, created by Dermot and his Hamilton colleagues in 1983, has been emulated by lawyers who have taken to the stage in communities throughout Canada (and also in the U.S. and Europe), raising millions of dollars for the arts and other charitable causes.
Dermot as Henry Drummond in the 2006 Hamilton Lawyers Show production of Inherit the Wind
Under Dermot’s leadership, the proceeds from the Hamilton’s Lawyers’ Shows produced in collaboration with Hamilton’s regional professional theatre, Theatre Aquarius, have built the Lawyers’ Legacy for Children endowment fund of nearly one million dollars. Dermot has appeared in A Few Good Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, Inherit the Wind, Witness for the Prosecution and The Sting and directed A Man for All Seasons. He has also acted, directed and written for The Hamilton Players’ Guild and is a playwright and an accredited member of the Playwrights’ Guild of Canada. His play, It’s Morning Now, about the assassination of Canadian father of Confederation, D’Arcy McGee, has been produced in Canada and Ireland and it inspired the chamber opera “Shot” by Abigail Richardson-Schulte and Anna Chatterton which was presented by the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra with It’s Morning Now at First Ontario Concert Hall in 2017.
We are grateful that Dermot will continue to be available to mentor and assist us with his counsel and guidance as we continue his legacy of service and provide our clients with the honest advice, good judgment and effective advocacy that have been the hallmarks of our firm since 1915.
