Another honour for esteemed Saultite

A highly respected Sault Ste. Marie native is getting used to a new job these days.

David Paciocco, who has earned international recognition as a criminal lawyer, academic and author, has been appointed a judge of the Ontario Court of Justice for the Ottawa district.

After being called to the bench in August, he was sworn in at the Ottawa courthouse last Friday.

A longtime University of Ottawa law professor, the 56-year-old has written scores of legal articles and penned four books.

In award-winning Getting Away with Murder: The Canadian Criminal Justice System, the author uses humour to help readers understand how Canadian courts work.

As a defence lawyer, Paciocco was on the legal team that represented the Red Cross in the tainted blood scandal during the 1980s.

In more recent times, he worked on appeals for Rwandan war crimes being heard in Tanzania.

Justice Paciocco has been a member of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers and the Canadian Italian Advocates Organization.

Earlier in his career, he taught at the University of Windsor and was a guest lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Paciocco was called to the Bar in 1983.

He completed undergraduate studies at the University of Western Ontario and holds a master's degree in law from Oxford.

In 2005 (photo) Paciocco received an Honourary Doctor of Laws degree from Laurentian University during Algoma University College graduation exercises.

Paciocco grew up in the Sault and attended Sir James Dunn, where he and his future wife met.

Pamela (Esposti) Paciocco teaches high school in Ottawa.

The couple has three grown children, two of whom are following in their father's career footsteps.

Sault lawyer Bob Paciocco attended his nephew's swearing-in ceremony last week.

"I was very proud to be there," he told SooToday.com News. "It was a very nice event and many glowing things were said about David."

Bob told us the extended Paciocco family now includes six people who are either already a lawyer or on their way to becoming one.