Martin H. Freedman, QC, was appointed a judge of the Manitoba Court of Appeal on July 16, 2002, and retired from the court in 2012.[1][2] He replaced Bonnie M. Helper, who resigned.[citation needed]
Freedman received a bachelor of law from the University of Manitoba in 1963 and won the Gold Medal in Law from both the University of Manitoba and the Law Society of Manitoba.[3] At the time of his appointment, he was a partner at the Winnipeg law firm Aikins MacAulay & Thorvaldson. He served as the firm's managing partner from 1991 until 2001. Throughout his career, he acquired expertise in corporate-commercial law and arbitration-mediation matters. In recent years, Freedman has concentrated his practice on arbitration, especially in labour-related disputes in different jurisdictions throughout Canada.[citation needed]
Over the course of his legal career, Freedman was active in a range of professional organizations, including as president (1978–1979) and bencher (1971–1979) of the Law Society of Manitoba and as a director of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada (1981–1983). For twenty years, he was a lecturer at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Law and a frequent presenter at professional and continuing legal education seminars. Freedman was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1975.[3]
His father, Samuel Freedman, also served as a judge of the Manitoba Court of Appeal (1960–1983).[1]