In June 1994, the NBA, under the leadership of its president Paulette Brown, held an international meeting in Toronto. The organization was hosted in Toronto by the DDLG. Acting on the spirit engendered by the 1994 stop in Toronto, in August 1995, Canadian Black lawyers Audrea Golding, Chris Wilson, Sonja Salmon (recent graduates. of Osgoode Hall Law School), Sandy Thomas (lawyer with the Department of Justice) and Michael Tulloch (now Justice Tulloch, the first Black Court of Appeal Justice), who at the time had recently entered private practice after leaving the Provincial Crown Attorney’s office in Toronto), attended the NBA’s Annual Convention in Baltimore, Maryland. These two interactions with the NBA fostered an interest among them and a number of other Black lawyers in Toronto to establish a national organization in Canada similar to the NBA. Over the course of the year 1995, several discussions and consultations with members of the Black bar in Canada (including, members of the DDLG and Canadian law students) and with representatives of the NBA took place to gather support for the formation of a national Canadian association of Black lawyers, as a means to further professional networking and to help our community. After these meetings, CABL was incorporated in March 1996 as a non-profit corporation whose members would constitute the national association of Black lawyers.

Some of the founding members of CABL included Roger Rowe, Winston Mattis, Sandy Thomas, Patricia DeGuire, Lynda Searles, David Mercury, Sonja Salmon and Chris Wilson. The initial Interim Board consisted of: Sandy Thomas-President; Winston Mattis-Vice-President; Patricia DeGuire-Treasurer; Roger Rowe-Secretary; Sonja Salmon-Member at Large, and; Chris Wilson-Member at Large.

Between its incorporation in March, 1996 and its official launch in January 1997, CABL drafted its provisional strategic plan and participated in the following initiatives:

• Established the Michael Kelly Memorial Award along with the Class of 1990, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, which is a scholarship for 2nd or 3rd year Black law students at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law in honour of the memory of Michael Kelly (Class of 1990);
• Commenced a monthly speaker series;
• Participated in the University of Toronto’s Summer Mentorship in Law Program for visible minority high school students;
• Participated in Each One Teach One’s Black Youth Mentoring Program and Career Day;
• Co-sponsored a dinner on November 9, 1996 at the Canadian Bar Association – Ontario (now the Ontario Bar Association) to honour Dr. (now Hon.) Juanita Westmoreland-Traore, Dean, University of Windsor Faculty of Law and the first Black person to attain a law deanship in Canada;
• Co-hosted with the Law Firm of Michael H. Tulloch and Associates a reception for Willie E. Gary, Plaintiff’s counsel in the landmark case of O’Keele v. Loewen Group, a Mississippi decision in which $500 million in damages was awarded to the plaintiff;
• Established further links with the NBA.