Leighton B.U. Grey, KC
Leighton was born in Regina, SK and grew up in the Kensington community of north Edmonton. He is a status Indian whose great-grandfather was once the Hereditary Chief of the Carry The Kettle or Jack Band. His grandmother and great-aunt were survivors of the infamous Brandon Indian Residential School. Leighton’s father is a Treaty Indian who spent over two decades helping Indigenous youth transition out of urban gangs and was the founder of The Spiritkeeper Youth Society.
Leighton excelled in sports and academics, graduating with honours from Queen Elizabeth Composite High School in 1985. He achieved the highest mark in the province on the Social Studies departmental final examination and was awarded the Alexander Rutherford Scholarship. He also played bantam and midget AAA hockey with the Canadian Athletic Club. From 1985–1989, he attended Augustana University in Camrose before transferring to the University of Alberta, where he completed his B.A. (with Distinction), majoring in English Literature and History. In 1988, he was awarded an essay prize in Ethics and received the Louise McKinney Scholarship, which is granted to Alberta students in the top 2% of provincial GPA. Leighton also received the prestigious Legal Studies for Aboriginal People scholarship from 1989–1992—a national award granted to only ten students annually. He received early acceptance to the University of Alberta Faculty of Law in 1988 and graduated in 1992. He later pursued post-graduate degrees in Business Administration (2017) and most recently completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy during the 2020 pandemic.
Leighton began his legal career with the Federal Department of Justice. He completed his Articles of Clerkship in 1993 before taking a hiatus to play minor league professional hockey with the Daytona Beach Sun Devils. In 1995, Leighton resumed full-time legal practice. In 2005, he founded his current practice. Leighton has conducted hundreds of trials before Alberta courts and has long been regarded as one of Alberta’s leading criminal trial lawyers. He has served as a mentor and principal to eight articling students, two of whom became Partners at GWSLLP.
Leighton is also a qualified Mediator, Arbitrator, and a member of the ADR Institute of Canada. He served as an Adjudicator for Law Society disciplinary hearings from 2015–2020. He was appointed King’s Counsel in 2010, then became Alberta’s youngest lawyer to hold that prestigious title. Among his accolades are the 2013 Stars of Alberta Volunteer Award, the 2015 Legal Aid Society Access to Justice Award, and the 2019 Alberta Civil Trial Lawyers Association Gary J. Bigg Justice & Humanitarian Award.
Leighton was deeply involved in the original Indian Residential Schools (IRS) Class Action from 2004–2016, representing hundreds of claimants through the ADR process that formed part of the broader settlement and ultimately led to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report.
He and his wife, Jennifer, are proud parents of two sons.
In 2024, Leighton was named one of Canada’s Top 50 Lawyers—an honour reserved for the most exceptional legal practitioners in the country. With over 140,000 lawyers across Canada, fewer than 0.5% are selected for this distinction, providing third-party recognition of professional excellence.
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