Young Ho Lee

Young's family traces back through 50 generations of his Korean heritage, but his father's family also had resided in in Shenyang in northern China. The family immigrated to Canada from Seoul, Korea in 1968. He grew up in Oshawa and Whitby, east of Toronto. Young graduated high school in 1981 from Anderson CVI in Whitby as valedictorian and received a school letter and the Mayor's Medal for citizenship. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in political science, economics and computer science, before entering Osgoode Hall Law School.

During law school, besides managing part-time work as a licensed taxi driver, he dedicated most of his extra-curricular time and summers with the Community Legal Aid Services Programme (CLASP) as duty counsel, caseworker, division leader and member of the board of management. Young appeared at immigration hearings, landlord/tenant hearings, WSIB hearings, provincial offences court, provincial court - criminal, and small claims court. Young's first notable success in litigation was winning a small claims court trial as a 3rd year law student, representing a young Asian family with children whose apartment was flooded by effluent when sewage backed up, and the landlord's insurer refused to compensate the tenants adequately.

After graduating from law school in 1987, Young articled with a small established litigation firm on Bay Street in Toronto. He was called to the Bar with the Law Society of Upper Canada (Ontario) in 1989. Young practised in civil litigation and had appeared at all levels of court in Ontario and the federal court of Canada. In later years, although he preferred civil litigation, clients often asked Young to represent them in criminal cases, family disputes and business transactions. Over the years, his practice and interests became broader.