There was a Canada Day transition in Shelburne that only a scant few, if any, outside of a clientele circle would likely have noticed.

On July 1, longtime Shelburne lawyer John Timmerman officially retired from his practice in partnership with Larry Haskell.

On the same day, Centre Dufferin District High School graduate and one-time Upper Grand District School Board student trustee Wade Mills took up where Mr. Timmerman was leaving off.

For Mr. Mills, the son of Mulmur mayoralty candidate Paul Mills, the beginning of a Shelburne legal career is a fulfillment of a dream that he says began when he was in Grade 11. The dream had continued through his undergraduate years at Brock University, then at the Faculty of Law at Dalhousie, thence to his articling and practising in the Niagara Peninsula.

The arrangement might also have fulfilled a dream for Mr. Timmerman, 68, who had been planning his retirement for the past three years when he and his wife, Gail, purchased their retirement property in Collingwood.

In a phone interview Monday, he said he seized the opportunity to have the right person take over his practice as soon as he learned that Mr. Mills wanted to return to Shelburne. “It helps that he’s known in the community.”

Mr. Timmerman opened his law office in Shelburne 34 years ago. Three years later, in 1979, he was joined by Larry Haskell.

Mr. Mills said he’ll be acting mainly as a solicitor, while Mr. Haskell is more involved with litigation.

In Collingwood, meantime, Mr. Timmerman said he has fully retired from any form of law practice. “I’m totally out of it.” Although living close to the water, he said he doesn’t have the patience to do any fishing. He is finding the patience to do a bit of golfing.