450 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 78 PART 3 MAY 2020
Neo had been the general editor of the Canadian Journal of Insurance Law
since 2008 and had been the co-chair of the Canadian Defence Lawyers’
Insurance Coverage Committee and a director of the Lawyers Assistance
Program of BC. In 2018 he was named “Insurance Lawyer of the Year” by
the CBABC.
When talking about Neo, other members of the profession emphasize his
willingness to go out of his way to help other lawyers and his tenacity on
behalf of his clients, and they describe him as having a brilliant legal mind.
His friend and former colleague Glen Boswall says of Neo:
I first met Neo when he joined Clark Wilson LLP when I was an associate
in the insurance group. I soon learned that he was incredibly smart, deep,
quirky, warm and funny. In short order, we became friends and over the
ensuing years we shared many discussions on professional and personal
matters. He was generous with his time and helped me sort out many
complex legal issues, even after he left the firm in 2009. We continued to
meet for lunches or coffee to talk about life, the universe and everything
else. For some nonsense reason, I had begun greeting him by taking the
tune and altering the lyrics of Fess Parker’s “Ballad of Davy Crockett” to
sing: “Neo, Neo Tuytel, king of the wild frontier”. It always made him
smile, and he frequently sang it to me before I got the words out. I last
saw him when I met him for coffee perhaps a month before he passed
away. What a loss. I miss him.
His friend and colleague Michelle Tribe, also a colleague from his Clark
Wilson days (and later a colleague at Fraser Litigation), describes working
with Neo as “an honour”. She gave a speech when he won the “Insurance
Lawyer of the Year” award and said at the time: “I cannot imagine a better
colleague, business partner and friend.”
Neo was fully invested in his work and remained fascinated by the law
throughout his career. When not at work or ensconced in his home office, he
could be found walking with Joanne, mountain biking with John, sampling
East Vancouver’s craft beer with friends and brothers-in-law, reading everything
from philosophy to science fiction or planning his next trip to Europe.
He loved to laugh and to spend time with his close friends and family.
Neo cared deeply about environmental and social justice causes. After
many years of getting motion sickness riding the bus to work, he eventually
bought a car for his commute and was excited to be the third Vancouverite
to get the brand-new Toyota Prius back in 2001, the first having been David
Suzuki. He had a longstanding interest in environmental law, running an
environmental law radio show in his student days and taking on environmental
files related to contaminated sites in his career, and he was pleased
when Dyna embarked on a career in environmental law. John, meanwhile,
became a mechanical engineer and was always ready to fix his dad’s bike or