Edmond O'Neill, Liberty Law Partner

Edmond O’Neill, Partner with Liberty Law

CHANGING THE WORLD ONE TEAM AT A TIME

BY: ASHLEY ORICH

You can hear the excitement and enthusiasm in Edmond O’Neill’s voice as he talks about his love for sports. Growing up, he was very active in playing any sport he could, especially basketball. “I played a lot of basketball in junior high and high school,” says O’Neill. “I did men’s league basketball for about 13 years after law school. I played baseball too.”

Playing eventually changed to include coaching and he coached minor league football for around five or six years followed by a couple of years of basketball. O’Neill started coaching football due to his son’s involvement with the sport.

“Those were just wonderful memories with my son and the other kids,” he says. “You try to shape them and I’ve seen some of them years later and they’ve turned into really wonderful young men. It was an extremely rewarding time.”

It was this connection to sports and how rewarding it can be to see growth in players that eventually led O’Neill to Free Footie. A friend of his asked if he would consider sponsoring a team after explaining what Free Footie was all about. O’Neill instantly agreed saying “there was no decision to be made to put that money towards a Free Footie team.”

O’Neill has been involved with Free Footie since the beginning in 2007 and recalled the first jersey drop off. “We actually attended at Tim Adams’ garage. His garage was just stacked with boxes of jerseys.” Since then, O’Neill has sponsored a team every year that he has been asked. 

While Free Footie’s main sport is soccer, O’Neill was able to find a way to involve his love of football in his sponsored teams. 

“My favourite team is the Dallas Cowboys and Tim was really good about letting the team I sponsor be named The Cowboys,” O’Neill says with a laugh. “We put a star on their jerseys and called them The Cowboys so I could pretend I was the owner of the [Dallas] Cowboys. Whenever Tim and I get together, I always remind him that I’m an owner of the Cowboys, and we laugh together.”

Aside from sports, O’Neill is also very passionate about law. He is a criminal lawyer and has been practicing criminal defence law exclusively for the past 30 years in Edmonton. O’Neill is a partner at Liberty Law, which has offices in Edmonton and Grande Prairie. 

The decision to pursue law was because O’Neill wanted a way to keep helping people, whether that was in the courtroom or in the community.

For O’Neill, team sports can be life changing. “It taught me self discipline and leadership skills I’ve been able to use. It instilled confidence, a sense of belonging as well, but they were very important in my personal development. You’ve got to learn to work with people in life and you’ve got to be able to lead people in life and sports taught me those skills and many more.”

As a result of playing on a team, O’Neill found one of his best friends in one of the coaches from his junior high basketball team. He describes this friend not only as a mentor, but like an older brother. 

Creating safe spaces and relationships like this is why sports is so important to those that might not be able to afford it otherwise. O’Neill grew up in a single family situation and came from very little, so he says he can’t help but relate to how some of the kids at Free Footie might feel.  

“Some marginalized kids, as they grow up, find themselves hanging out with the wrong crowd, and some of them regrettably wind up in my office. I have no doubt that programs like Free Footie help to push kids in the right direction.We’re trying to change the world, one team at a time."