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PAGE 4 NEWS January 25, 2010 • Law Times Bay Street meets Scarborough Heenan Blaikie lawyers to count good works as billable hours BY BENJAMIN GLATT Law Times A Bay Street law fi rm is opening up its doors to the edge of Scarbor- ough by off ering an array of legal services pro bono. "Many people who knock on the doors of the justice sys- tem fi nd the doors never open," says Ryan Teschner, a 29-year- old associate at Heenan Blaikie LLP and co-founder of the Pro Bono Legal Service Initiative. "With this initiative, we can change that." Th e new joint program between Heenan Blaikie, Pro Bono Law Ontario (PBLO), and the East Scarborough Storefront will ensure that the residents of Toronto's Kings- ton-Galloway neighbourhood who don't qualify for legal aid but who also can't aff ord a lawyer can access the court sys- tem with real representation. Teschner, who currently sits on Toronto's advisory panel on making a safe city safer, has seen people's frustrations with the justice system. "Th rough all that work, I have seen the challenges that residents in a variety of Toron- to communities face," he says. "And access to justice is defi - nitely one of them." Th rough the program, resi- dents of the Kingston-Galloway area, a neighbourhood grap- pling with a higher unemploy- ment rate than the rest of the city, can fi ll out an intake form describing their legal needs. If they need more help than East Scarborough Storefront's law- yer can provide, Heenan Blai- kie will be approached to take on the fi le. If they qualify for the program, they may enter bono cases, the work will count as billable time. As a result, law- yers won't face negative conse- quences when the fi rm assesses their work for bonuses. Th e program got off the ground about two years ago when Teschner met with PBLO to talk about developing a pro bono partnership in one of the priority neighbourhoods in east Toronto. Yonit Fuhrmann, deputy The program got off the ground after Ryan Teschner contacted Pro Bono Law Ontario about offering free services. into a retainer agreement with the fi rm. Because the fi rm is encour- aging its lawyers to take pro director of PBLO, says there was no trouble fi nding a group that had the leadership and management abilities to imple- ment the program. "Everyone we talked to said, 'You have to go to the East Scarborough Storefront. You have to meet with [manager] Anne Gloger because she's the real deal,'" says Fuhrmann. For Gloger, the assistance of a high-profi le fi rm has been the one factor that has almost always been missing when it comes to solving community problems. "You need diversity of play- ers in order to really transform a community," says Gloger. "If we don't have the large busi- nesses, particularly the Bay Street fi rms, involved, we're missing a huge component, and the struggle would be much greater." Heenan Blaikie is also part of a program that helps young people from at-risk neighbour- hoods in Toronto to develop marketable skills and get work experience. Th e goal is that other fi rms will follow suit. "I hope this spreads up and down Bay Street quickly," says Teschner. "Th e hope is that oth- er law fi rms will give us a call and fi nd out how to do it." LT Visit us online at www. lawtimesnews.com to view video of Heenan Blaikie's the Law Times an- nouncement of the new pro bono program. Featuring Canadian Labour Arbitration, Fourth Edition (Brown & Beatty) Look for the for Select Decisions in our online services! Labour Spectrum is your one-stop labour law research tool, combining expert commentary, case law and legislation with functionality that is practical and easy to use. This online research service is designed with both labour law and labour arbitration practices in mind, so you can choose the content that fits your research needs. The Essential Edition includes the same great content that was in Canadian Labour Law Library (Brown and Beatty, L.A.C., C.L.A.S., images of decisions in PDF format), plus labour legislation from all Canadian jurisdictions and labour law decisions from the courts. The Classic Edition gives you all the content on the Essential Edition, as well as more commentary (Canadian Labour Law, Second Edition and Willis & Winkler on Leading Labour Cases (formerly Labour Arbitration: The Year in Review), a collection of labour relations board decisions and a case citator. Briefcase CD-ROM Edition Available PDFs of the LAC's pages and selected decisions from the DLR's exactly as they appear in the law report complete with headnotes Contact your Account Manager at 1.800.263.2037 to arrange for a free product demonstration or for pricing information Canada Law Book is a Division of The Cartwright Group Ltd. Labour Spectrum (LT 1-2x4).indd 1 www.lawtimesnews.com LT0125 1/20/10 9:44:22 AM Photo: Benjamin Glatt