Law Times

May 9, 2011

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Follow on www.twitter.com/lawtimes $4.00 • Vol. 22, No. 16 Untitled-3 1 5/5/10 3:55:30 PM Inside This Issue 3 LawPRO Warning Covering Ontario's Legal Scene Billions of dollars invested, not a penny lost. ntitled-3 1 May 9, 2011 5/4/10 2:49:21 PM New benchers eager to govern But few youth among fresh faces at Convocation BY MICHAEL McKIERNAN Law Times 7 T Final Remarks 8 Focus On E-Discovery Quote of the week "A lot of this legislation is reactive to headlines. This is straw-man politics. The approach of the govern- ment on these issues is to create fears in the minds of Canadians and then say, 'Don't worry, we'll fi x it.'" — Nova Scotia Liberal James Cowan, See NDP, page 4 he Law Society of Upper Canada has elected 15 fresh faces among the 40 benchers heading to Con- vocation following this year's elections. Twelve incumbents didn't run, includ- ing seven forced to step aside as a result of governance reforms passed in 2009. A further three sitting benchers failed to make the cut this time around, according to results released on May 2. Avvy Go came in 22nd in Toronto, while Carl Fleck fell in the southwest region. Ot- tawa sole practitioner William Simpson, who ran for treasurer last year against Laurie Pawl- itza, is also out after 12 years as a bencher. Th e number of new faces will possibly rise to 16 later this month should Pawlitza formally step aside as an elected Toronto bencher to reassume her position as trea- surer. Peter Wardle, who fi nished in 21st place in Toronto, would be another nov- ice at Convocation. New Bencher Janet Leiper is looking forward to getting started in her new role. "It's a great time to join the panel, partly because of the fact there are a lot of new people coming in who will bring a new set of perspectives," says Leiper, who will be joined by Toronto newcomers Wendy Matheson, Barbara Murchie, William Mc- Dowell, John Callaghan, Malcolm Mercer, and Howard Goldblatt. MacLean (central west); Adriana Doyle and Robert Wadden (east); and Michael Lerner and Jacqueline Horvat (southwest). In Toronto, 13 of the 20 elected bench- ers come from fi rms with more than 10 lawyers, compared with six who practise at smaller fi rms. Outside Toronto, small fi rms are better represented, taking nine of the 20 elected positions there. Six of the benchers from those regions are in private practice at fi rms with more than 10 lawyers. Other candidates, including Lerner of London, Ont., were keen to play up their sole practitioner roots in their materials even when they've since moved on. Lerner, now a partner at Lerners LLP, Janet Leiper is looking forward to starting her new role at Convocation. Outside Toronto, eight new people won elec- tion: Robert Evans (central east); Joseph Sullivan and James Scarfone (central south); Virginia started out his practice in 1974 at a one- person branch of the fi rm before moving to the main offi ce in 1988. "I certainly have the ability to sympathize with the small and sole practitioners who still have to be a jack of all trades," he says. "In this era of electronic and Internet overload, I sometimes wonder how they manage." Lerner isn't the fi rst person from his family at Convocation. His uncle served during the 1970s, while his own father was a bencher for 16 years between 1975 and 1995. He later became a life bencher. Lawyers at both ends of their careers are a priority for him as he heads to Osgoode Hall. Lerner says he wants the LSUC to help law students get practical experience before they're thrown into practice following See Call, page 4 he Supreme Court of Canada missed a chance to deal with the right to strike in a decision that upheld the constitutionality of Ontario's Ag- ricultural Employees Protection Act, says a labour relations expert. Roy Adams, a professor of industrial relations at McMas- ter University, says the Supreme Court majority seemed anxious to shy away from further contro- versy in the 8-1 decision in On- tario (Attorney General) v. Fraser as it fought off an internal attack on one of its most important labour law precedents: Health Services and Support – Facilities Subsector Bargaining Association v. British SCC shies from controversy over strikes: prof T BY MICHAEL McKIERNAN Law Times Columbia. Despite concurring with the result, two of the judges called for the four-year-old deci- sion to be overturned. Th e United Food and Com- mercial Workers Union wanted the court to fi nd that the 2002 act breached agricultural work- ers' constitutional right to free- dom of association under s. 2(d) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by limiting their col- lective bargaining rights. Th e union said the act could be constitutional only if the govern- ment revised it to include bargain- ing and dispute-resolution features mirroring those in the Labour Relations Act and it enshrined the employer's duty to bargain in good faith in the legislation. But Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Justice Louis LeBel, writing for fi ve of the judges, said there was no need to do so because the employer's duty to consider employee representations in good faith was implied in the act. At the same time, they said s. 2(d) only guaranteed "the right to a general process of collective bargaining, not to a particular model of labour re- lations, nor to a specifi c bargaining method" such as the one set out in the Labour Relations Act. But Adams believes the court should have asked the provincial government to include a statu- tory right to strike in the 2002 act because the current decision leaves open the question of how to ultimately resolve an impasse in discussions between employers See Union, page 4 Fraser provides certainty to agri- cultural employers, says John Craig. • Gold Standard Mediators www.lawtimesnews.com ADR-banner_LT_Apr4_11.indd 1 3/29/11 10:48:55 AM Arbitrators ADR Connect Find an ADR Professional

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