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Your Financial Security! $3.55 • Vol. 20, No. 22 uthrie_LT_June29_09.indd 1 6/23/09 9:45:57 AM Inside This Issue 3 LSUC Honours Feds spent $24 million on outside legal counsel Canucks paid $14.2 million BY ROBERT TODD Law Times 6 T Bits & Bytes 8 Focus On Municipal & Planning Law Quote of the week "I'm thinking of reaching out to my counterparts at other law fi rms down- town to try and create some more momentum with this and perhaps do a Bay Street campaign along the same lines." — Jennifer Bishop, partner Miller Thomson LLP See Firm's, page 4 he federal Department of Justice spent over $24 million on outside legal counsel in 2008, with the largest share — $9.2 million — going to global firm Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP's Washington, D.C. operations, Law Times has learned. Documents obtained through the Access to Information Act indicate that the Toronto law firm Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP received the biggest payout though fed- eral government work among its Canadian counterparts, at over $4.1 million. "We have a good relationship, and most of these cases are cases the government seeks expressions of interest," says Lenczner Slaght managing partner Ronald Slaght. "We like doing the work — it has a lot of appeal. It gets you into court, there's a public interest aspect to it, which we really like. And obviously you discount your rates, but none- theless it's very enjoyable, and we're the kind of firm that can do that." Macleod Dixon LLP's Calgary, Alta., operations received the third-highest valued work from the feds for non-criminal Crown agent work, at nearly $1.3 million. Lang Michener LLP's Ottawa office came fourth at nearly $607,000, and Calgary's Code Hunter LLP finished fifth at $605,000. Rounding out the top 10 for 2008 are Edmonton's McCuaig Desrochers LLP at $562,000, Calgary's Miles Davison LLP at $5,350 from firms from other countries. Weil Gotshal has represented the fed- 'We like doing the work — it has a lot of appeal,' says Ronald Slaght about his firm handling fed- eral government files. $560,000, Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP's Ottawa office at $543,000, Vancouver's Bull Housser & Tupper LLP at $435,000, and Whittle & Co. in Whitehorse at $384,000. In total, the feds spent over $14.2 million over the year on legal work from Canadian firms, $10.1 million from U.S. firms, and eral government in its ongoing trade battle with the U.S. over softwood lumber. Slaght says he was involved in a major file his firm worked on for the federal govern- ment involving a fraud claim in Canada v. Granitile Inc. He says the case involves an original judgment against the Crown a few years ago arising out of a government incen- tive program for Atlantic Canada. "We were able to prove that the judgment had been obtained by a fraud, particularly the forgery and fraudulent creation of 14 letters, which had been seeded into the record," says Slaght, adding the firm was originally obtained by the feds on that matter in 2001. The firm represents the federal govern- ment in tobacco litigation, specifically on the smuggling side of civil claims against tobacco companies, says Slaght. The firm also represented the feds in reaching settle- ments with two such companies last year — R.J. Reynolds and Imperial Tobacco, in which the federal government obtained about $1.5 billion, says Slaght. The firm continues to act with the government on litigation involving JTI-Macdonald Corp. The firm also acts for the feds on other major cases, he says. "It's a big client, obviously, in the sense of objectively it's a lot of stuff that goes on with the government of Canada," says Slaght. "The government is a very sophisticated See Feds, page 2 So, it was an 'unfortunate clerical error?' T BY ROBERT TODD Law Times he federal Department of Justice was left red- faced — and a press secretary short on words — af- ter releasing an announcement wrongly naming a Th under Bay lawyer a new judge of the Superior Court of Justice. Carrel & Partners LLP lawyer Danial Newton was wrongly in- cluded on the lengthy list of new appointments from across the country that was released June 19 at 4:39 p.m. Th e announcement stated that Newton would be re- placing Th under Bay Justice T.A. Platana "who elected to become a supernumerary judge." Th ree hours later, at 7:30 p.m., the department issued a corrected list of new appointments with the following notice: "An earlier ver- sion of this press release erroneous- ly referred to the appointment of W. Danial Newton to the Superior Court of Ontario in Th under Bay. Th ere have been no current ap- pointments to the Superior Court Mr. Newton as soon as we found out about it," says Eke. How was the "clerical error" made? "Again, it was an unfortunate clerical error," replies Eke. How was the mistake discov- ered? "Again, as soon as we found Again, as soon as we found out about it we issued an apology. . . . Again, I'm not going to get into any details. of Ontario in Th under Bay." Darren Eke, press secretary to TitlePlus_LT_Feb9/16_09 2/4/09 2:02 PM Page 1 Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, is listed as a contact following the announcement. He was unable to shed much light on the gaff e. "It was an unfortunate clerical error and we issued an apology to out about it we issued an apology," says Eke. "Again, I'm not going to get into any details." What's the status of the judicial vacancy in Th under Bay that New- ton was wrongly slated to fi ll? "Again, I'm not going to com- ment any further. 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TitlePLUS policies issued with respect to properties in Québec and OwnerEXPRESS® policies do not include legal services coverage. 1 wrongly Covering Ontario's Legal Scene www.twitter.com/lawtimes June 29/July 6, 2009 Follow on on Friday was an unfortunate clerical error," he says. Any changes planned to inter- nal offi ce practices to prevent a similar mistake? Well, you get the idea. It's not the fi rst time the de- partment has issued incorrect statements about judicial ap- pointments. An Ontario Superior Court offi ce worker was confused when called by Law Times in May after the Department of Justice's announcement stated that new Superior Court appoin- tee Justice Michael Code would be replacing Justice J.D. McCombs. Th e worker quickly retorted that McCombs was about to get started on a new trial. It later came to light that McCombs has elected to See Judge, page 2 www.lawtimesnews.com

• Cover
• LSUC Honours
• Bits & Bytes
• Focus On Municipal & Planning Law