Law Times

Page 2 July 11, 2016 • law Times www.lawtimesnews.com a Toronto bencher after Isfahan Merali filled the vacancy left by former treasurer Janet Minor. Treasurers serve as ex-officio benchers and do not hold office as elected benchers. Toronto bencher Paul Scha- bas' recent election to treasurer then left a spot open for Walker. Janet Leiper, the chairwoman of the law society's equity and aboriginal issues committee, says Convocation has become more diverse since she first start- ed working on law society files in the 1980s. The law society imposed term limits in 2009, which benchers say made space for new faces and voices. "It opened up the potential number of spots at the table to newcomers," Leiper says. "I was one of those newcom- ers — not this time, but the time before." The 2011 bencher election saw 18 women elected, which was the highest number of female bench- ers Convocation had ever had. With Walker's rise to bencher, Convocation will again have 18 women elected for this term. In addition to adding more racial diversity to Convocation, Leiper says Walker's ascension to bencher will bring a young voice into the conversation. "It's very important we have different generations of lawyers around the table, which is anoth- er source of diversity and anoth- er reason why I think Tanya will be a great addition," Leiper says. The law society is currently working on finalizing a report concerning the barriers faced by racialized licensees. An interim report released last year found that a large number of lawyers from minority backgrounds thought their ethnicity or race was a barrier to advancing their career in the field. Donna Walwyn, the presi- dent of the Canadian Associa- tion of Black Lawyers, says the law society has struggled with diversity, but it is working hard to tackle the issue by reaching out to marginalized groups. "Any time we can introduce additional diversity into our governance, our regulatory pro- cess, is a good thing," she says. "I think we all know diversity of opinion, diversity of experi- ence, and diversity at large is a beneficial thing to anybody, to any group or organization and the same is true for benchers in the law society." Joanne St. Lewis was the first elected black bencher outside of Toronto, when she first became a bencher in 2001. Hope Sealy was the first black female lay bencher for Toronto from 1992 to 1998, but the lieutenant governor in council appoints lay benchers. LT NEWS Continued from page 1 Bencher will add more diversity to Convocation New Edition Ontario Consent & Capacity Legislation 2016-2017 Edition Consulting Editor: Justice Michael McKelvey This convenient consolidation includes the: • Health Care Consent Act, 1996 and regulation • Legislation Act, 2006 • Mandatory Blood Testing Act, 2006 • Mental Health Act and regulation • Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 and regulation • Powers of Attorney Act • Public Hospitals Act and regulation • Quality of Care Information Protection Act, 2004 • Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, Schedule 2 – Health Professions Procedural Code • Statutory Powers Procedure Act • Substitute Decisions Act, 1992 and regulations • Consent and Capacity Board Information Sheets • Consent and Capacity Board Rules of Practice Professional guidelines include: • Advocating for Clients • Consent to Medical Treatment You'll also have access to forms under the: • Health Care Consent Act, 1996 • Mental Health Act • Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 • Substitute Decisions Act, 1992 New in this edition Recent Amendments: • Health Care Consent Act, 1996 • Mental Health Act • Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 • Statutory Powers Procedure Act New and Revised Forms under: • Mental Health Act • Substitute Decisions Act, 1992 One time purchase Order # 804944-65203 $83 Softcover May 2016 approx. 600 pages 978-0-88804-944-5 Multiple copy discounts available On subscription Order # 804944-65203 $72 Annual volumes supplied on standing order subscription Multiple copy discounts available Shipping and handling are extra. Price(s) subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes. © 2016 Thomson Reuters Canada Limited 00237OG-A70019-RM Available risk-free for 30 days Order online: www.carswell.com Call Toll-Free: 1-800-387-5164 In Toronto: 416-609-3800 © 2016 Thomson Reuters Canada Limited 00238VR-73080-CE WestlawNext ® Canada received the Hugh Lawford Award at the recent 2016 Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) conference. Established by the CALL Executive in 1998, this annual award recognizes excellence in legal publishing and acknowledges publishers' work in providing legal professionals with high quality materials for understanding and researching the law. WestlawNext ® Canada wins 2016 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing Congratulations to the entire WestlawNext Canada team. Burney to discuss a move. Some of the dissidents met with Scott Jolliffe, then-CEO at Gowlings in July 2015, before Gowlings agreed to a non-dis- closure agreement. An exchange of the group's client lists, bill- ings, and compensation details followed, but the negotiations ultimately proved fruitless, and Lowman joined Aird & Berlis in October 2015. The three patent agent part- ners followed the next month, and by April 1, Peter McBurney was on board and the patent agency was launched as Aird & McBurney. A few days later, Sim & McBurney hired Gowlings to send a cease- and-desist letter to the new patent firm, and then filed its statement of claim alleging a common-law passing-off claim, in addition to several other trademark infringe- ment causes of action relating to the new firm's name and associ- ated domain names. According to Dunphy, Sim & McBurney also alleged two fur- ther categories of claim against the defendants: one accusing Peter McBurney of breaching a contract with them when he switched to Aird and McBurney and helped them solicit clients from his old firm. And another against Aird & Berlis that alleged the law firm induced the three patent agent partners to breach the fiduciary duty they owed to Sim & McBurney. The de- fendants then quickly moved to have Gowlings removed from the file, arguing the non-disclosure agreement signed during nego- tiations created a duty of confi- dence and placed the law firm in a conf lict of interest. However, Sim & McBurney took the po- sition that removal of counsel should only be reserved for cases where conf licts arise out of duties to clients or "near clients." Only a small group of people at Gowl- ings knew about the discussions with the dissident partners, and since they were never clients, their names failed to show up in Gowl- ings' internal conf licts check. It was Jolliffe himself who told the litigation team handling the Sim & McBurney claim about the negotiations in mid-April, just before the statement of claim was issued. In his June 20 decision, Dun- phy sided with Aird & McBur- ney, ruling that the court's abil- ity to disqualify counsel goes beyond solicitor-client conf licts. "There are few moments in the life of a lawyer where he or she is more vulnerable than when contemplating moving law firms to find a platform better suited to his or her professional aspirations. The mere whisper of the fact that a lawyer is looking at another firm could be enough to jeopardize his or her career," Dunphy wrote. "I find that all four dissident partners had a rea- sonable expectation of confiden- tiality attending their meetings and negotiations with Gowlings that predated the delivery of an NDA and survived the termina- tion of their negotiations. Each had a reasonable right to expect that Gowlings would keep the information conveyed, includ- ing the fact of their meetings, confidential." The judge removed Gowl- ings, concluding that it was "not reasonable" for the defendants to have to accept their involvement "subject only to an ethical wall that might now be put in place this long after the fact." LT Continued from page 1 Name battle over

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