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Page 16 March 19, 2018 • Law TiMes www.lawtimesnews.com LAW SOCIETY MEDAL WINNERS ANNOUNCED The Law Society of Ontario has announced the recipients of the 2018 Law Society Medal. Lenny Abramowicz, one of the recipients, is executive director of the Association of Commu- nity Legal Clinics of Ontario. For the past three decades, he has worked to promote equal access to justice and equality for low- income Ontarians. Abramowicz says this award is a team effort for the work that's been done in the field. "I don't see this as an individ- ual recognition but as a recogni- tion for the community clinics system and legal aid system overall," he says. Called to the bar in 1987, Abramowicz says there's more to do on increasing access to justice and providing help to low-income com- munities and vulnerable individuals but the recognition from the Law Society is a positive step forward in the legal field. "The type of work we do is important, and I think the law society is recognizing that more," he says. The other recipients for the 2018 Law Society Medal are: Kathleen Lickers, a Seneca from Six Nations of the Grand River, who's recognized for her involvement in Indigenous affairs; John Andrew Olthuis, who represents First Nations peoples across the country in litigation and negotiation; Gilles LeVasseur, a Franco-Ontarian who has dedicated his career to the rights of Ontario's francophone community; Carissima Mathen, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who has worked on issues such as women's equality and public legal education; and Walter Martin Traub, who is consid- ered one of Canada's foremost experts in mortgage and real estate law. NEW BLOCKCHAIN ALLIANCE Gowling WLG and Decentral Inc. have created an alliance to improve the legal and commer- cial applications of blockchain technology. The Toronto-based company will help Gowling WLG develop its inner block- chain foundation and client- facing tools and Gowling WLG will offer legal guidance on De- central's current practices and future projects, according to a press release. Future initiatives include engineering contract technology, drafting legal docu- ments and establishing growing frameworks of Canada's block- chain industry. LAW FIRM WELCOMES EQUITY PARTNERS Jason Gudofsky and Debbie Salzberger have joined Mc- Carthy Tétrault LLP's Na- tional Competition & For- eign Investment Group in To- ronto, which deals with mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, business practices and compli- ance issues. Before McCarthy Tétrault, Gudofsky and Salz- berger worked at Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP. YES, I AGREE 50 % 50 % NO, I DO NOT AGREE LAW TIMES POLL In this week's poll, Law Times reported that an Ontario judge has ruled he has jurisdiction to review decisions by student unions at three post-secondary institutions that denied official status to other student groups. Law Times asked readers if they agreed with this finding. Fifty per cent said that yes, the court has jurisdiction and it was right to uphold the decisions to deny status to the student groups. Fifty per cent said no, uphold- ing these decisions breached principles of natural justice and is contrary to Charter values. LT u Bizarre Briefs By Viola James u The InsIde story Lenny Abramowicz says receiving an award to honour his work from the Law Society of Ontario acknowledges the community clinics system and legal aid system. NO DIGNITY IN THIS LAWSUIT VANCOUVER — A Vancouver neurosurgeon who crashed his Ferrari into a lamp post in 2012 is demanding B.C.'s public auto insurer cover the full cost of repairs, citing an affront to his "sense of dignity" in a lawsuit over the estimated $982,000 bill. Dr. Navraj Heran originally wrecked his rare Ferrari F40 in a 2012 collision. The Insur- ance Bureau of British Columbia offered him $503,000 at the time, but he complained and an arbitrator ruled that the payout ought to be $696,000. The car had to be shipped to Toronto for re- pairs, bringing the ICBC payout up to a total of $790,000. The insurer has covered those costs, but Heran says that still is not enough, and he is now suing ICBC to cover what he says is the full cost of repairs: an estimated $982,000. Heran said in his latest notice of civil claim against the agency that it was "unsettling and embarrassing" for him to have the Ferrari absent from his vehicle collection, "which he makes available for public display and appreciation." A judge ruled that the "embarrassment" paragraph in Heran's claim be struck from his notice of civil claim, calling it "frivolous." However, the case remains unresolved as the court awaits additional financial estimates from Heran. GARAGE SUED FOR CRUSHING VIOLIN NEW YORK — A California woman and her daughter are suing a New York City parking ga- rage and a couple of its employees over a violin that got run over, according to The Associated Press. Beth Bergman filed the suit in Manhattan Supreme Court on March 9. She claims she and her daughter were taking their possessions out of a car at the West 51st Street garage in August. They had put the ex- pensive Degani violin in its case on the ground. The suit says an employee drove over the instrument and caused damage in excess of US$85,000. An employee named in the suit, Victor Asitimbay, told The New York Post the daughter was "crying like somebody died." "We didn't do anything wrong. If you have something very special, you don't put it on the f loor," he told the Post. GRANDSON GETS MANSON'S BODY LOS ANGELES — A court has decided that Charles Manson's body, after months sitting on ice, will go to Jason Freeman — who says he is the serial killer's grandson. Almost four months after Manson died at a hospital in Bakersfield, Calif., Kern County Superior Court Commissioner Alisa Knight chose among three competing claims — by Freeman, Michael Brunner, who says he's the cult leader's son, and Michael Channels, a Man- son friend who says he has the only valid will, reports CNN. The Kern County Coroner's office has kept Manson's body at an undisclosed location since his death on Nov. 19 at age 83. In making her decision, Knight said that the 2002 will that Channels submitted was not valid, in part because the witness signature was dated four days before the will was executed. In addition, the court found that the will, even if valid, had no specific details on how to dispose of the remains. As for Brunner, the court ruled that he had been adopted by his maternal grandparents and was thus no longer Manson's son. Freeman learned that he had won the case in a phone call shortly after the ruling was posted. "This is unreal — this is something I actually played out in my mind ever since I was a kid," he said. Freeman says he plans to cremate his grandfather's remains and hold a small family ceremony. LT "Careful, Mr. President! He could be a free-enterprise, unregulated, Canadian NAFTA negotiator." 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