Law Times

Page 6 august 18, 2014 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com COMMENT Bold move by CBA he Canadian Bar Association came out with a bold set of rec- ommendations with its Legal Futures report last week. While the report focuses on innovation across the legal profes- sion, the key aspect for many people was, of course, the pro- posed liberalization around alternative business structures. Among the suggestions was to allow such structures, including multidisciplinary partnerships, that could deliver both legal and non-legal services. As part of the reforms, the report suggests allowing for the payment of referral fees to non-lawyers. e recommendations, which come amid growing pressure to shake up the profession, include several provisions to permit alter- native business structures "but only on a carefully regulated basis." e protections include subjecting such arrangements to law society entity regulation; applying the confi dentiality, confl icts, and candour rules; and continuing to regulate lawyers working in alternative busi- ness structures as individuals. In addition, the proposals would see compliance-based regulation for law fi rms with a requirement to designate a lawyer responsible for overseeing regulatory compliance. e report includes a long list of other regulatory changes aimed at ensuring protection of the public under the proposed new frame- work in which non-lawyers would be able to invest in or own law fi rms. Given the need to allow for greater innovation in the legal fi eld, the recommendations are welcome. As outgoing CBA president Fred Head- on noted last week, outside ownership and investment are key to mak- ing innovation more feasible and cost-eff ective. e barriers, of course, Long summer of government discord with legal profession he long, nasty summer Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Justice Minister Peter MacKay spent attacking Canadian courts and the judiciary is almost over now. It's all been so ugly, and we have so little to show for it besides looking like fools around the world. It began back in May when Harper went a er Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin with a completely unnecessary personal attack on her be- cause the summer before she had tried to call him to fl ag a potential legal issue in appointing a Federal Court judge to the top court. She should have known better. You don't call someone like Harper to give him helpful advice. You call him up only to tell him what a great guy he is or else you stay away completely and let him take his lumps on his own. Harper stewed in silence for months and then fi nally came out with his pub- lic smear against McLachlin. Eleven former Canadian Bar Association presi- dents joined outgoing CBA head Fred Headon in criticizing Harper's com- ments about McLachlin. Nobody in the public or the legal com- munity was on Harper's side. What had he been thinking? Had no one in his offi ce given him advice? Less than a month later at a meeting of the Ontario Bar Association, Justice Minister Peter MacKay talked about why, in his opinion, there are still so few women judges. MacKay replied that women fear circuit-court jobs might take them away from their children. Headon challenged MacKay to back up his outrageous re- mark with some statistics. MacKay replied he had never made any such re- mark, but so far nobody has played back a voice recording to jog his memory. MacKay decided it would be wise to pass up the CBA conference in St. John's last week. He had already planned his summer schedule, he said. e confer- ence is an annual event planned a year ahead of time and justice ministers al- ways attend, except those trying to snub the judiciary and the legal profession. But then again, if MacKay was once again going to make some sort of stupid remark about women, it might be better for him to stay away, especially since he could almost be sure to get at least one question about his new pros- titution law that appears to be heading for an eventual constitutional challenge be- fore the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, news of Harp- er's ill-considered attack on our chief justice made its way around the world. Last month, the Geneva-based Interna- tional Commission of Jurists sent Harper a letter. It said he should never have tried to smear McLachlin and that he should apologize for having intruded on the independence of the judiciary. Harper fl atly refused to budge or apolo- gize. Last week, McLachlin said she had moved on from the issue. And then this week, the United Na- tions announced a noted Canadian ju- rist would head a war crimes investiga- tion in relation to the confl ict in Gaza. William Schabas teaches internation- al law at Middlesex University in England and is a member of the editorial board of the prestigious Israel Law Review. Rather than complimenting the UN on choosing a Canadian, Foreign Aff airs Minister John Baird attacked Schabas and accused him of being anti-Israel. Schabas replied that if he were anti-Is- rael, he wouldn't be serving on the edito- rial board of the Israeli law publication. It's true that Schabas once said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should "probably be in the dock of an in- ternational court." It wasn't a nice thing to say about the Israeli leader, but then half of Israelis aren't big fans of Netan- yahu either. But that doesn't make them anti-Israel. "Like everybody inside and outside Israel, I disagree with some people," said Schabas. "Is everyone in Israel who has an opinion about Netanyahu anti-Israel?" What Schabas didn't address is the fact that Harper is a big fan of Netan- yahu. Baird, of course, takes his orders from Harper, and so the Canadian for- eign minister knows when to attack someone who has said something rather harsh about a good friend of his boss. Schabas isn't about to step down from his UN posting just to please Baird. But it's about time this summer comes to an end. We've all had a long, hard summer. LT uRichard Cleroux is a freelance repor- ter and columnist on Parliament Hill. His e-mail address is richardcleroux@rogers. com. ©2014 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or stored in a retrieval system without written per- mission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. 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One Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto, ON • M1T 3V4 • Tel: 416-298-5141 • Fax: 416-649-7870 www.lawtimesnews.com • LT.Editor@thomsonreuters.com • @lawtimes • LT.Editor@thomsonreuters.com • @lawtimes u Editorial obitEr By Glenn Kauth are many, including the fact that each province has its own legal regulator that would have to move on the proposals. ere's sure to be signifi cant resistance, so it's easy to see how we could face a patchwork situa- tion where some legal regulators are willing to move on the reforms while others are saying no. at will create some problems and barriers, but as we've seen with the political and legal wrangling around a national securities regulator, that's the re- ality in Canada. Headon, meanwhile, hopes work- ing with the Federation of Law Societies of Canada will help smooth out some of those issues. e CBA report, then, is a great contribution to the de- bate that should move the innovation and reform issues signifi cantly forward. — Glenn Kauth T T The Hill Richard Cleroux

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