Law Times

Page 4 March 9, 2015 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com A look at some of the noteworthy historic discipline cases BY YAMRI TADDESE Law Times oing over the Law Society of Upper Canada's discipline re- cords from the 1800s and early 1900s can at times be amusing, other times baff ling, and definitely interesting. Much of the historical mis- deeds of lawyers aren't all that different from the cases that arise these days. In fact, terms like misappropriation and misap- plication of client funds, words the law society still employs, ap- pear all too often in the records. In other historic cases, the law society has disbarred lawyers for destroying documents and consorting with companies that wanted to evade taxes. But as the LSUC undertakes a review of its records as part of a historical discipline project, some of the matters archived in Convocation minutes from long ago raise eyebrows. Some are en- tertaining while others are telling signs of the different standards expected of lawyers: • Perhaps Dec. 30, 1925, was a bitterly cold day in Toronto. The law society would later hear from a detective who re- ported lawyer Dorius Richer "did steal one overcoat the property of J. R. Hunter of the value of over ten dollars." Rich- er admitted to taking the coat and said he had been drunk the night he made off with someone else's overcoat. Authorities withdrew the charges against him after the lawyer made restitution to the student whose coat he had taken. But the LSUC disbarred Richer nevertheless after benchers discovered he had in fact altered the overcoat when he was entirely sober. "Having regard to all the circumstanc- es," Convocation adopted a report that found Richer had committed conduct unbe- coming a lawyer and found him "unworthy to practise as a solicitor." • In 1879, Convocation received a report about an unnamed lawyer accused of "improperly removing a book from the li- brary." The lawyer was charged accordingly. • James Fleming's legal career ended before it started in 1885. Instead of taking his own law school test, Fleming was found to have hired "one Owen, a high school teacher and English uni- versity graduate to personate him at his primary examina- tion." In May 1885, Convo- cation adopted a discipline committee report that ordered Fleming "be erased from the roll of law students and from the report of the Legal Education Committee on the Primary Examination for Easter Term, 1885, and from the minutes of Convocation of that term." • The town solicitor for Collin- gwood, Ont., must have been feeling particularly threatened in 1902. That year, lawyer K. C. Birnie went to the law society with a complaint about "the conduct of certain solicitors practising in Collingwood, in that they had made endeavors to supplant him in the office of solicitor to the town of Collin- gwood." It may have been a salient issue for the lawyer, but Convocation ordered the secretary to inform Birnie the complaint "does not disclose such matters as come within the purview of the statute." • It appears 1989 was a better time to be a lawyer if you were the type to sleep with clients. On Nov. 23, 1989, a lawyer re- ceived a reprimand for "engag- ing in sexual activity with one female client and slept with one female client and attempt- ing to engage in sexual activity with two other female clients." All three clients had retained the lawyer in matrimonial matters. "A psychiatric report indicated that the disciplin- ary proceeding would act as a strong deterrent to any rep- etition of the behaviour which led to the complaint," a disci- pline summary from that time reads. LT NEWS With more than 1,400 pages of essential legal references, Ontario Lawyer's Phone Book is your best connection to legal services in Ontario. Subscribers can depend on the credibility, accuracy and currency of this directory year after year. 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(prices subject to change without notice) 2015 ONTARIO LAWYER'S PHONE BOOK THE MOST COMPLETE DIRECTORY OF ONTARIO LAWYERS, LAW FIRMS, JUDGES AND COURTS Untitled-9 1 2015-03-02 11:20 AM By combining comprehensive legal content with effi cient ways to search and organize results, WestlawNext Canada gives you confi dence you've found the most relevant documents. That leaves more time to fi nd new business, or better service the clients you already have. Discover more at westlawnextcanada.com 00227MO-A49101 IT'S THE CONFIDENCE YOU NEED TO STOP SEARCHING AND START DOING WHAT'S NEXT. G DLA Piper goes 'out of the box' in Davis deal BY GLENN KAUTH Law Times nother familiar name is about to disappear from the Canadian legal landscape as Davis LLP adopts the DLA Piper LLP brand. The firm will become DLA Piper (Canada) LLP when it completes the deal to join forces with DLA Piper next month. DLA Piper, which had been seeking a Canadian presence for some time, initially approached the Canadian firm, says Robert Seidel, manag- ing partner of Davis. "In the meetings, it became obvious very quick- ly that we shared a vision, we shared a culture," says Seidel. With the firm having experienced significant lateral growth in re- cent years, particularly in places like Calgary, it was time to consider additional opportunities to expand, according to Seidel. "In order for us to grow with our clients, it secures opportunities that didn't exist until this point," he says. Roger Meltzer, global co-chairman of DLA Piper, is vowing that the arrangement will be a "disruptive" force in the Canadian legal market. One of the key roadblocks in DLA Piper's previous discussions over the last three years with large Canadian law firms with a more sig- nificant Toronto presence than Davis, he says, was their worry about jeopardizing their referral relationships with other U.S. firms. "The problem with it was they weren't sure that they wanted to do it," he says. So when those talks fizzled, DLA Piper eventually decided to go West to a firm that didn't have the extensive U.S. referral relationships as some of its counterparts, he notes. But with Davis having more of a presence in areas like energy, forestry, and mining, DLA Piper's hope is the merger will allow it to counter the dominance of some of the more Ontario-focused firms in industries like the financial sector, according to Meltzer. "We're going to make every effort to disrupt that. Toronto is very crowded, massively lawyered," he says, calling the combination with Davis an "out-of-the-box" decision. "We feel like we needed to do something that was materially different." LT A

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