The premier weekly newspaper for the legal profession in Ontario
Issue link: https://digital.lawtimesnews.com/i/50261
Law TiMes • March 1, 2010 NEWS PAGE 5 Several police officers on Edelson's client list Continued from page 1 Comeau, was attached to the base when she was killed. Th e other woman, 27-year-old Jessi- ca Lloyd, lived in a nearby town and disappeared on Jan. 29. Th e OPP also charged Wil- liams with two sexual assaults that occurred in nearby Tweed, Ont., last fall. Lloyd and the two women who were sexu- ally assaulted lived on the same street in the town, Cozy Cove Lane, where Williams and his wife, a prominent health foundation executive who lived primarily in Ottawa, also had a residence. Th e OPP have said they are looking at unsolved murder cases in other regions where Williams has been posted, and that investigation continues. Th e details of police events that led to the charges against Williams erupted on news- paper front pages, television broadcasts, Internet news pag- es, and Twitter soon after his arrest, but a Globe and Mail Panel sympathetic Continued from page 1 the judge was right to con- clude Horgan possessed the necessary subjective mens rea. Th at included the withdrawal of more than $100,000 from the client's account after her death, ac- cording to the appeal court decision. Horgan sought leave to appeal from the Supreme Court of Canada, which it denied in April 2008. When the matter came before the LSUC hear- ing panel in August, Hor- gan's lawyer, James Girvin, sought the ouster of Scha- bas. He argued that the panel chairman should recuse himself because he had worked as an associate in the law offi ce of Morris Manning, which in the late 1980s had represented Horgan in LSUC proceedings that were later dropped. Girvin argued that "this raises an apprehension bias and possible confl ict and the potential for an issue to arise as the matter proceeds," according to the panel decision. However, the panel denied that motion, ruling the issue Paul Schabas, above, chaired the law society disciplinary panel that gave Brian Horgan 30 days to hand over his licence. column by Christie Blatch- ford contained extraordinary accounts of what went on be- hind the scenes. She quoted "sources" to say Williams had given police a "lengthy and wide-ranging statement" about the murders and that he alleg- edly led police to Lloyd's body and disclosed details about the sexual assaults and other forced entries that Blatchford termed "lingerie break-ins." Th e column named one de- tective as the "key offi cer" in the interview room and, this time attributing the information to "those close to the investiga- tion," went on to describe the manner in which Williams al- legedly gave his statement. Edelson won't comment on the case but, in an interview with Law Times, describes the passion for criminal law that has led him to become one of Ottawa's best-known lawyers on whom some of the most high-profi le characters in the city have depended. "What I can tell you is most days there are few things that I would fi nd more interest- ing. It's because of the human drama element: people at their best, people at their worst," says Edelson, who along with another law student began his career in criminal law by founding a legal aid program at the University of Ottawa in the 1970s. Th e list of Edelson's high- profi le clients is long. It in- cludes Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien, acquitted last year of infl uence-peddling charges didn't raise a reasonable apprehension of bias as Schabas said he had no memory of the matter or Horgan. Girvin went on to seek an adjournment of the hearing, but that, too, was turned down. Th e lawyer unsuccessfully reasoned that he had just recently been retained on the mat- ter and didn't have enough time to properly prepare for the hearing. He also referred to concerns about the legal aid cer- tifi cate, the panel noted. Girvin also pointed to an "undefi ned medical illness" Hor- gan suff ered that should force the matter to be heard at a later date, according to the panel decision. Th at argument was supported by a letter from Horgan's physician, who wrote: "Brian is medically unfi t and is not capable of appearing or participating directly in this tribunal due to the above medical conditions." Regardless, the panel ruled the hearing should go on after fi nding Horgan hadn't presented suffi cient medical evidence to support an adjournment. It also noted two previous sets of dates had been arranged for the matter. After the panel refused to adjourn, Horgan requested to be excused from the hearing. Th e panel denied that request. Th e hearing panel would later reconvene to hear submis- sions on penalty. Th e panel at that time reviewed Horgan's affi davit evidence, noting he continued to maintain his inno- cence. He also outlined the impact the matter has had on his life, including health problems, damage to his legal practice, and fi nancial destitution. Girvin urged the panel to impose a suspension of about two years or otherwise allow the lawyer to resign his licence to practise rather than have it revoked. In the end, the panel ruled the punishment must serve to maintain public confi dence in the legal profession. But it al- lowed Horgan to relinquish his licence, noting the "public humiliation and stigma" and overall damage to his life caused by the theft. "And the panel accepts that compassion does have a place in this process," the decision stated. At press time, the law society hadn't received a notice from Horgan to surrender his licence. Neither his lawyer nor Sun Life responded to requests for comment. LT stemming from his mayoral election; Margaret Trudeau, whom Edelson represented when a trial judge and later an Ontario Court of Appeal judge tossed out impaired driv- ing charges she faced; Michael Cowpland, the former high- fl ying head of the Corel Corp. software fi rm who once faced insider-trading charges; and Maher Arar, whom Edelson represented when the RCMP fi rst sought to interview him on what a commission of inquiry later ruled was unfounded sus- picion of terrorism activity. Edelson has also represented a string of Ottawa police of- fi cers and at least one RCMP offi cer through the years who were charged with assault, sexual assault, and criminal driving off ences that, in at least two cases, led to serious injury or death. Th e most no- torious ended in the acquittal of an undercover drug offi cer who killed a 16-year-old cyclist when the offi cer drove into him on his way home from a bar in 1994. Th e judge who heard the case accepted the offi cer's ex- planation that he left the scene of the collision because he thought he had hit a deer. Crown prosecutors had earlier withdrawn impaired driving charges against the offi cer be- cause police who conducted the initial investigation didn't follow the required procedure for taking blood samples. An- other case against an off -duty RCMP offi cer also involved legal errors by police. "Th ere's a reason why the po- lice offi cers hire him. Obviously, they know who is most eff ective and who they are best off go- ing to in the event they get into trouble," says David Paciocco, a prominent University of Ot- tawa law professor who helps Edelson plan trial strategy and performs other work, including appeals, as general counsel at Edelson's fi rm. Edelson once told a news- paper reporter: "I don't go in there to baby witnesses. Th at is a war room, you are literally going to battle on behalf of your clients." One of Edelson's weapons behind the scenes, and some- times in the courtroom, is Paciocco, whose expertise on evidence has been cited at the Supreme Court of Canada. "He is meticulously pre- pared," Paciocco says of Edel- son. "And he's smarter than most, if not all, of the people he has to oppose. Th at com- bination of intelligence and meticulous preparation was im- posing enough when he started out. Now you couple that with almost three decades of experi- ence and you get the package that you currently have. He's a very, very eff ective trial lawyer." Addelman also describes Edelson as a meticulous plan- ner with an instinct for fi nd- ing jugular veins in the court- room. "He knows exactly where he's going with every witness," says Addelman. "If he fi nds a weakness, he's not sure when to stop." LT Subscribe to Law Times Why pay extra for your legal news? Cutting-edge legal affairs, news and commentary for just 37¢ a day! Make the time for Law Times and keep up with all the developments in Ontario's legal scene. Subscribe today and receive: • Unlimited access to the Law Times digital editions and to our digital edition archives...FREE • Canadian Legal Newswire, a weekly e-newsletter from the editors of Law Times and Canadian Lawyer...FREE www.mckellar.com www.mckellar.com 1-800-265-8381 $3.55 • Vol. 20, No. 13 Covering Ontario's Legal Scene April 20, 2009 Cosgrove says 'life goes on' after the bench F 'Shock and disappointment' BY ROBERT TODD Law Times dicial Council's decision to call for his ouster, saying he was compelled to resign due to his pending retire- ment, despite finding aspects of the council's report "troublesome." Cosgrove tells Law Times in an interview that once the CJC issued its recommendation to the justice minister, "My options were pretty narrow." While he believes he could have appealed an earlier committee report at ormer Ontario Superior Court justice Paul Cosgrove has spo- ken out on the Canadian Ju- month after the CJC issued a final re- port stating that his actions in a late- Cosgrove people in public office, and they were given little weight, according to the decision." Cosgrove's final criticism is the CJC's determination that the issue of public confidence was central to its decision. He suggests that it remains unclear what evidence is required to make such a determination. inquiry the Federal Court, he says a decision was un- likely before his mandatory retire- ment took hold in December. resigned earlier this Former Superior Court justice Paul Cosgrove tells Law Times that his pending mandatory retirement compelled him to resign from the bench rather than battle a call for his ouster. 1990s murder trial led to the conclusion that he "failed in the execution of the duties of his judi- cial office and that public confidence in his abil- ity to discharge those duties in future has been irrevocably lost." The decision made him only the second federal judge to meet such a fate. But the former judge says parts of the CJC's the senior regional judges in Ottawa since I've been here for the last 24 years, all wrote very positive recommendations, and they also were aware of the trial," says Cosgrove. "So to say that these letters, the people had final report could have been challenged. The council did not use a set of 32 letters of given rise for us to challenge," he says. "The problem with that is, of course I'm retired — manda- tory retirement in December of this year. And the process, for ex- ample, dealing with the constitu- tional issue, took three years." He says he did not want to "So, all of those issues may have Financial Matters with 20,000 pages of evidence likely put forth. The 74-year-old former judge, who will gamble and let the matter play out before Parliament, where an un- precedented joint resolution would have been required to finalize his ouster. Doing so may have proved cumbersome, suggests Cosgrove, no knowledge of what was going on was not accurate." Cosgrove also suggests the council should support written by judges and retired judges, law- yers, and members of the public when coming to its decision, saying they were irrelevant, he notes. "Personally, I found that difficult because, for example, there were my supervising judges, have used the letters from community mem- bers when considering whether he had lost the public's confidence. "It would seem to me that it's logical to test collect an annual pension of about $170,000, says that before the decision he was reason- ably confident that the council would not call for his dismissal. Independent counsel Earl Cherniak, a partner at Lerners LLP, had previ- ously told the council such a stern punishment was not necessary. "It was shock and disappointment," Cos- what the public's demeanour is; you ask people who are knowledgeable in the public," he says. "And there were a number of letters from 9 Focus On ADR/ Mediation Fight Over Fees 6 together we have all the tools. TitlePLUS title insurance and you, TitlePLUS title insurance and you, together we have all the tools Inside This Issue 3 " Quote of the week It is now incumbent on grove says of his reaction to the final decision. He says he has been dealing with the fall- out by responding to media inquiries, and See Cosgrove, page 4 sports federations in selection disputes to show they had the proper criteria set up and that it was properly applied . . . The onus is now on the organiza- tion not the athlete. It wasn't quite as clear a few years ago." BY TIM NAUMETZ For Law Times OTTAWA — The possible closure of McCarthy Tétrault LLP's high- profile office in the nation's capital is unrelated to dire economic cir- cumstances that have hit home for some Canadian law firms, a senior McCarthys partner says. Future uncertain for McCarthys' Ottawa office zation we review our business plans on an ongoing basis," Boake tells Law Times when asked of the Ot- tawa office closure possibility. She adds the firm wants to meet the needs of its clients, and that each of its offices have a practice and focus which aligns with McCarthys' over- all strategy. "So it's in that context "Yeah, I guess, like any organi- staff, remains undecided. "It's really just a question of the fact that we are in discussion with lawyers there as part of an overall strategic review," she tells Law Times. "These discussions have been decisions" because of a drop in busi- ness due to the economy, letting go less than 20 of its 650 lawyers across the country. She would not give the specific number or other details. Gowling Lafleur Henderson going on for a while and are not related to the economy," she says. "I would call it a strategic review. Our firm really focuses on integrat- The financial crisis that has hit directly New York and London, being financial centres of the world, and the financial institutions based there, has not hit to the same degree in Canada, primarily because of the strength of the financial institutions in Canada. McCarthys' Ottawa contingent is a "strategic review" based on the firm's national business plan, and the role played by all of its six loca- tions across Canada, says Barbara Boake, national leader, profession- als, at McCarthy Tétrault. Consideration of the future of that we're currently reviewing the Ottawa office, but no decision has been made to close it," she says. Boake would not divulge fur- ther details and said the fate of the office, along with the employ- ment of its seven partners, two associates, and 11 administrative ed practices; we have offices right across the country. We have a very diversified practice geographically and our overall strategy is to inte- grate those practices and develop client teams on a firm-wide basis." Boake, however, confirmed Mc- Carthys has taken "difficult staffing LLP also confirmed to Law Times the firm released staff last week. But Gowlings chairman and CEO Scott Jolliffe said the shakeup did not involve partners or associ- ates. Jolliffe says the firm is shifting toward a "pod" model where law- yers and associates share a smaller number of secretaries, but he would not say how many were affected. The move not only economizes, but also creates a team atmosphere among secretaries that is useful for mentoring and sharing workloads. Sources in the legal community say McCarthy Tétrault's Ottawa re- view may be related to a management See Ottawa, page 4 www.lawtimesnews.com q Send me 1 year of Law Times for only $135.00 (Total with GST: $141.75) Name: __________________________________________________________________________ Company: _______________________________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________________________________ City: ____________________________ Prov: _______________ Postal Code: __________________ Tel: ( ) _______________________ Fax: ( ) ______________________ Email: ____________________________________________________________________________ q Payment enclosed q Charge my: q Visa q Mastercard q American Express Card #: __________________________________ Expiry Date: ___ / ___ (mm/yy) Signature (required): ________________________________________________ Date: ________________ 240 Edward St. Aurora, ON. L4G 3S9 Tel: (905) 727-0077 Fax: (905) 841-4357 Mail or fax this form to Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com LT_1-4sub.indd 1 12/16/09 11:04:45 AM www .lawtimesnews.com Includes a FREE digital edition! Toronto, Ontario M5C 1T4 RainMaker Group 110 Yonge Street, Suite 1101 WHICH DIRECTION IS BEST FOR YOU? www.rainmakergroup.ca Tel: 416-863-9543 Fax: 416-863-9757