Law Times

PAGE 2 Law school seeks dean O BY ROBERT TODD Law Times sgoode Hall Law School is on the lookout for a new dean after Patrick Monahan was plucked by York University to serve as vice president academic and provost. "I am delighted to confirm the appointment of Patrick Monahan as vice president academic and provost," said York University president and vice chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri, in a release. "He is a first-class academic leader who has done much to raise the profile and reputation of the law school and York University. I look for- ward to working with him as we celebrate York's 50th anniversary and take York into its next 50 years." Monahan will report to Shoukri in his new role, and will be charged with institutional leadership in planning, policy development, and im- plementation of new and existing academic programs, the university said. He will also work with the university senate to set academic goals and identify priorities for the institution. Monahan will serve a five-year term at the post, and was chosen fol- lowing a "wide search" by a committee, the university said. Monahan succeeds Sheila Embleton in the position. The university credited her for showing "tremendous leadership" in the role. She will re- main with the university until 2010 as special adviser to the president. Monahan embraced the new position. "I believe York University has tremendous potential for growth, de- velopment, and contribution to the public good," he said. "It is a privi- lege for me to have the opportunity to contribute to the development of York as its next provost." Monahan took the helm at Osgoode — York's law school — in July 2003. He was appointed for a second term last July. "During his time as dean, Osgoode's reputation has grown and the law school is ranked as one of the top in the country," read the release. "Monahan also spearheaded a strategic plan for the law school that has resulted in an expanded faculty and greater focus on improving student engagement and the learning experience. In addition, he launched the largest capital campaign in the history of Canadian law schools that will help improve programs and the physical space at Osgoode." Monahan graduated as Gold Medallist from Osgoode in 1980, and has been a member of the school's faculty since 1982. The constitu- tional law expert also has expertise in the areas of Canadian federalism and administrative law. He served as senior policy adviser to the attorney general and premier of Ontario from 1986 to 1990, and played a part in the Meech Lake Accord of 1987. He also has offered legal advice to all three levels of government, federal royal commissions, government agencies, and the auditor general of Canada. Monahan will assume his new role July 1, which will mark about six months from the time the university resumed classes following a prolonged labour strike involving CUPE union members, including graduate assistants, contract professors, and teaching assistants. Most classes were cancelled dur- ing the strike, which spanned November 6 to January 29, when Queen's Park passed the York University Labour Disputes Resolution Act. LT NEWS March 9, 2009 • Law TiMes Meetings to wrap in May Continued from page 1 matters — before fully debating the issues. "I think discipline is our most important function, and I think we should be debating that amongst ourselves if we think there's a problem," said Murray. He admitted that he knew little of the law society's makeup and benchers' responsibilities upon first being elected in 1991. Murray sug- gested most lawyers, with a similar lack of aware- ness, would not be able to provide a useful ap- praisal of the law society's governance model. "It just strikes me as something that might not be within the realm of knowledge of lawyers who have not been there," he said. "I think be- fore we start consulting, those are questions we should ask ourselves." Murray also attacked the task force's discus- sion paper. "There are some misleading statements in this report," he said. "In a way, the report is shy on information. One of the things it's shy on is describing what people do around here; what benchers do, what life benchers do, and explain- ing the role that we play." Bencher Janet Minor, a member of the task force, backed the group's approach. "It seems to me we need a very vigorous de- bate in Convocation — we need it after we have a considered report presented to Convo- cation for debate," she said. "We need a report that's informed by the very people who are af- fected by our governance: our members and the public, and we are seeking to get that input. Our legitimacy as self-governors depends on the confidence that the public and the profession has in our structure. "Surely we need to inform ourselves of their views and not just look inward when we are seek- ing to evaluate our governance structure." Bencher Linda Rothstein, also a member of the governance task force, said the law society must take responsibility for the fact, as many benchers re- marked during the debate, that lawyers and the pub- lic are unaware of the institution's role and makeup. "It is a failure of the society that people like me and everyone else who appears around me who run for bencher for the first time don't actually under- stand what we do and why we do it," she said. "I think that is a terrible flaw in our governance." Rothstein suggested the governance consulta- tion is an opportunity to expand the profession and public's understanding of the LSUC. She tried to ease some benchers' view that the consultation would be tilted. "I can tell you that our committee is working very, very hard to fairly represent all the opposing views so this can be an informed consultation process and we can get back the very best from our constituents about how we ought to operate better." The debate among benchers fuelled a wide- ranging set of responses on issues Ontario law- yers likely regularly ponder regarding their pro- fessional regulator. In one exchange, Wright suggested low turnouts to bencher elections — noted on the task force's dis- cussion paper — can be attributed to the fact that the law society is not a big concern for government lawyers, as their employer pays their law society fees. "It doesn't indicate in the report that about a third of our members are in government, etcetera, and we are, essentially, irrelevant to them, for all the best reasons," said Wright. "The people that we impact the most are the lawyers in private practice, and it's the lawyers in private practice that tend to vote in these elections. The lawyers in the large firms — we barely impact them; they get CLE [continuing legal education] inside the firm; they're almost never in our discipline office." Millar was quick to rebut that view. "I disagree with many of those statements, Mr. Wright. They're debatable statements," said Millar, later suggesting there are no statistics to back up his position on low election turnouts. "We're the regulator of the legal profession." The task force will hold eight meetings dur- ing the consultation process. Up to two are to be held in Toronto with leaders of legal organiza- tions. The rest of the meetings will be held in Toronto, Ottawa, London, and a northern com- munity, according to the report. Around 10 law- yers and paralegals will attend each meeting. The task force has compiled a list of individuals who will be invited to attend the meetings. Practi- tioners from different practice areas and firm sizes, as well as legal organizations, in-house counsel, aca- demics, and those with expertise in corporate gov- ernance will be included, stated the report. The meetings are expected to get underway later this month and wrap up by early May. The task force will consider the input it re- ceived during the bencher workshop and meet- ings and report back to Convocation with a summary of the issues raised. It will then decide if more consultation is needed before drafting a final report for Convocation. LT www.lawtimesnews.com

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