The premier weekly newspaper for the legal profession in Ontario
Issue link: https://digital.lawtimesnews.com/i/50768
Law timeS • September 21, 2009 NEWS PAGE 5 Bonkalo offers good news on court delays Continued from page 1 Bentley says the new process for ap- pointments ensures openness and trans- parency. But, he adds, there were "issues in starting up." "We've been working with the com- mittee to make sure, for example, the only positions that are advertised are ones that are actually vacant; that we were only so- liciting applications for positions that were vacant," he says. "By every indication, it's working much faster now, and I look forward to making quite a number of appointments very soon." Superior Court Chief Justice Heather Smith voiced her concerns over the increas- ing number of self-represented litigants. "Th e issue was further exacerbated by the plight of legal aid in Ontario," she said. "Th e challenge of self-represented litigants in increasingly complex matters raises fundamental questions about the protection of fundamental rights." However, Smith added she was "ab- solutely delighted" by Bentley's recent announcement of an additional $150 million over the next four years for Le- gal Aid Ontario. "We encourage all of our justice sec- tor partners and the bar to work collab- oratively with the attorney general to make this plan work," she said. Bonkalo off ered some good news on systemic trail delays in provincial courts, particularly in Toronto and Oshawa. "Th ese problems stemmed from out- standing judicial vacancies, which have a signifi cant impact on our ability to keep up with the trial work," she said. "I am pleased to report that recent ap- pointments to those jurisdictions have reduced those delays signifi cantly." Bonkalo said she is looking forward to the results of her court's review of crimi- nal rules, an eff ort that will consist of "extensive consultations" and will likely wrap up within the next 18 months. She said criminal rules "need to be simpler, more accessible to the self-rep- resented accused parties, and they need to respond to some of the recommenda- tions of the report on major cases from the Code-LeSage report of a year ago." Winkler also spoke of the need for the wider use of technology in the court system, saying the public expects it. "Anachronistic methods of doing business that do not take advantage of available electronic court information are ineffi cient for the administration of justice," said Winkler. Th e chief judge also emphasized the need for "competent representation, unbiased decision-making, and well functioning procedures." Winkler applauded reforms to the civil justice system, particularly a new set of rules of procedure set to take hold in January. He said the new rules, which high- light the need for proportionality in ensuring fairness and aff ordability, "are a signifi cant advancement towards im- proved access to the justice system." He added, "I predict that the future will bring even further simplifi cations to our court procedures." Winkler concluded his remarks with his desire for diff erent sectors of the jus- tice system to work together in the year ahead on "common goals." "Meaningful access to fair and open legal services is within our grasp," said Winkler. "We must not let it slip away through complacency or inaction. LT See video of the event at www.lawtimesnews.com. Big firms overemphasize marks, law dean says Continued from page 1 that's one of the pressing reasons [for this research]. Who's serving corporate power, and why is it so skewed?" It's also useful to know how people build careers and for law fi rms to have some insight into personnel strategies, says Dinovitzer. "If you're worried about the cost of turnover as a large law fi rm, you might want to invest in people who want to invest in you in the long term," she says. As a sociologist, Dinovitzer says she is also generally inter- ested in "which individuals get which rewards." "You have to worry as a soci- ologist [about] who's getting all of the goodies. Is there an equal distribution of the goodies, and if there isn't — which we know there isn't — we have to begin to understand why," she says. Nevertheless, lawyers from top Canadian fi rms note that the structure of this country's legal services industry is vastly diff erent from that in the United States. Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP co-chairman Clay Horner says his fi rm has a blend of law- yers from diff erent backgrounds. "We like to think that we're recruiting the top tier of law students from each of the law schools we are recruiting from," he says. "If we look at who comes [and] who stays, there wouldn't be any kind of generalization you could make about what schools people come from. And you certainly wouldn't make any generalization about who would or wouldn't be particularly suc- cessful. We have folks who we consider to be among our very strongest associates and part- ners that come from a very wide spectrum of schools." Norm Letalik, a partner and managing director of pro- fessional excellence at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, says law school culture in the United States diff ers greatly from Can- ada's. While many U.S. fi rms won't even look at applicants from outside a narrow list of top-tier schools, he's not aware of any large Canadian fi rm that is similarly restrictive in its hir- ing practices. "In Canada, the pecking or- der is not nearly as defi ned as it is in the U.S.," he says. "In Canada, we've always been more open to a larger group of people, and I think that creates a bit of a diff erent mentality at the fi rms. It's not as if Canadian law fi rms are only opening doors to peo- ple from, shall we call it, 'an elite little country club.' Th at's just not the case here." University of Western On- tario Faculty of Law dean Ian Holloway says it's unclear whether the study's fi ndings are relevant here. But he does think big fi rms in Canada over- emphasize grades in the recruit- ment process. "Th ey're missing an awful lot of students who have good things to off er [but] who might just not be quite so good at writing law school examina- tions," he says. "Grades are important. Th ey measure intelligence, there's no question about that. But raw in- telligence, [while] it's an impor- tant factor . . . it's only one factor Marketplace OFFICE FOR RENT NORTH YORK accounting firm has a full service executive office for rent. Call Saveria 416-631-9800. To advertise call 905-841-6481 No, we don't really think of ourselves as superheroes (although, we do regularly appear just in time to save the day) E-discovery requires expertise, strategic understanding, diligence and a uniquely collaborative approach. Fortunately, we have access to the most talented litigation support experts through our broad network of industry leaders and our ever-expanding database of over 30,000 legal professionals. Keep your e-discovery requirements in-house by recruiting our e-discovery experts. For seamless integration with the shortest possible search time – whatever your needs … whether it be one expert, a team, direct hire, temporary or contract. Just call us. We'll be there! • Phone: (416) 363-7227 • Fax: (416) 363-6125 • kentlegal.com • www.lawtimesnews.com in determining whether some- one's going to be a good lawyer." Holloway suggests more im- portance should be placed on other traits, such as work ethic, personal drive, teamwork, a sense of honour and duty, and loyalty. "Firms are doing themselves a disservice by not being more scientifi c in the way in which they approach hiring," he says. "A healthy law fi rm, like any or- ganization, has a blend of per- sonality types." Studies similar to Dino- vitzer's have been conducted on a regional basis in Canada. Hers would be the fi rst to delve into the issue on a nationwide basis. "I'm just eager to do this in the Canadian context," says Dinovitzer. "We do know a lot about Canadian lawyers, but this is one question that we haven't looked at so much, especially in terms of under- standing what law schools they came from and what's the eff ect of their social background on where they end up." LT