Law Times

PAGE 4 Grenkie shares his Law Society Medal with every lawyer in his region NEWS One for the little guy BY ROBERT TODD Law Times L aw Society Medal recip- ient Doug Grenkie says the decision to present him with the award proclaims the deep contribution of law- yers practising outside Ontar- io's most populated city. "We all work hard, and we feel we do a good job for our clients and I think we all go the extra mile for our clients," says the Morrisburg, Ont., lawyer. "It's sort of a recognition that lawyers outside of Toronto do good works for people in this province. So it's not only for me, it's for the whole region here." Grenkie was called to the bar in 1970, and since then has be- come a force at the Ontario Bar Association. He became a mem- ber of the association's council shortly after his call, and eventu- ally served a term as president. Grenkie has also helped shape Ontario's court system as a mem- ber of the judicial appointments advisory committee. On top of that, he continues to help the public through his diverse legal practice. It all began for Grenkie in the small cottage-country community of Rosseau, Ont., about 200 kilometres north of Toronto, where he was raised. "I wanted to be a lawyer for quite a while when I was watch- ing TV in Rosseau," says Gren- kie, citing the Perry Mason tele- vision series as an influence. He left the small town after high school to attend the University of Waterloo on a mathematics scholarship, be- fore moving along to Osgoode Hall Law School, where he graduated in 1968. He says "I certainly loved to work on the profession grabbed his attention "because you can help people," adding, "That's the thing I enjoy most — helping people and solving their problems." Grenkie recalls his efforts in the political sphere while in law school. He set up a campus club and became active in Toronto's Rosedale riding, now called Torxonto Centre. He was cam- paign manager for federal Pro- gressive Conservative candidate Bob Bradley in 1968. "That was the year of [future prime minister Pierre] Trudeau," he recalls with a chuckle. "We were a maybe winner, but every- body got walloped." After that election, he spent two months travelling in Eu- rope, thanks to a stock-market windfall. A friend urged him to open his practice in Morrisburg, a rural community just west of Cornwall, when he returned. It was a return to his small- town roots, but Grenkie was surprised by just how small his new town was. "I thought he had said that Morrisburg was 20,000 peo- ple, but when I got here, it was 2,000 people," he says. "Ros- seau was 282 people when I left. So I fit right in. . . . I have been here ever since." Morrisburg offers a steady stream of work, he says. "It really keeps you going, because you're dealing with all areas of the law," he says. Doug Grenkie's life work was influenced by TV lawyer Perry Mason. His days are packed with a variety of matters involving criminal law, family law, wills and estates, real estate law, Small Claims Court, and tri- bunals. He had to cut Superior Court civil litigation out of the picture about 10 years ago, as it took up too much of his time to keep abreast of new techni- cal requirements, he says. Grenkie has also devoted much of his time to the Ontar- io Bar Association. His work with the OBA began in 1978, when he was urged to join its council. He got involved with the real estate section before being named to the executive committee. Grenkie has gone in to serve as the OBA's mem- bership chairman, vice presi- dent, and president in 1988 and 1999. He also has acted as the association's foreign con- ference director for about 15 years, and served on the Ca- nadian Bar Association council for one year in the early 1990s. He currently acts as a trustee of the association's charitable arm, the Advancement Of Le- gal Education And Research Trust, or ALERT. "I've enjoyed it, because you meet people; you learn things," he says. "When you attend council meetings and you do this committee work, you learn all the time. Even on the execu- tive, you learn things, you keep up-to-date." Grenkie has an endless list of reasons why the OBA plays a key role within the profession. He notes that it acts as a voice for the profession in lobbying the government for changes to laws, as a hub for legal educa- tion, and as a forum to build relationships with colleagues. "It's there for everybody, and it's expanded into every area of the law. There's something there for everybody." Grenkie has also made a significant mark on the profes- sion as a member of Ontario's judicial appointments advisory committee from 1992 until earlier this year. Over 200 ap- pointments were made during that time, he says. He served as chairman of the advisory com- mittee from 1995 until 2001. Grenkie describes his work picking the cream of the judicial- candidate crop as "my biggest love." Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat Secrétariat d'adjudication des pensionnats indiens seeks applicants for ADJUDICATION SERVICES The Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat is seeking to engage the services of up to twenty (20) independent contractors, to work as Adjudicators, to review claims and preside over hearings. There will be two (2) "Request for Proposals (RFPs)" available through the Government's electronic tendering service (GETS). One seeks bidders for the contract positions for Aboriginal Adjudicators and the second, bidders for contract positions of Adjudicator, which is open to all qualified firms and/or individuals. Information on the IAP model is set out in the Settlement Agreement, which can be found online at: www.residentialschoolsettlement.ca How to Apply: Individuals and firms wishing to propose their services can obtain all relevant details and related Request for Proposal documents from the Government's electronic tendering service (GETS) - MERX website. The RFPs will be posted between August 24th and October 5th, 2009. To obtain access to GETS bulletin board, individuals and firms must register online at www.merx.com. Registered users can then search for Request for Proposal documents, under solicitations: 20-09-0036 – Adjudication Services Set-Aside for Aboriginal Business and 20-09-0035 – Adjudication Services. There is a service fee to download the documentation from GETS - MERX. Please address any questions to: Vera Olivier at 613-949-9985 or olivierv@ainc-inac.gc.ca. that. It was a lot of hard work, it took a lot of time," he says. "But it was extremely worthwhile, be- cause you knew that you were making a list for the attorney general to appoint from that gave the very best of the applicants to the province to be judges. It's just a terrific system — I can't speak highly enough of it." He says the committee was al- ways on the lookout for "judgi- tis." He describes that as, "not being nice to people. And that could be court staff, it could be the parties, the lawyers, it could be witnesses. Everybody in the courtroom is under enough stress, especially the parties, and witnesses too, and they don't need things like that." He adds, "To be a judge, you have to be extremely patient, and courteous at all times, and they have to listen of course. But it's your outward de- meanour toward people in the courtroom that really counts, because it makes people feel more comfortable in court, and that way the truth, hope- fully, will then come out." Grenkie changed the advisory committee's decision-making policy from a majority vote when recommending candidates, to a unanimous vote. That way, "it was really a group of 13 deci- sion," he says. "It just worked so well and I'm always so proud to tell people about the fact that there's a majority of lay people, but there's the legal people and judges there too — and good people come to the top." Grenkie says he looks forward to continuing to help the public and profession, and will keep his Law Society Medal close by. "I'm very, very pleased to receive it, and I know it'll be something I'll always treasure," he says. LT This is the seventh in our series fo- cusing on recipients of the LSUC awards honouring the best of the profession. sepTember 7, 2009 • Law Times The United Church of Canada The Anglican Church of Canada The Presbyterian Church in Canada Fifty Roman Catholic Entities Inuvialuit Regional Corporation Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated Makivik Corporation Untitled-2 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 9/1/09 9:08:30 AM

• Cover
• Ottawa Shutdown
• Access to Justice
• Focus On Class Actions