Law Times

Page 16 September 8, 2015 • Law timeS www.lawtimesnews.com EDNEY TO SPEAK NEXT WEEK Prominent lawyer Dennis Edney will speak at an event held by the Empire Club in Toronto next week. As part of the event, Edney will speak about his ongoing defence of Omar Khadr, a former Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainee now out on bail in Alberta. Following his remarks, Toronto Star reporter Michelle Shephard will interview Edney on stage. The event takes place at noon on Sept. 15 at the Hilton hotel at 145 Richmond St. W. in Toronto. Edney is in Toronto for the premiere of the documentary Guantanamo's Child: Omar Khadr. More information on tickets is available at empireclub.org. NO CHARGES OVER MILITARY HEADSTONES ON PATIO SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — It seems people have many other options for their patios besides mili- tary headstones. But in this case, a Missouri man who used dozens of military headstones to make a patio at his house won't face criminal charges, according to authorities. The headstones the unidentified homeowner used were never U.S. government property, never placed at a cemetery or stolen, and no state of fed- eral charges will result, said Ozark County sheriff Darrin Reed. The homeowner told ABC television affiliate KSPR in Springfield that he regretted using the headstones, which he found in a landfill about a decade ago. Reed said deputies and firefighters removed the headstones during the weekend at the home- owner's request. The plan was to crush and bury the headstones, he said. "As soon as I put dirt over the top of them, the case will be closed," said Reed. According to Reuters, a U.S. navy veteran in late July posted several photos of the headstones on Facebook, and the U.S. Department of Vet- eran Affairs learned about the patio on Aug. 14. The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported that a local monument company had made the head- stones under a Department of Veterans Affairs contract and discarded them as defective. "It was poor judgment," said Reed. "I would hope that people would have more respect for veterans." SUBWAY BITER SOUGHT FOR ASSAULT NEW YORK — The New York transit authority's courtesy campaign isn't going so well if this inci- dent is any indication. Last month, authorities began seeking a woman who took a bite out of another passenger in a dispute over a seat on a crowded subway for assault, Reuters reported. The attack occurred on a Manhattan-bound F train from Queens when a 45-year-old wom- an asked the suspect to remove her belongings from a seat so she could sit, said Lieut. Thomas Antonetti, a spokesman for the New York Police Department. When the rider didn't respond, the woman attempted to sit down anyway. "The suspect became enraged, pushing the victim, scratching her on the chest, pulling her hair, and biting her on her forearm causing a lac- eration and bleeding," police said in a statement. The suspect f led the train when it stopped at a station but not before the victim snapped a cell- phone picture of her baring her teeth. "Caught in the act," said Antonetti. In December, the Metropolitan Transporta- tion Authority launched a campaign that urges customers to extend kindnesses such as remov- ing packages from seats. SANTA SPARED BANKRUPTCY HELSINKI — Who knew the victims of sanc- tions against Russia could include Santa Claus? According to Reuters, Finland's Santa Claus office had been facing bankruptcy over unpaid taxes after a sharp drop in visits from recession- hit Russians. But managing director Jarmo Kar- iniemi said he believed the company, which em- ploys around 20 people, could yet avoid closure over its 200,000-euro (almost $297,000) tax bill. "We have one more week to come up with the money. I'm confident that we can handle this," said Kariniemi, whose firm offers the chance to have a photograph taken with Santa for a fee. Good news, in fact, came late last month with an announcement that it had resolved its tax bill following the sale of shares in the firm. Japanese tourists have replaced Russians as the centre's leading customers as sanctions imposed over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis and a sharp decline in the price of Russia's major ex- port, oil, have hit its economy hard. LT The title insurer that puts you front row, centre Putting the legal community front and centre has made us the #1 choice with Canadian lawyers for over a decade. Stewart Title does not support programs that reduce or eliminate the lawyer's role in real estate transactions. For more information call (888) 667-5151 or visit www.stewart.ca. Untitled-2 1 7/19/11 12:31:45 PM u Bizarre Briefs By Viola James u The InsIde story WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T A LAWYER? For many Canadian lawyers, business, education or fields in- volving science are the areas they likely would have ended up in if they hadn't become lawyers, ac- cording to a new Robert Half Legal survey released last week. Fifteen per cent of lawyers sur- veyed said they would have chosen business management or market- ing careers in lieu of practising law. Careers in academia and science, technology, engineering, and math ranked second to business with each of those categories com- ing in at 13 per cent. "Even if you're content with your job, it's important to period- ically examine your career goals to assess whether your priorities or interests have changed," said Charles Volkert, executive di- rector of Robert Half Legal. "Lawyers considering second careers may find that the skills, knowledge, and experience they possess are a natural fit with a variety of roles outside of the le- gal field." In response to the survey, 10 per cent of lawyers said they would have become doctors or worked in the medical field while eight per cent said they would have chosen finance and five per cent would have gone into journalism. Another five per cent said a career in public service would have been their alternative. For six per cent of respon- dents, a career outside of law was entirely unimaginable as they said there was nothing else they would have done. The biggest group of respon- dents, 17 per cent, had no clue what they would have done if they hadn't gone to law school. Those last two groups likely involve those who had always dreamed of becoming lawyers, says Gene Roberts, division director at Robert Half Legal in Toronto. "It's like your dream was to become an astronaut, you be- came an astronaut, and some- one asked you, 'What would you be if you weren't an astronaut?'" says Roberts. "They wouldn't know because all they thought about the entire time was, 'I'm going to be an astronaut.'" Ottawa criminal lawyer Mi- chael Spratt wasn't surprised the top alternative careers law- yers revealed in the survey in- cluded the sciences. Spratt him- self chose the law over a career in paleontology after completing his undergraduate degree in bi- ology. He says he turned down the option of four years on a submarine studying long-dead deep-sea Atlantic coral reefs to write factums instead. "There is a lot in common be- tween the scientific method and thinking and law," he says, not- ing "submarines are way cooler than factums." If he weren't a busy criminal lawyer these days, Spratt says he would play for the Toronto Blue Jays. "Or if you are talking about realistic alternative careers, I would give it all up to be a jour- nalist or a backroom political operative in a second," he says. Gilbertson Davis LLP civil litigator Lee Akazaki says he and a lot of lawyers come to the profession with backgrounds in business and academia. For his part, Akazaki says he would have become an anthropologist if he weren't a lawyer. "I like to study people," he says. LT "At least when summer's over, I won't have to worry about my daughter getting free legal advice from a giant inflatable duck." Dennis Edney Photo: Reuters

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