Law Times

Law timeS • September 17, 2012 Deceased lawyer passionate about flying NEWS T BY MICHAEL McKIERNAN Law Times Peter Mrowiec in a plane crash. The 59-year-old died on Aug. he legal community in Thunder Bay, Ont., is in mourning aſter the death of criminal lawyer 30 alongside his flight instructor when the single-engine aircraſt they were flying in went down in bad weather in Utah. "It' very sad about it," says personal injury lawyer Richard Courtis, who shared office space with Mrowiec for the last five years. "In all that time, we never once s a huge loss, and we're all had an issue. He was a really de- cent fellow. . . . Although we weren't partners, we both would run some of the issues we were facing by each other, and I'll miss that, too. Two years ago, Courtis and " Mrowiec acted on a shared life- long interest in flying and signed up together for ground school pilot training. But Courtis says Mrowiec was particularly keen. "Unlike me, he was a person who was able to find some bal- ance between his personal and professional life, so I didn't always have time to attend the regularly scheduled classes and he got ahead of me, was the much abler student and he spent much more time at it and eventually got his licence. " says Courtis. "He iec had been on the search for a plane of his own. "He was on the Internet all the time researching and looking at used planes before he eventually settled on one. Recently, says Courtis, Mrow- " Tribune, Mrowiec had trav- elled to Utah to buy the plane, a single-engine Alarus 235, and According to the Salt Lake " Peter Mrowiec had retained the flight instruc- tor for help with it. Besides their work in Thunder Bay, Courtis and Mrowiec spent a lot of time together in remote areas of northwestern Ontario as part of the Nishnawbe-Aski Le- gal Services Corporation' of legal aid lawyers. s panel Former VisionTV GC disbarred BY JENNIFER BROWN Law Times T TV network in 2007. According to the law society, Brant David he Law Society of Upper Canada has disbarred the former general counsel for VisionTV for professional misconduct while he was working for the faith-based Kostandoff, who now lives in Vancouver, lost his licence for several reasons, including creating and distributing false letters patent to his employer, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunica- tions Commission, and others. A panel also found him to have engaged in pro- fessional misconduct on a number of fronts: • Failing to serve his employer by failing to incor- porate it in his capacity as general counsel. • Creating and distributing a false affidavit and a falsified shareholders' agreement. ing panel in July, Kostandoff stated: "I have no in- tention of returning to the practice of law in On- tario or any other jurisdiction." In January 2008, Kostandoff submitted an ap- 2007, Kostandoff in fact reported himself for con- duct in breach of Rule 33 of the Rules of Profes- sional Conduct and also resigned from the TV network. He hasn't worked as a lawyer since then. In an affidavit provided to the law society hear- plication to resign, but the law society refused to accept his resignation. In March of that year, the LSUC commenced an investigation that took three years to complete. In his statement, Kostand- off was critical of the fact that while the LSUC's investigation didn't wrap up until March 2011, the actual time spent on the matter was 10 days. Kostandoff sold his home in July 2008 and leſt • Signing for the chairman and CEO of his em- ployer rather than circulating documents for proper execution. Kostandoff must pay costs of about $12,000 • Accepting money from his employer for ficti- tious LawPRO expense claims. within six months from the date of the order. He wasn't present and didn't have representation at the LSUC hearing on Aug. 13. • Misleading his employer into believing that he had incurred expenses for LawPRO premiums that he hadn't paid. • Creating and providing to his employer Law- PRO application forms falsely indicating that he had to pay premiums and falsely stating that he had paid them by credit card. Ontario for British Columbia to become a pho- tographer. But he indicated in the affidavit that he wasn't successful. The law society wouldn't comment on the nels as director of legal affairs in June 2001. His re- sponsibilities included representing VisionTV on Canadian Association of Broadcasters committees devoted to regulatory and copyright issues for spe- cialty and pay TV. In 2003, he rose to the position of director of manager of professional standards and arbitra- tion for the Toronto Real Estate Board. LT ORDER # A26520 LUNCHEON SEMINAR Size Doesn't Matter: Balancing Expectations And Resources In Law Firm Marketing Departments THURSDAY, SEPT. 27, 2012 Toronto Board of Trade 4th floor – Rooms A,B,C,D 1 First Canadian Place, Toronto, ON. 12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m. Registration & Lunch 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Seminar Program Join us for an engaging panel discussion about the challenges faced by marketing and business development departments and how to balance competing priorities to build winning strategies. Moderated by Karen Lorimer, Director, Canadian Lawyer/Law Times Media, a Thomson Reuters business, the panel includes: · Gabriella O'Rourke, Director, Business Development, WeirFoulds · Laurie Hause, Director of Technology & Marketing, Siskinds · Falon Leach, Marketing Manager, Bereskin & Parr To register, visit: www.legalmarketing.org/toronto and click on EVENTS Untitled-5 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 12-09-06 4:04 PM Event Sponsor CANADA LAW BOOK® WHO SHOULD ATTEND? Consultants LMA Member: $55 Guest: $75 $423 price per volume Subscription price includes parts, bound volume and eReports Shipping and handling are extra. Price subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes. A member of the law society until December eas hundreds of kilometres north of Thunder Bay to serve clients at special court sittings. "That' Lawyers on the panel fly to ar- ing the best," says Courtis. In a statement, Mary Jean s the work he liked do- Robinson, a former colleague of Mrowiec' Ontario's area director of the Nish- s and currently Legal Aid nawbe-Aski Legal Services Cor- poration, remembered Mrowiec. "Peter and I practised law from a shared office for 10 years," she said. "He was a dear friend, a col- league, and a tireless advocate for our clients from the day we opened our doors in the early 1990s. We relied heavily on him and he was always there for the people of the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation." Tracy Roll, director of LAO' northwest district office, said Mrowiec' s to all of us." "Peter was a respected and val- ued friend of LAO, an excellent s death was a "big shock PAGE 3 lawyer, and a good person," said Roll. "I admired that he could give so much to the profession and to his clients and live such a full life outside of the practice. He not only made the time to share his exper- tise with our staff, he mentored one of our articling students and was about to welcome two more into his law firm. This is a huge loss for his family, the local bar, and for the many people he served. liam, Ont., and graduated from Lakehead University in 1982, according to an obituary in the Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal. Following graduation from Os- goode Hall Law School, he was called to the bar in 1987. Mrowiec' Mrowiec was born in Fort Wil- " that in lieu of flowers, people make donations to the Peter Mrowiec Memorial Award, a scholarship set up for students at Lakehead' s family has asked s new faculty of law. LT CANADIAN PATENT REPORTER EDITED BY MARCUS GALLIE, RIDOUT & MAYBEE LLP FOURTH SERIES (VOLUMES 1 TO 65): EDITED BY GLEN BLOOM, OSLER, HOSKIN & HARCOURT LLP FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD SERIES: EDITED BY GOWLING, STRATHY & HENDERSON FOUNDING EDITOR: GORDON F. HENDERSON, C.C., Q.C., LL.D. Let the experts help you to narrow your search and save you research time. Canadian Patent Reporter has been Canada's leading intellectual property law report since 1942. This renowned resource, available online and in print, includes precedent-setting intellectual property law judicial and board decisions from across Canada. length of time it took to complete the investigation of Kostandoff. Kostandoff joined the VisionTV group of chan- This publication provides practitioners with the leading decisions on patent, industrial design, copyright and trade-mark law. Topical catchlines in bold print show the key issues involved in each decision. Expert case selection, editing and headnoting are a tradition with Canadian Patent Reporter. Weekly updates via email and in print, plus an annual cumulative index volume, ensure that this publication continues to be the prime reference source for intellectual property case law. INCLUDES eREPORTS (weekly electronic pdf version) legal and corporate affairs and in 2005 he became general counsel for VisionTV. Prior to joining VisionTV, Kostandoff was Stay current as cases are issued with eReports emailed weekly to your desktop, with topically indexed case summaries linked to the full text judgments. AVAILABLE RISK-FREE FOR 30 DAYS Order online at www.carswell.com Call Toll-Free: 1-800-387-5164 In Toronto: 416-609-3800

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