Law Times

Page 16 January 29, 2018 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com NEW BENCHER AT LAW SOCIETY Toronto corporate and securi- ties lawyer Heather Zordel is replacing Sandra Nishikawa as one of 20 benchers representing Toronto, while Nishikawa was appointed to a judgeship. Zordel is a partner in the Se- curities Group at Gardiner Roberts LLP. In the 2015 bencher election, Zordel placed 23rd out of 45 To- ronto candidates, although only the top 20 lawyers are elected to be benchers. Isfahan Merali and Tanya C. Walker, who came in the 21st and 22nd spots, have already been appointed as benchers representing Toronto since the election. Zordel says all the benchers come from different backgrounds, and her experience in corporate and securities law will allow her to see things from the corporate bar's point of view. "I'll be bringing a perspective as somebody who's used to dealing with corporations and boards generally and also a perspective on the issues that the corporate bar sees," she says. Zordel started her term on Jan. 25, after a confirmation vote. She steps into the spot Nishikawa held, after Nishikawa was ap- pointed to be a judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario. SCHOLARSHIP AVAILABLE Law firm Fasken and the Ca- nadian Association of Black Lawyers have released the ap- plication call for their Lucie and Thornton Blackburn Schol- arship for a second-year visible minority student in an LLB or JD program at a Canadian law school. Applicants are asked to write an essay on a pre-deter- mined topic and the application package is due on February 28, 2018. The scholarship is worth $5,000 and will be awarded on the basis of financial need. Questions about the scholar- ship should be sent to the Schol- arship Awards Committee at info@cabl.ca. More details can be found on the CABL website's Scholarships Page. NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR MEDAL The Criminal Lawyers' As- sociation is accepting nomina- tions for the 2018 G. Arthur Martin Criminal Justice Medal. To be nominated, the nominator must be an active, full member of the CLA at the time the nomination package is submitted. Interested parties are advised to visit the CLA website. \ YES, I AGREE 73 % 27 % NO, I DO NOT AGREE LAW TIMES POLL In this week's poll, Law Times is asking readers about a report, expected to be released next month, that will kick-start a dis- cussion about the size and com- position of the Law Society of Ontario's board. We asked readers if they think the board is too big. Seventy-three per cent said yes, the possibility of having more than 60 benchers at a meeting is unmanageable. Twenty-seven per cent said no, there is no need for reforms. LT u Bizarre Briefs By Viola James u The InsIde story Heather Zordel says she is pleased to become a bencher at the Law Society of Ontario, after a spot was vacated when Sandra Nishikawa was appointed to the Superior Court of Justice. MAN BITES DOG BOSCAWEN, N.H. — A New Hampshire man was arrested for biting a police dog while offi- cers were investigating reports of a shooting in the town of Boscawen, police officials said on Jan. 23, according to Reuters. The incident unfolded on Jan. 21 when po- lice reported to a home where they were told a person had been shot. Two people at the home were wanted on outstanding warrants and tried to f lee when police attempted to arrest them, said Lieutenant Jason Killary of the Boscawen Police Department. "Both of them resisted arrest and one very strongly resisted arrest. He bit the dog, the dog bit him, he ended up getting Tasered," Killary said. The suspect, who was not identified, was charged with resisting arrest and assault on a police dog. The dog, identified on the New Hampshire Canine Trooper's Association Face- book page as K9 Veda of the New Hampshire State Police, was uninjured and cleared to re- turn to duty. SMUGGLERS ARE COLD VILNIUS — Tobacco smugglers are using river ice f lows and GPS technology to transport their goods into Lithuania, where an estimated one in every six cigarettes smoked in 2016 was ille- gally imported, reports Reuters. The Baltic country's border guard said on Jan. 19 that it had found thousands of packets of cigarettes attached beneath blocks of ice on the river Neris, which runs into Lithuania from Belarus, since the ice began f lowing two weeks ago. Around 2,500 packs have been found over the last two weeks. The ice blocks carried GPS trackers to aid retrieval. "This is the first time we find cigarettes un- derneath the ice. However, smugglers continu- ously attempt to use that stretch of the river," border guard spokesman Rokas Pukinskas told Reuters. "The imagination of these people knows no limits." The cigarettes, which are about four times more expensive in Lithuania than in Belarus, were worth an estimated 8,000 euros, Pukins- kas said. I SEE A PRISON SENTENCE IN YOUR FUTURE BOSTON — A self-proclaimed psychic was sentenced to 26 months in prison after admit- ting that she tried to avoid paying taxes on more than US$3.5 million that she received from an elderly Massachusetts woman seeking to cleanse herself of demons, reports Reuters. Sally Ann Johnson, 41, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston, who said the evidence suggested the psychic took ad- vantage of the Martha's Vineyard resident as the woman began to suffer from dementia. "There is a strong inference of fraud here," Casper said. She ordered Johnson to repay the woman nearly US$3.57 million she received from 2007 to 2014 and to pay US$725,912 in restitution to the U.S. government for the taxes she avoided paying. Johnson, who never passed the second grade and calls herself a Romani "spiritual consul- tant," pleaded guilty in October to trying to impede the administration of tax laws. In court, she apologized for that conduct. But Johnson denied that she took advantage of anyone. Her attorneys called the elderly woman intelligent if not eccentric and fully competent when she employed Johnson. Prosecutors said that Johnson, who lives in Florida and also goes by Angela Johnson, has operated a small collection of businesses that offer psychic or spiritual services. To evade the Internal Revenue Service's scrutiny, John- son used an alias, directed the woman to wire payments to three different bank accounts and withdrew large sums of cash to conceal the money's source, prosecutors said. LT "But, fortunately, the government's new Climate Change Action Plan is going to make it easier for condo corporations to install electric vehicle charging stations on their own premises. Won't that be lovely!" How the legal community in Ontario gets its news @lawtimes Canlawyer.lawtimes@thomsonreuters.com | 416.609.3800 | 1.800.387.5164 Online www.lawtimesnews.com/subscribe Free preview bitly.com/LT-FreePreview-17 SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND RECEIVE: • 40 issues a year covering Ontario's legal landscape • FREE digital edition and unlimited online access to past issues • FREE Canadian Legal Newswire, a weekly e-newsletter from the editors of Law Times and Canadian Lawyer Subscribe to Law Times today! Untitled-8 1 2018-01-23 12:07 PM In the Jan. 22 edition of Law Times, it was reported that an Ontario lawyer said solicitor-client privilege may be threatened by a master's decision that barred him for representing his own firm in a dispute over a wrongful dismissal claim. Based on a Law Times poll, it was reported that 84 per cent said no, the court had appropriately assessed the role of lawyers and impartial advocates, and that 16 per cent said yes, the ruling rendered solicitor-client privilege meaningless. In fact, it was 84 per cent who said yes and 16 per cent who said no. Law Times regrets the error.

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