The Lawyers Weekly - January 28, 2011

OFFICE EFFICIENCY
Choosing a practice
management system
PAGE 9
CERTIFICATION

B.C.’s Legal Services Society (LSS) has reached a tentative two-year agreement for staff lawyers with the Professional Employees’ Association (PEA), Finance Minister Colin Hansen announced Jan. 12.

The deal contains no wage
increases, a position in line with
policy on other government-sec-
tor contracts, Hansen said.

“These are difficult economic times, and I want to express my gratitude to the negotiators who are working hard to find solutions that meet the needs of employees,” Hansen said in a news release.

PEA executive director Scott McCannell says his union is recommending ratification of the contract but he does not yet know when the vote will be.

McCannell says wage freezes are difficult for any employee but added the loss of 30 staff positions last year has left the LSS with six staff lawyers.

As a result, he said, work-
loads and stress are high.
The lawyers had been with-
out a contract since September.

However, with legal aid still considered by many to be in crisis in B.C., some are questioning how the system will function with lawyers not getting raises and how that will affect attracting new staff lawyers to the system in future.

Members will vote on the
tentative agreement in the com-
ing weeks.

The previous contract provided for a wage of $32,355 for an articling student at the start of the contract up to $113,662 for a lawyer in his or her 14th year of call to the Bar at the end of the contract.

See LSS Page 2
Commissioner Michel Bastarache presents his report in Quebec City last week. Bastarache dismissed allegations of
undue pressure in the nomination of judges in Quebec but recommended a systemic overhaul.
FRANCIS VACHON FOR THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
See story on page 3
Civil war within CBA causes casualties
Have the costs
become prohibitive?
PAGE 14
Ousted CCCA board may
start rival in-house
counsel group or join ACC
BILLABLE HOURS
Alternative fee
arrangements on the rise
PAGE 20
CRISTIN SCHMITZ OTTAWA

Faced with at least one rival organization recruiting its members as well as bitter division within its own ranks, the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) is pledging to dramatically improve services to its 4,400 corporate counsel members after abruptly canning the entire board of the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (CCCA).

Following the failure of an
intense Jan. 15-16 weekend media-
tion session between negotiating
teams from the CBA and the CCCA
(overseen by mediator Martin Tep-
litsky) the CBA moved swiftly the
next day to dissolve the CCCA’s
17-member volunteer board and
terminate its executive director,
Sylvie Kuppek.

mittee) are now considering how best to achieve their goal of a vibrant and effective in-house counsel organization, including starting their own group.

“The preferred option was to
stay with the CBA,” she stressed.
“The [present] two options would
be either to join with another
group, like the Association of Cor-
porate Counsel, which would be
the obvious option, or start our
own organization. If CBA con-
tinues to deal with corporate coun-
sel the way they have done, I think
we would be responding to a need
that is not filled right now.”
But the CCCA’s newly appointed
interim chair, and its former
president, Halifax in-house counsel
Robert Patzelt, told The Lawyers
Weekly he is confident the CBA’s
internal crisis will lead to improved
service to CCCA members.
The popular spring conference
and the fall “world summit” will be
See CCCA Page 3
E-DISCOVERY
Lawyers are drowning
in data these days
PAGE 21
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