BUSINESS
CAREERS
Groia
Continued From Page 24
Brian Greenspan, who
assisted Groia in the Felderhof
case and was called as a witness
by Cherniak, suggested that Code
at one point had called Groia a
“bald-faced liar,” and the remark
was described by the late
Superior Court Justice Archie
Campbell as “the most uncivil
attack uttered in any aspect of
the proceedings.”
Edward Greenspan co-auth-
ored with David Roebuck a recent
Globe and Mail article, “The hor-
rible crime of incivility,” which
said that while the law society had
the legal jurisdiction to initiate
disciplinary proceedings against a
member for alleged uncivil con-
duct in the face of the court, “it
should never exercise that juris-
diction where, as in this case, the
trial judge was in the best pos-
ition to censure the alleged mis-
conduct but declined to do so.
The Law Society does not enhance
its reputation by selectively pros-
ecuting defence counsel for
alleged misconduct in the face of
the court, but not prosecutors.
And such prosecutions will have a
chilling effect on advocates.”
A summary LSUC provided to
The Lawyers Weekly of its 21
discipline cases since 2005 that
at least partially involved incivil-
ity appeared to confirm the sug-
gestion that no such action has
been taken against prosecutors,
since none of the disciplined law-
yers identified as such.
However, the summary also
illustrated the rarity of such cases
in a legal community of 46,500
licensees—43,000 lawyers and
3,500 paralegals. Of the 19 lawyers disciplined—two of them
on two separate occasions— only
one was disbarred and two others
were given permission to resign,
one of whom is appealing that
disposition. And only four of the
21 cases were dealt with this year,
Joe Groia, lawyer for John Felderhof, speaks to the media in Toronto in 2007 following the judge’s decision in the trial of
the former chief geologist for Bre-X minerals.
FRANK GUNN / THE CANADIAN PRESS
the same number as in 2010 and
down from seven in 2009.
Although eight of the lawyers
received suspensions ranging
from one week to 10 months,
four received reprimands with or
without other requirements such
as mentoring, apologies and
fines, and four were merely made
subject to criticism and advice as
to future conduct.
One was told he should consider comments by a trial judge
concerning his actions and that
“even in acrimonious, high-pro-file litigation [lawyers] have an
obligation to treat all persons
with courtesy and civility.” In
that case, the lawyer had acknowledged that he had conducted
himself in a manner inconsistent
with LSUC’s Rules of Profes-
“[T]o the extent that
civility means the
enforcement of good
manners amongst
lawyers, it is not a
proper subject for
professional regulation.
sional Conduct.
“Does civility matter?” is the
title of a paper by Alice Wooley,
an assistant professor at the Uni-
versity of Calgary’s Faculty of
Law that was submitted to the
three-member panel hearing the
allegations against Groia.
We want to hear from you!
Email us at: tlw@lexisnexis.ca
Young lawyers in Canada feel nervous about current job prospects
Jobs
Continued From Page 25
article for fear of professional
reprisal, spent the spring and
summer months subjecting her-
self to dozens of interviews and
suffering a succession of minor to
major indignities that included a
five-minute interview improvised
on the spot and then abruptly
terminated because the firm’s
admin staff had forgotten to tell
the partners about the appoint-
ment. (So desperate was Sarah
that she reapplied at the same
firm weeks later.) In the end, pri-
vate practice wasn’t in the cards
for her. She recently found an in-
house job at an insurance com-
pany, further bolstering the asser-
tion that the in-house job market
has remained healthy while the
private-practice sector lags.
We want to hear from you!
Email us at: tlw@lexisnexis.ca
