BarTalk April 2020 | Beyond Private Practice

April 2020 | bartalkonline.org

Beyond Private Practice

LAWYER TO LAW PROF | IN-HOUSE COUNSEL | UNCERTAIN TIMES

APRIL 2020

VOLUME 32 / NUMBER 2

Contents

Departments

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FROM THE PRESIDENT Nobody’s Perfect

by Ken Armstrong

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Uncertain Times

by Kerry Simmons, QC

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INDIGENOUS MATTERS Alternative to Private Practice

by Grant Christoff

9

Indigenous Smudging and Hoop Dancing Prayer Will Continue in Alberni District No. 70

by Frances Rosner

14 PRACTICE TALK

Going Where Few Have Gone Before

by David J. Bilinsky 15 DAVE’S TECH TIPS 24 NOTHING OFFICIAL

A Place to Grow. A Place to Be.

by Tony Wilson, QC

Sections

26 SECTION UPDATE

Canadian Corporate Counsel Association BC

and the Public Sector Lawyers Section

Features 6

A Snapshot of In-House Counsel in BC

by Janine F. Jones

7 Good to Great: Five Things External Counsel Can Do

by Aniz Alani

Inside This Issue Between our submission deadline for this issue, and the issue being published, some things have happened which affect those in private practice. COVID-19 becoming a pandemic, and no-fault insurance in BC, spring to mind. Speaking as an “older” millennial, I had always wondered what major shared experiences would shape our ethos. Fitting, for the Internet and technology generation, that it should be an international event, which (hopefully) brings us together as a global community, instead of driving us apart.

In this issue, the usual in-house vs. external counsel conundrum is explored. Inside you will find first-hand accounts of what it’s like to work as an arbitrator, workers compensation expert, counsel for an Indigenous organization, in a business role, in the charitable sector, and as a law professor. Other topics include lessons learned adjudicating intimate partner disputes, and mental health and substance abuse resources for lawyers. This issue also contains the arguably ironic juxtaposition of articles on the one hand eschewing the perfect in favour of the good, and on the other hand providing anecdotes of lawyers that eschewed themselves onto the wrong side of the professional tracks.

10 The In-House Balancing Act

by Lilac Bosma 12 From Lawyer to Law Prof

by Robert Diab 13 Deciding What’s Important

by Lisa Picotte-Li 16 Lawyers and Charities

by Chelsey Meyers 18 The Benefits of Adjudication

by Adam Picotte 19 Expert Professional on Workers’

Compensation Issues

by Leanna Krause 2

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— Brandon D. Hastings Chair, BarTalk Editorial Board

News and Events 4 COVID-19 Resource Hub 20 BC WLF Update 21 CBABC Advocacy Update 23 Legal Opportunities 25 Tips from Courthouse Libraries BC

CLEBC Update

Also in This Issue

22 LAW FOUNDATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 27 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 28 BAR MOVES

FROM THE PRESIDENT KEN ARMSTRONG

Nobody’s Perfect

On the relentless pursuit of perfection

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n my column about mental wellness last issue, I wrote, “I believe the pursuit of perfection can and often does act as a barrier to obtaining excellence. Perfection is impossible to attain. We need to be willing to say, ‘this is very good,’ while acknowledging that further changes may make the work-product different without making it better.”

With COVID-19 spreading around the globe, many of us are compelled to re-evaluate what “perfect” looks like.

There are plenty of ancient polemics along the theme. One, attributed to Voltaire, is “Perfect is the enemy of good.” I have seen firsthand lawyers getting bogged down in the term of a particular phrase, sending twopage letters back for revision after revision after revision. I wonder if the work-product ended up better for all those changes; it may be different but was it better?

Brook Greenberg wrote an article called The Enemy of the Good: Perfectionism, Self-Doubt and Mental Health in the Legal Profession,1 wherein he noted, “perfectionism seems to run rampant within our profession.” He also identified self-criticism and imposter syndrome as some manifestations of self-doubt, which affect our mental health. He wrote, “it is not an overstatement to say that self-doubt is killing lawyers. Better understanding the consequences of internal sources of distress may be key to achieving improved mental health in the legal profession.” [emphasis mine] According to Anxiety Canada,2 “Perfectionism... involves a tendency to set standards that are so high that they either cannot be met or are only met with great difficulty. Perfectionists

tend to believe that anything short of perfection is horrible and that even minor imperfections will lead to catastrophe.” They say perfectionists are prone to depression and anxiety; perfectionists are prone to black-andwhite thinking and/or catastrophic thinking. Symptoms of perfectionism include procrastination, being overly cautious, excessively re-editing, and agonizing over small details. Perfectionists avoid new things and do not take risks. These are not healthy, productive behaviours. In these times, when we’re all working in new ways with clients and employees, perfectionism can amplify our anxiety.

Anxiety Canada has a three-tool approach to overcoming perfectionism: changing perfectionist thinking, changing perfectionist behaviours, and avoiding procrastination.

Changing perfectionist thinking is the most complicated step. It involves committing to realistic thinking, perspective-taking, and compromising. Compromising means being willing to accept a certain level of imperfection; asking questions such as “will this work” or “can I live with this?” It also involves setting realistic standards.

We all dread making mistakes for fear the other side will jump on that mistake and take advantage. However, we also need to understand external factors may affect outcomes regardless of the quality of work we do. Even when we are at our best, we may not obtain the desired result. As Greenberg wrote, litigators “can do an amazing job conducting a case and still lose.”

Changing perfectionist behaviours is easy to describe, but harder than it sounds. If you are someone who is repeatedly revising correspondence, give yourself a limit of one revision.

If you tend to spend inordinate amounts of time preparing for presentations, discoveries or court hearings compared to your peers, give yourself a reasonable but finite amount of preparation time. Anxiety Canada also recommends behaviours such as: deliberately leaving a small messy area at home, going to a restaurant without researching it, or even showing up for an appointment slightly late (although maybe not for court). Imagine your relief when it works out! Imagine how empowering that must be!

Overcoming procrastination involves creating realistic schedules, including breaking down larger tasks into manageable steps and prioritizing tasks. While this sounds simple, it’s not as easy to implement as it sounds.

For further reading on self-doubt and the imposter syndrome, see Greenberg’s article referenced below.

My best wishes to you, your families and colleagues during these challenging times. Please keep well. bit.ly/bt0420p3-1 Their paper, How to Overcome Perfectionism, is available at cbabc.org/LawyerWellness or bit.ly/bt0420p3-2.

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Ken Armstrong

president@cbabc.org APRIL 2020 / BARTALK

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BARTALK EDITOR

Deborah Carfrae EDITORIAL BOARD CHAIR

Brandon Hastings

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

Tonie Beharrell Robert Diab Eryn Jackson Greg Palm Lisa Picotte-Li Randy Robinson Crystal Tomusiak Sean Vanderfluit

BARTALK SENIOR EDITOR

Carolyn Lefebvre

STAFF CONTRIBUTORS

Travis Dudfield Arianne Moran Sanjit Purewal

The BC Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 10th Floor, 845 Cambie St. Vancouver, BC V6B 5T3 Tel: 604-687-3404 Toll-free (in BC): 1-888-687-3404 bartalk@cbabc.org

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BarTalk is produced on the traditional and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. © Copyright the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association 2020.

This publication is intended for information purposes only and the information herein should not be applied to specific fact circumstances without the advice of counsel.

The British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association represents nearly 7,200 BC members and is dedicated to improving and promoting access to justice, reviewing legislation, initiating law reform measures and advancing and improving the administration of justice.

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CBABC is committed to delivering current information and relevant support to you and your practice during this pandemic.

We have created a Resource Hub where you can find: • • • • • •

Court and legal industry updates News and advocacy updates Relevant PD programs Support for business Wellness resources Ways to stay connected with us and each other

Bookmark cbabc.org/covid19 and check back often for updates.

Write Us Send your Letter to the Editor to: Deborah Carfrae — BarTalk Editor bartalk@cbabc.org

Membership Enquiries members@cbabc.org

Advertising Opportunities

Info Changes

ads@cbabc.org

data@cbabc.org

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR KERRY L. SIMMONS, QC

Uncertain Times CBABC can help

H

as there ever been another time when so many of us have reconsidered the work we do, its importance and how best to do it? The global pandemic has captured all of our attention and the restrictions on social contact and the services we take for granted have had an immediate impact on legal services, not to mention our personal lives.

No one was really ready for this.

Even those with business continuity or disaster plans in place are finding gaps. All of us are making our best efforts to continue to help our clients and fulfill our legal duties, lead our teams, and sustain the businesses to keep our staff employed. The CBA is here to help.

The best place to start is Pandemics and the Workplace: A Resource for Lawyers. Developed by CBA members from the Labour & Employment Law Section, the written guide address key questions for employers.

There is also a webinar and podcast.

CBA has resources online on everything from force majeure, to best practices in virtual mediation, to elevating morale, to help you in your firm and in advising your clients during this unusual time. As well, this may be a good time to catch up on your annual professional development. You can access 3,800 recordings and webinars delivered by Sections and Branches throughout CBA, with more than 50 hours available at no cost.

Our connections to each other within the legal community are important.

Your Sections continue to plan meetings, which will be delivered via Zoom video and phone. If you haven’t received a notice of a meeting yet and want to connect, contact sections@cbabc.org and our staff team will help.

With the additional stress we are all experiencing as we react to uncertainty, onslaught of information, and increasing restrictions, you might want to talk to a professional to help. All Law Society members have access to LifeWorks at any time of day or night at 1-888307-0590. See more details about online access in Dave Bilinsky’s Tech Tips in this issue.

While we individually are adjusting to all of this change, our legal institutions are adapting to these extreme circumstances. Each day another of them announces a modification to enable the use of videoconferencing for receiving information from client identification to legal forms and even affidavit evidence. As members of the profession, we must applaud the leadership in these institutions who are responding to these exceptional circumstances and do our part to make these adaptations work with as little negative consequence as possible.

The leadership of CBABC has participated in the discussions about some of these changes based on the input of members. For example, the

Real Property — Vancouver Section took the lead on suggesting changes to the Land Title Survey Authority requirements for the execution of documents, which formed the basis of a discussion with that institution and the Law Society. If you have suggestions for adaptations during this time, or want our government, courts and other institutions to be aware of the day-to-day practice impact, please send that to feedback@ cbabc.org. CBABC will advocate for solutions and connect you to resources to help whenever possible.

To help members keep track of the announcements affecting legal practice, we are actively monitoring and distributing announcements from the courts in one place. Each week in News & Jobs we also present announcements from the Law Society, the Land Title and Survey Authority, the courts, and government as they relate directly to legal operations.

As challenging as these current times are for us, I believe that when the pandemic is resolved and restrictions are lifted, we will see positive, progressive opportunities for how we work and connect to help us serve our clients and the public even better than we ever have before.

Kerry L. Simmons, QC

ksimmons@cbabc.org APRIL 2020 / BARTALK

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feature

JANINE F. JONES

A Snapshot of In-House Counsel in BC

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orking as inhouse counsel in British Columbia is not a one-size fits all model.

There are multiple opportunities working in different industries and sectors, practising a variety of areas of law and using a very varied skills set. In-house work provides an opportunity for an alternative legal career path from the traditional law firm practice. To highlight the differences and the variety of in-house legal practice, I interviewed a number of in-house lawyers in the province and provides below an insight into their legal world.

The interviewees work in a variety of industries (Mining, Forestry, Crown Corporation, Regulatory, Real Estate, Private Investment and IT) and practice a wide range of areas of law (including, securities, litigation, technology, employment, corporate governance, commercial contract, real estate, environmental, Aboriginal, statutory interpretation, criminal law, quasicriminal prosecutions, privacy, IT, administrative and regulatory).

WHAT DOES YOUR TYPICAL DAY AT WORK INVOLVE?

“Anything and everything! One thing I enjoy most about my practice is how different it is every day. One day may involve planning the company’s litigation strategy, working on an executive compensation plan and reviewing our continuous disclosure documents.” — Alyce “Participating in meetings with business leaders, providing legal advice, drafting contracts and almost always a surprise/unexpected issue that requires prompt attention.” — Charmane 6

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“Reviewing illegal practice/discipline files, meetings with the Board, external counsel and management team, HR and leadership work (coaching, mentoring, advising on policy) and wideranging legal advice.” — Thomas “1:1 meetings with department lawyers and senior executives, confirming budgets and workload allocations, departmental planning to align with corporate needs, reporting on legal issues and risks and handling legal files.” — Margot HOW DO YOU THINK IN-HOUSE WORK DIFFERS FROM PRIVATE PRACTICE?

“A broader, organization-wide perspective and a constant ‘management and leadership’ piece.

Minimal to no focus on billable hours/ revenue generation.” — Thomas “Being in-house for me means I am a Jill of all trades (I love it!) — there is a lot more variety in the work (not just in terms of the breadth in the practice areas, but also in the types of work — e.g. often we are called upon to simply be the voice of reason or ethics in business decisions/strategy).”

— Charmane “I am involved in discussions around business strategy and I have full visibility into the context for the legal work, which are key differences from private practice. I also get to work closely with many bright, talented entrepreneurs.” — Karen “In-house is much faster-paced, and has more breadth — there are more

issues to deal with in a day, and of a wider variety, requiring consideration from many different perspectives (e.g. reputational impact, budget, relationships, employment, Board and governance).” — David WHY DID YOU CHOOSE IN-HOUSE OVER PRIVATE PRACTICE?

“I fell into it in a way. I enjoy being part of the business, and depending on the role, in-house can be a great opportunity to both be a generalist or a specialist. In past roles, I had to be a commercial lawyer, a technology lawyer and an employment lawyer. In my current role, I get to focus on being a commercial IT lawyer, and developing that area of expertise.” — Jacob “In-house provides an opportunity to really learn and understand the business and be an integral part of decision-making. The relationship with the client permits in-house counsel to be proactive in providing strategic legal services rather than always being responsive to client requests. Working with other in-house counsel who act for the same client is the foundation to a collegial and supportive culture which creates an engaging and enjoyable work environment.” — Margot With thanks to the participants (Top L-R): David Avren, Vice-President Legal & Compliance, Real Estate Council of BC; Charmane Sing, Director, Legal Affairs and Senior Counsel, Capstone Mining Corp. (Middle L-R): Margot Spence, Manager, Corporate Law, ICBC; Thomas M. Lutes, General Counsel & Deputy CEO, Architectural Institute of British Columbia; Karen Gilmore, Vice-President & General Counsel, Fulmer & Company Investments Inc. (Bottom L-R): Alyce Harper, Vice-President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Western Forest Products Inc.; and Jacob Kojfman, Legal Counsel, CGI Information Systems and Management Consultants Inc. Janine F. Jones (pictured bottom right), CBABC Canadian Corporate Counsel Association BC Representative and Senior Legal Counsel, ICBC.

feature ANIZ ALANI

Good to Great: Five Things External Counsel Can Do An in-house lawyer’s wish list

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lio CEO Jack Newton’s book, The ClientCentered Law Firm, asks law firms to consider ways in which they can provide a client-centered experience while driving efficiency and profitability. This article builds on that theme by highlighting often overlooked aspects of in-house counsel (“Internals”) practice that external counsel (“Externals”) can draw on to tweak service delivery — all while dazzling clients and attracting new business.

1. INTERNALS FACE A NEARLY LIMITLESS DEMAND FOR LEGAL SERVICES

Particularly in organizations where Internals are freely available as a corporate resource, there’s virtually no end of work competing for Internals’ time and attention. Internals’ productivity is measured not by time spent on a problem, but by the problems they solve within the time available. Rather than needing to drum up business, Internals must constantly triage legal requests based on relative risk exposure, transaction value, and their impact on corporate priorities. This means there is always more legal work waiting to be done, some of which might be outsourced. Each Internal will naturally prefer or be expected to handle certain aspects of that work more directly than others. The takeaway for Externals: seek out opportunities to assist with the important but not necessarily urgent work that remains.

2. INTERNALS OFTEN LACK ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT

While it may be common at firms for a legal assistant to be shared between two or three Externals, headcount pressures faced by Internals’ organizations often mean administrative assistants are scarce or nonexistent. Internals are thus more likely to be responsible for clerical tasks such filing, copying, scanning, and scheduling. Leveraging a firm’s administrative support infrastructure to lighten Internals’ load frees up their time to do more of the work they enjoy. It also gives Internals an additional reason to use Externals beyond excellent legal work product. For example, Externals can save immense duplication of effort by giving Internals access to the curated file content and meeting notes — for which, after all, the client has already been billed.

3. KNOW YOUR CLIENT’S STRATEGIC PLAN

Many institutional clients set specific strategic objectives that signal corporate priorities for a given time frame. Finite budgets are allocated accordingly. By proactively seeking out a client’s song sheet, Externals can gain a significant advantage in identifying opportunities to provide legal services and even suggest solutions for which a client hasn’t yet thought to ask.

4. KNOW YOUR ULTIMATE AUDIENCE

A request from an Internal for legal advice might serve one of several purposes: validating or course-correcting an Internal’s initial take on an issue, educating the Internal on a legal issue outside their usual areas of practice, responding to an internal client’s legal question, or “papering” a file with an externally validated legal analysis. Knowing the intended use of the advice allows an External to tailor the response accordingly. An academic treatise might fit the bill if the purpose is to educate the Internal or substantiate a business decision informed by legal considerations.

But the same encyclopaedic response might be counterproductive if intended to answer a question from a non-lawyer internal client. In the latter context, the most clientfriendly work product is an email message or memo that can be forwarded without any accompanying translation.

5. ASK DIRECTLY FOR FEEDBACK BEFORE IT COMES INDIRECTLY

Externals can be shy about asking clients for candid feedback, while Internals may be reluctant to provide unsolicited constructive criticism.

Mere payment of a bill and the absence of overt displeasure, therefore, do not connote client satisfaction. Internals and their internal clients are constantly making mental notes of which External behaviours they wish others would emulate, and which they’d prefer to avoid going forward.

Absent a specific ask for direct client feedback, an External may not even detect the more common form of indirect feedback: a drop in new work.

Aniz is Abbotsford’s City Solicitor. linkedin.com/in/anizalani twitter.com/AnizAlani

APRIL 2020 / BARTALK

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Indigenousmatters GRANT CHRISTOFF

Alternative to Private Practice

In-house counsel at a First Nations organization

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he First Nations Health Authority (“FNHA”) is the health and wellness partner to more than 200 diverse First Nations communities and citizens across BC. In 2013, the FNHA began a new era in BC First Nations health governance and health care delivery by taking responsibility for the programs and services formerly delivered by Health Canada. Since then, the FNHA has been working to address service gaps through new partnerships, closer collaboration, health systems innovation, reform and redesign of health programs and services for individuals, families, communities and Nations. The FNHA is also a champion of culturally safe practices throughout the broader health care system. This organizational overview forms the backdrop for much of the legal work that one does in a typical day at FNHA. The in-house counsel role in a First Nations organization has many similarities when compared to practising within other more mainstream organizations. Arguably, one difference is that while your client is the FNHA, you are ever mindful of the responsibility and privilege of working on behalf of the First Nation communities served by FNHA. This work environment also exposes you to the opportunity of experiencing, firsthand, the diversity and professionalism of the Aboriginal population within the province of BC. So, what does in-house counsel at FNHA do and how does that work support the overarching priority of FNHA in delivering on its mandate as set out above? Given that we are a relatively small organization and a small legal department, counsel tend to have a general practice with a blend of solicitor and advocacy work.

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Each day brings forward a mix of interesting challenges combined with work on longer term projects and organizational priorities. While the practice is more general in nature it can be summarized among three broad categories; human resources, operations and governance. The spectrum of work that flows from these categories provide counsel with unique insights across FNHA. Even though it is a single client practice, the range of work and working with professionals from across and external to the FNHA provide an interesting mix of work.

In developing various files, counsel also have the opportunity to develop long-term relationships that assist in informing legal advice. In turn, this leads to providing comprehensive and sometimes more relevant or responsive advice to the issues under consideration. For example, on the human resources front there are the usual employment and labour law issues arising from any employment relationship. When these issues become trends, there is the opportunity to participate and provide recommendations on initiatives for broadersystem improvements. Usually these recommendations are collaboratively developed and implemented with professionals from other parts of FNHA. The ability to go beyond assisting on or resolving transactional issues is also true for the other areas of FHNA operations and the broader First Nations Health Governance regime.

What are the additional benefits?

Counsel are able to participate in a meaningful way on broader issues of

importance within FNHA, the communities we serve and our partners in the health care system. One of those initiatives is how to support the implementation of the principles associated with Cultural Safety and Cultural Humility within the health care system.

Taking a leadership role, the FNHA actively works with its health partners to embed cultural safety and humility into health service delivery to improve health outcomes for First Nations peoples. Cultural Safety and Humility in the delivery of health services supports respectful engagement that, if required, recognizes and addresses any power imbalances or systemic racism.

The goal of this initiative being to ensure that health services are responsive to the health needs and priorities of all those being served by the health care system.

In the legal profession, this bears some similarity to the recent movement by the Law Society of British Columbia to require Indigenous cultural competency training for lawyers in BC. Working as in-house counsel in a First Nations organization brings many of the same challenges that one would have in any organization. These include a potentially narrower scope of practice, access to other lawyers with different practice areas or the undervaluing of advice by client contacts.

Put simply though, it is a rewarding alternative career and may help in pursuit of “MiyopÂmatisowin” — “the good life.”

Since 2015, Grant Christoff has served as legal counsel with the First Nations Health Authority, and also worked on a contract basis with his own community, Saulteau First Nations in northeastern BC.

FRANCES ROSNER

Indigenous Smudging and Hoop Dancing Prayer Will Continue in Alberni District No. 70 On January 8, 2020, The Honourable Mr. Justice Thompson decided that exposure to an Indigenous smudging ceremony and prayer associated with traditional hoop dancing in a Port Alberni elementary school did not infringe the religious rights of an evangelical Christian mother and her two children, aged 7 and 9.1 The Petitioner argued that the demonstration of smudging by an Indigenous elder and prayer by the Indigenous hoop dancer interfered with the religious freedoms of herself and her children guaranteed by s. 2(a) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. She sought a declaration to this effect and an order prohibiting further Indigenous events of this nature in the school district.

Alberni School District No 70 (“the District”), situated in Nuuchah-nulth traditional territory, argued that the children were not smudged and were not directly involved in the hoop dance or associated prayer. Rather, the children were observing the Indigenous demonstrations in keeping with the provincial educational curriculum and the District’s goal of increasing awareness and understanding of Nuu-chah-nulth culture, history and language — without in anyway advocating for the supremacy of one belief system over another.

Approximately one third of the students in the school district are Indigenous and the impugned events form part of the District’s reconciliation action plan and efforts at improving cultural inclusiveness.

The District argued that the Petition must be considered in the context of the traumatic colonial

history and legacy of residential schools, and how that history contributes to gaps in educational attainment and disparate outcomes for Indigenous students.

Significantly, the elementary school in question — John Hewitt Elementary School — is located approximately four kilometers from the notorious Alberni Residential School that operated from 1891 to 1973 — a residential school responsible for inflicting egregious harms on Indigenous students for nearly a century following the forced removal from their family homes. The court agreed that this history is relevant and that it continues to adversely impact Indigenous students to the present day.

The court heard significant social fact history from the District and the Nuu-chahnulth Tribal Council (“NTC”) — an intervener in the proceeding. The NTC, representing approximately 10,000 members from 14 different Nuu-chah-nulth Nations, enters into agreements with the District. The agreements reflect NTC’s intention to “cooperate in the development of an inclusive relationship that will enhance and improve all aspects of education for First Nations students” and “increase the knowledge and understanding of the First Nations culture and history for non-First Nations staff, students, and others working in association with the schools.”2 The NTC described smudging as a cultural practice, not a religious one. Incorporating cultural events into the mainstream curriculum is deemed a critical aspect of changing the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians because according to the NTC “people cannot honour

difference if they cannot understand it.”3 Further, to counter the lingering impacts from the residential school legacy, the NTC, in cooperation with the District, strives to implement culturally appropriate teaching strategies that make schools culturally safe places where Nuu-chah-nulth students “could see themselves and their culture reflected” in the curriculum.4 In adopting the viewpoints of the District and NTC regarding cultural inclusivity and reconciliation, the court considered the Truth and Reconciliation Commission — Calls to Action, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and BC’s recent Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. The theme of these documents, and the submissions of the District and NTC is that building student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy and respect along with the rights of Indigenous peoples to promote, develop, teach and practice their distinctive cultural customs and traditions must be fiercely protected in light of our history. In the concluding remarks, the court referred to the smudging and dancer’s prayer as “admirable and admissible efforts to teach, in a memorable way, about Indigenous beliefs.”5 Servatius v. Alberni School District No 70, 2020 BCSC 15 (“Servatius”) 2 Servatius, para. 26.

3 Ibid. para 25.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid. para 108.

1

Frances Rosner is a Métis lawyer working as a sole practitioner in Vancouver.

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feature LILAC BOSMA

The In-House Balancing Act Using your legal skills to solve business problems

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ave you ever tried to explain what you do at work to your friends?

Inevitably, this involves gently managing peoples’ glamorous expectations that your day job involves drama and antics that would appear in a script of Suits. We all know the day-to-day lives of lawyers offer disappointingly few drama-soaked storylines.

For lawyers who choose to move in-house, the resemblance is even fainter. Generally speaking, inhouse lawyers are not striding into court or making dramatic revelations in discovery. So what do inhouse lawyers actually do at work?

They do what all lawyers do: solve problems. The difference is that, as an employee of their only client, inhouse counsel are much closer to the business than an external lawyer could be. As a result, they are rarely asked to help with problems that are clearly defined legal problems.

Rather, every in-house lawyer’s primary job is to use their legal expertise and experience to solve business problems in a way that appropriately protects their employer.

In-house counsel must not be afraid to roll up their sleeves and use their legal skills to help their client navigate business problems. Because of their training and experience, lawyers have much to offer in the corporate environment, including the ability to quickly analyse complex facts, ask good questions, spot issues, and communicate clearly.

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In addition, in-house lawyers often have deep institutional knowledge that is invaluable when a business is faced with a challenge. Successful in-house lawyers use all their skills and experience to help their employer’s business succeed.

That being said, inhouse lawyers must be intentional in how they deliver advice. Lawyers’ words can have an unspoken weight, and without clarity an in-house lawyer’s personal judgment can be mistaken for legal advice. This can lead to problems: Colleagues

may assume that a certain decision has the weight of “law,” when really it was based on the facts of the specific situation and good judgment; this can lead to bad decision making.

Every in-house lawyer’s primary job is to use their legal expertise and experience to solve business problems in a way that appropriately protects their employer.

A

lawyer giving a strong view may unintentionally shut down debate and challenge.

When

lawyers do non-legal tasks, others may assume that the task

needs to be done by a lawyer, which can lead to a lack of agility in the workforce and an unnecessary overload on the in-house team.

So how should in-house lawyers help their client solve business problems?

1. Be clear. When you are speaking about an issue that doesn’t require legal advice, ensure your colleagues know that you are not giving a “legal opinion,” but that you are offering your views based on your institutional knowledge and experience. On the other hand, when you are giving legal advice, clearly say so and advise your clients on how to preserve privilege if the circumstances warrant.

2. Be empowering.

When an issue doesn’t require legal advice, ensure your colleagues know that regardless of your view, they are empowered to make a different decision without coming to you again.

3. Grow your internal network, so that when colleagues come to you for help with a problem that doesn’t require your expertise, you can point them in the right direction.

In-house life may not be as dramatic as an episode of Suits, but lawyers who enter the corporate world have a unique opportunity to make a dramatic difference for their employers as intentional and thoughtful team members helping to move the business forward.

Lilac Bosma is General Counsel for HSBC Bank Canada, and the proud leader of a national team working together to grow and protect HSBC’s business.

I give to my community and with Vancouver Foundation, my giving lasts forever.

75 years ago, a single gift started Vancouver Foundation and that gift is still making a difference in the community today.

We can help you create a fund that gives forever.

Get started at vancouverfoundation.ca/create or call Kristin at 604.629.5186

To find your local community foundation visit communityfoundations.ca

APRIL 2020 / BARTALK

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ROBERT DIAB

From Lawyer to Law Prof Why some lawyers opt for the classroom over the courtroom

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t has long been true that, after a few years in practice, a good portion of law graduates choose to do something else instead. Almost everyone who gets a law degree is glad they did.

How they feel about law school itself is another story.

Some students find the process so unpleasant — competitive, cliquey, judgmental — they block it out of their memory and never look back.

Some thrive in law school, finding it challenging and stimulating in unique and inspiring ways. A subset of these people make their way back to law school to make a career of it.

I asked some of my colleagues why they chose to return and what appeals to them most about being a law prof.

Craig Jones, QC, Professor of Law at Thompson Rivers University (“TRU”), says: “As a lawyer I’d always been a bit of a law geek and I liked to research and write, so that part of it seemed natural. The real addiction, once you try it, is the teaching. You’re surrounded by these really smart young people, and being there when the lights of legal thinking start to go off like flashbulbs, is completely invigorating. So I feel like my love for the law, and my fascination with its intricacies, gets renewed with every new group of first year students.”

Nicole O’Byrne, who teaches in the Faculty of Law at the University 12

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of New Brunswick, explains: “In law school I consistently gravitated toward constitutional law and jurisprudence, and I wrote history essays thinly disguised as law papers at every opportunity.

After winning the Constitutional Law prize in second year, I took a job at a law firm to pay some bills. To my surprise, I loved every minute of it! The lawyers I worked for assigned me challenging work, and the managing partner convinced me that lawyers on the ‘front line’ are often confronting problems only dreamed of by academics.

After graduation, I went back to the firm convinced that my academic proclivities (and tendency to get

As a lawyer I’d always been a bit of a law geek and I liked to research and write, so that part of it seemed natural. But the real addiction, once you try it, is the teaching. lost in the library stacks) could be satisfied in practice. However, one day it dawned on me that there was no time code on the billing sheet for ‘thinking’. From that moment, I

knew that I needed to follow a path where I could explore ideas without the worry of the next file, the next client or putting out the next fire.”

Andrew Pillar, an assistant professor and colleague of mine at TRU, says: “I enjoyed practice more than I expected. So I didn’t run away from practice to academia. Rather, I was drawn to research because I wanted to spend my time trying to understand and figure out responses to the access to justice problems that I saw while in practice. I just didn’t feel I had the time or the skills to really address systemic problems while I was in practice.”

Blair Major, also a law prof at TRU, sees a similar appeal: “When reading and thinking about the law, I am not constrained by the concerns of my clients or by the demands of billable hours. I do not have to move quickly from one legal idea to the other, but I get to sit with things, thinking about them, trying to really understand them and make sense of them from different angles.”

Yet, teaching does entail trade-offs.

As Andrew Pillar notes, “I miss practice for the opportunity to deal directly with clients. The sense of being able to do something tangibly useful for someone was a source of real satisfaction in practice.”

No job is perfect, but for some of us, being back at law school is a good place to be.

Robert Diab, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Thompson Rivers University.

feature

LISA PICOTTE-LI

Deciding What’s Important What I learned from adjudicating inmate discipline

I

f someone told me in law school that I would love practising litigation at a private firm, then also love leaving it for something else, I would have laughed and laughed because I was of course going to become a law professor and stay in school forever.

Life takes us in unpredictable directions and, if we are lucky, transforms us, and transforms us again.

I could not have predicted where I was going to be a few years after hanging up my barrister’s robe. I had defined being a lawyer a certain way and adjudication, while related, was not advocacy in the way that I had enjoyed it. As I took on roles that increasingly departed from my view of being a lawyer, I learned lessons about the value of deciding what is important.

One day, while I prepared to render a decision regarding an inmate who had tried to kill another, the reality that we are all trying our best with the tools that we have hit me and I caught myself, hoping that my choices were the right ones. The marginal costs of doing the wrong thing is alluringly low. Be guided by a clear sense of purpose for the things that matter.

What might these be? I am not sure that I have the answers — or even all the questions — but what I learned from adjudicating inmate discipline might be helpful for your consideration:

Focus

on what you are doing, according to your values, and not on where you want to be. Our lives are rarely galvanized by a single spectacular moment, but defined by habits formed from how we decide to allocate resources. It is easy to squander away time and energy on acquiring short-term signs of achievement. But this can lead you astray.

Take time to define what you stand for, draw the line in a safe place, and create relationships that are built on trust and mutual respect.

It

is easy to think of power as glamorous and important. To be powerful is to come first and have control and

Even in deciding to look, however, goes a long way toward the most meaningful aspect of life — to do something that matters and be willing to be transformed by it. influence over others. But power is a responsibility. It should be used to make difficult decisions in service to others, so that you are giving value before you seek it. The more you repeatedly deliver value, the more you become relied on for

your value and more power can be created by helping someone else lead a better life.

If

you are too focused on areas for improvement, you may not see strengths and the things that are working. We are all driven by hopes and aspirations. The most powerful motivator is not the fear of consequence or the promise of reward. It is the opportunity to learn, grow, contribute, and be recognized. Force creates resistance, but satisfying basic human needs of belonging, self-esteem, and the ability to control and live up to one’s standards builds influence.

It is simple, but not easy, to decide what is important. Finding those things that are bigger than yourself and the values that you are willing to struggle for determines how you will succeed. Is it worth leaving something you love for something better? Only you can know that. Even in deciding to look, however, goes a long way toward the most meaningful aspect of life — to do something that matters and be willing to be transformed by it.

Life is happening for us, not to us, and we become defined by the risks that we take, not the risks that we avoid. So decide what is important and be willing to fight for your life for them. We may not be able to predict the future, but we can create it, shape it, and change it.

Lisa Picotte-Li adjudicates discipline of federal inmates, teaches law to architectural candidates, and is the director of operations at a provincial regulator. The views are those of the author.

APRIL 2020 / BARTALK

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practicetalk DAVID J. BILINSKY

Going Where Few Have Gone Before Following the bold and the disbarred rI can have it all Now I’m dancing for my life... r — Music by Giorgio Moroder, Lyrics

by Keith Forsey and Irene Cara; performed by Cara.

W

hen it comes to going beyond private practice, a few law graduates have taken things perhaps just a bit further than most.

Take Mark Ciavarella. He was a President Judge of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania. He pled guilty in 2009 to “federal charges of honest services fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion in connection with receiving $2.6 million in kickbacks from Robert Powell (himself an attorney) and Robert Mericle, the co-owner and builder respectively, of two private, for-profit juvenile facilities of PA Child Care” (per Wikipedia).

How did he earn these kickbacks, you ask? By sentencing children to stays in juvenile detention for crimes such as “mocking a principal on Myspace, trespassing in a vacant building, and shoplifting DVDs from Walmart.”

Then there is Minnesota attorney Thomas P. Lowe. Now Thomas isn’t the first lawyer to have sex with his client (and almost certainly not the last). He distinguished himself by taking things one step further and billing his client for his time having sex, characterizing these activities as 14

BARTALK / APRIL 2020

“drafting memos” and “meetings” (per Business Insider). This earned him a professional misconduct citation, among other things.

Stealing from clients is bad; stealing from orphaned children is in a class all its own. Yet that is what attorney John Milton Merritt did. He plead guilty to 12 counts of using forged court orders to defraud clients.

Among those clients were four orphaned girls whose parents were killed in a 2002 car crash and a boy injured in a 2005 car accident. In total, Mr. Merritt stole just under $450,000 from the children and $1.7 million in total (per Huffpost).

However, not many lawyers make such an impact as Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known by his alias, Lenin. He played a leading role in the October Revolution, in which the Bolsheviks overthrew Russia and the Tsars (per Wikipedia).

violence unleashed between 1917, when the Bolsheviks took power, and 1953, when Joseph Stalin died and the Soviet Union moved to adopt a more restrained and largely non-murderous domestic policy” (per Wikipedia). Robert Conquest, in his book, estimates the communist leaders of the Soviet Union were responsible for no fewer than 15 million deaths.

On a different scale, take lawyer Brett Hartley of Florida who was disbarred by The Florida Supreme Court.

What did he do? He used his lawyer trust account as a business operating account for an adult entertainment business in Jacksonville, Florida called Flash Dancers. He also abandoned his practice, misappropriated client funds, failed to pay back $255,000 from his father in law after two payments, and had a substance abuse problem.

This all goes to show that if you throw the ethics book out the window, you can seemingly have it all, provided you don’t mind — dancing for your life.

He served as head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration, Russia and then the wider Soviet Union became a one-party communist state governed by the Russian Communist Party.

The views expressed herein are strictly those of David Bilinsky and do not reflect the opinions of the Law Society of British Columbia, CBABC, or their respective members.

Genocide scholar Adam Jones claims that “there is very little in the record of human experience to match the

David J. Bilinsky is the Practice Management Advisor (non-practising — on medical leave).

Email: daveb@thoughtfullaw.com Blog: thoughtfullaw.com APRIL 2020 / BARTALK

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dave’s techtips There are many resources available to assist lawyers, their family members and their staff to deal with personal, drug, alcohol and other issues.

Here is a sampling: uuu LAWYERS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (“LAP”) (lapbc.com) LAPBC is an independent organization of members of the BC legal community (lawyers, judges, families and support staff) for members of the legal community.

LAP provides peer support, resources and referral services to help people deal with personal problems — including alcohol and drug dependence, mental health issues, stress and anxiety, relationships issues, including familial issues, professional concerns, depression and other issues. They are available 24/7. Call 604-6852171 or 1-888-685-2171 or email info@lapbc.com. uuu MOOD DISORDERS SOCIETY OF CANADA (mdsc.ca) Mental health resources.

LAW SOCIETY OF BC uuu LIFEWORKS CANADA The Law Society funds LifeWorks Canada’s personal counselling and referral services. Services are confidential and available at no cost to individual BC lawyers, articled students and their immediate families. LifeWorks can “help with life’s questions, issues and concerns — handling stress, maintaining

relationships, challenges at work, parenting and childcare, managing money, caring for an older relative or health issues.”

Contact LifeWorks 24/7: Calling the toll-free number: 1-888-307-0590 for a confidential in-person call.

Log in to login.lifeworks.com to learn more about the services Lifeworks provides, including website materials and access to a confidential online chat or in-person call:

Username: lawsocietybc

Password: healthy Download the free app on Android or IOS — simply search for “Lifeworks.” Once downloaded, open the app, click on “log in” and enter your Username and Password: lawsocietybc/healthy

DRUG AND ALCOHOL RESOURCES

uuu MATERNITY LEAVE BENEFITS PROGRAM The LSBC offers a maternity leave benefit loan program to assist self-employed women lawyers who do not have access to maternity and parental financial benefits other than government programs remain in practice. To be eligible for the loan, you have to meet all of the requirements listed here.

The program provides a loan of $2,000 per month for four months to help with overhead costs during a maternity leave.

uuu ALCOHOL AND DRUG INFORMATION REFERRAL SERVICE It’s free, confidential, and available 24/7. Call 1-800-663-1441 or 604660-9382 in the Lower Mainland.

uuu EQUITY OMBUDSMAN Claire Marchant is the Equity Ombudsman at the LSBC. She can assist with resolving concerns about discrimination and discriminatory harassment. Lawyers, articled students, law students and support staff of legal employers are all free to contact the Equity Ombudsperson. The service is voluntary, confidential and free to participants. Contact Claire: equity@lsbc. org or call 604-605-5303.

Watching a spouse, child or other family member deal with drug, alcohol or mental health issues can present you with one of the most challenging life situations you can ever face. There are many resources available to assist you in this journey. uuu HEALTHLINKBC lists many resources, including how to reach out for help for: suicide, mental health, kids help, alcohol and drug resources and other information. It also lists resources such as how to talk to teens, how to talk to adult children and what your health authority can offer by way of assistance. healthlinkbc.ca/ substance-use/parenting-articles.

uuu GAMBLING SUPPORT LINE 1-888-795-6111 uuu DEPRESSION AND MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES (cmha.bc.ca) uuu HERETOHELP.BC.CA lists a number of resources available to help deal with depression, mood disorders and more.

There are many other resources available in the province, some of which are specific to communities.

For example, call or text 211 to access free information and referral to a full range of community, social, and government services, 24/7 in the Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Squamish-Lillooet and Sunshine Coast Regional Districts.

© 2020 David J. Bilinsky

APRIL 2020 / BARTALK

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feature CHELSEY MEYERS

Lawyers and Charities A great opportunity for a new direction

T

he charitable sector may not be top of mind when someone mentions alternative careers in law. And yet, charities are regularly involved in complex legal and financial matters. They provide an interesting and growing opportunity for those looking outside the traditional legal profession.

Better still, there are a broad variety of roles within that sector that are well suited to individuals with a background in law.

Registered charities are subject to strict compliance rules. This is particularly evident in day-to-day activity regarding gift acceptance and receipting. Charities engage with donors who are making large gifts within complex tax planning structures. These gifts can be both inter vivos and testamentary in nature.

Staff work closely with donors and their advisors at every stage of a donation. Employing experts with an in-depth knowledge in this area provides a professional advantage to the charity. They can confidently enter into conversations with donors about any sort of gifting scenario. For lawyers with finance and/or tax experience, this can be an ideal opportunity.

In addition, as beneficiaries of testamentary gifts, charities are also engaged at all levels of estate administration. From name confusion in the charitable sector to disinherited family members to will validity 16

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issues, charitable gifts can be subject to all sorts of complicating scenarios. In fact, donors can be particularly private about their charitable giving intentions. This can, in turn, lead to more opportunity for confusion when a gift is realized. With an aging population and a corresponding increased transfer of wealth, charitable estate gifts are likely to be on the rise. More and more organizations are looking to employ individuals with a background in this field.

In Canada, registered charities include private and public foundations as well as charitable organizations. These groups increasingly work together to ensure donor intentions are fulfilled. As such, charities are generally involved with the giving or receiving of grants.

Foundations look for expertise in developing and maintaining their grant programs. Staff manage portfolios that involve consulting with prospective applicants, assessing submitted proposals, making recommendations and overseeing reporting. Conversely, other charities are regularly involved on the applicant end of the spectrum. They look for staff to maximize their impact through increased grant funding.

The research and analytical skills possessed by lawyers are an excellent fit for these roles.

Finally, lawyers with management backgrounds also have a range of skills well suited to leadership roles in charitable organizations. Executives within charities need to maintain a close relationship with their Board. They develop organizational plans and policies based on compliance rules and current philanthropic trends that help achieve charitable goals. So there is often room for upward career movement within a charity as well.

One thing is abundantly clear: charities need professionals. Larger organizations may retain in-house counsel to address these various issues.

And smaller charities often rely on members of their Board for assistance and advice. But many charities develop an alternative internal staffing structure. Experienced and knowledgeable staff members are regularly sought for roles involving complex gift procurement, estate administration, grant program oversight, board liaison activity, compliance conduct and more. A background in law provides individuals with the knowledge and experience necessary to excel in these sorts of positions.

Charities offer an interesting alternative for lawyers looking to make a change. They provide an opportunity for a continued connection to some traditional areas of practice but with a completely new perspective. And, it must be said, that a career in philanthropy is never short of inspiration.

Chelsey is a Director for the BC Cancer Foundation. She has served on Boards and Advisory Committees for several organizations.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES Head of Legal (Technology company) | 7-15 years | Vancouver Our client, a rapidly growing technology consulting company with global reach, is looking to hire their first In-House Counsel. It’s an exciting time to join this innovative and ambitious team, and head up their internal legal function.

Headquartered in Vancouver, you will be the key resource for all legal matters, manage the compliance functions, and coordinate with external counsel. The position is fairly broad in scope, but strong experience around commercial contracts in the tech space is essential. Experience having worked in-house in a technology company will also be highly regarded. The balance of the role covers major business transactions, including acquisitions, financing/funding, employment, and litigation management.

You will be part of the leadership team working alongside the senior management team and therefore a strategic and commercial mindset is necessary. To discuss this position further, please contact Mike Race or Amrit Rai at legalBC@zsa.ca. Ref. #BT29824.

Head of Legal | 10+ Years | Fraser Valley We’re working with a group of diversified businesses, with over 2,000 employees between 4 companies in the Fraser Valley, now looking to hire their first in-house lawyer to head up their legal operations and provide guidance to their various business units.

Reporting directly to the President, this position requires a dynamic leader with broad experience in corporate/commercial law with particular emphasis on construction and real estate matters.

There is a manufacturing and materials bent to some of the businesses, and apart from general commercial matters, you will be dealing with an array of contracts for existing and new construction projects, real estate transactions, litigation management, compliance and employment law. This is a rare opportunity to grow and develop alongside a dynamic and diverse group of businesses.

The ideal candidate will have a minimum of 10 years’ experience, ideally having managed a broad legal remit in-house. You will be a self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced environment and is adept at building strong relationships with multiple stakeholders. The businesses are all based around the Langley and South Surrey area, so it’s an ideal position for someone living in the Fraser Valley and tired of the commute downtown. For more information or to apply, please contact Mike Race or Amrit Rai at legalBC@zsa.ca quoting reference BT29573.

Senior Immigration Lawyer | 5+ years | Fraser Valley Our client, a busy boutique law firm located in Surrey, is seeking a lawyer with significant immigration experience to assist in a mentorship capacity. This will not be a practising role - the firm is looking to retrain some of their current lawyers to work in immigration. The incumbent will not be required to bring clients, but it would be helpful if they are open to directing business development activities.

The successful candidate will have at least five years of immigration experience, and will have leadership abilities and be an allaround team player. Punjabi language skills are an asset, but not necessary. For more information, or to apply, please contact Mike Race or Amrit Rai at LegalBC@zsa.ca or 604-681-0706, quoting reference #BT29869.

M I K E R AC E

AMRIT RAI

Client Partner (604) 283-9316 | mrace@zsa.ca

zsa.ca

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Recruitment Partner (604) 283-9317 | arai@zsa.ca

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Consultant, Support Services (604) 283-9318 | ealper@zsa.ca

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feature ADAM PICOTTE

The Benefits of Adjudication Why you should be on administrative tribunals

I

have been practising law since 2010. For more than half of that time I have also been a member of various provincial and federal administrative tribunals. Being a member on these tribunals has made me a better lawyer and provided me with a rewarding experience. I want to take some time in this article to explain how this is so.

Outside of my work as a tribunal member, I carry on a litigation practice focused on administrative law. Being a tribunal member has instilled in me the importance of salient and focused argument in my practice. I’ve learned that argument is important but pales in comparison to well organized and presented facts and evidence. Tribunal members are generally tasked with making quick decisions with less than fulsome information. There are significant time constraints. In my role as an independent chairperson with Correctional Services Canada, I hear between 20 and 40 inmate disciplinary matters over 3-4 hours. That means as little as 6 minutes to review a file, take pleas, hear evidence, analyze the facts, make a determination, and (when relevant) order a sanction. Having counsel present who understand the facts, and can distill the most relevant points into a brief and focused argument can be extremely persuasive. I have incorporated that theory into my practice. I believe it has made me a stronger advocate.

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Adjudication can be a personally rewarding experience. Many administrative tribunals do not lend themselves to robust legal practices because financial remuneration is difficult, the work is too ad hoc, or the service is contracted through legal programs.

The Mental Health Review Board is a prime example. The Tribunal has jurisdiction over civil detentions under the Mental Health Act for those persons who pose a danger to themselves or others due to a mental disorder. Given the population involved, it is an area of law that would be challenging to incorporate into a legal practice.

Further, the Community Legal Assistance Society is contracted to provide advocacy services for applicants.

However, as a tribunal member, I am

While the law governs how I decide each case, I am able to take satisfaction in knowing I have provided claimants with a fair shake at obtaining benefits. able to regularly participate in these hearings. I have found it personally rewarding to participate in a process that ensures the balance between personal freedom and non-consensual healthcare intervention.

How you decide can be the difference between financial security and destitution. The Social Security Tribunal hears appeals for denials of Employment Insurance, Canada Pension Plan, and Old Age Security benefits.

The Tribunal ensures appropriate entitlement to income security and social safety net benefits. The implications of my decisions are manifest.

It is the difference in foreclosures, sustenance, and continued independence. It is a burden to know these things and the implications of my decisions. While the law governs how I decide each case, I am able to take satisfaction in knowing I have provided claimants with a fair shake at obtaining benefits.

Outside of the core work, I have gained considerably from the education attached to adjudicative work. I have had learning sessions led by seasoned administrative law experts, former justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, and current jurists.

The educational opportunities I’ve received have again supported my development as a lawyer and would be less available to me outside of my role as an adjudicator.

My advice to any lawyer is look into opportunities for appointment.

Many Tribunals require little time away from practice and all offer at least some form of remuneration. For provincial appointments you can go to the Crown Agencies and Board Resourcing Office. For federal appointments, go to the Governor in Council appointments website or search the individual ministry pages.

Adam Picotte is a labour lawyer focusing on complex disability management claims at the HSABC and through LT Thomas Advisors.

feature LEANNA KRAUSE

An Expert Professional on Workers’ Compensation Issues

compensation system and the administrative tribunal process without our services. For me, this provides a sense of personal satisfaction for the work I do as an Adviser.

T

The Adviser position is also unique and a great alternative to private practice because it provides lawyers with the opportunity to still engage in the practice of law and become experts in the workers’ compensation system and representing individuals before administrative tribunals. However, you can do so, without the worry of billable hours and the administrative details that go into running a law practice.

he Workers’ Advisers Office (“WAO”) is a branch of the Ministry of Labour. There are seven regional offices around the province, including Richmond, Victoria, Campbell River, Prince George and Kelowna.

Workers’ Advisers (“Advisers”) are the core service providers at WAO and, as an Adviser, you have a statutory mandate to provide advice and assistance to injured workers on the Workers Compensation Act, its Regulations, Policies and Guidelines. While an Adviser provides advice and assistance on workers’ compensation issues, the WAO is independent of WorkSafeBC. There is a huge demand for our services and, on a daily basis, Advisers manage a large number of complex time-sensitive files. One of the main duties of Advisers is to provide workers with advice on the evidence they need in order to challenge a decision from WorkSafeBC in the administrative tribunals under the workers’ compensation system. If an Adviser thinks that the workers’ review or appeal has merit or, in other words, a reasonable chance of a successful outcome on the review or appeal, then the Adviser will represent the worker on that review or appeal before the administrative tribunal. Among other tasks, this would involve preparing the written submissions for the worker and/or representing them at an oral hearing.

Advisers also assist workers with WorkSafeBC claims where the worker alleges that their employer retaliated against them for raising a health and safety issue at work.

As part of this process, an Adviser will often represent workers at mediations in an effort to try and obtain an early resolution to the dispute and to try and avoid the lengthy adjudication and appeal processes.

An Adviser provides invaluable services to a vulnerable population of society.

These individuals often would not be able to navigate the workers’

For more information on the WAO, please visit: bit.ly/bt0420p7-1.

Leanna Krause graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 2011 and has worked with the Workers’ Advisers Office since 2016.

WorkSafeBC Appeals & C P P D IS A B IL IT Y A P P EA LS

604.591.8187

www.wcblawyers.com F RE E C O N S U LTAT I O N Gosal & Company

Sarj Gosal B.A., LL.B.

· Barristers & Solicitors · City Centre 2 304 - 9639 137A Street, Surrey, BC V3T 0M1

APRIL 2020 / BARTALK

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news&events BC WLF UPDATE — by Daria Batkin and Melissa VanderHouwen

Are You Maximizing Your Business Returns?

In collaboration with the National Conference of the Women’s Bar Associations (“NCWBA”), the BC WLF is excited to bring to you a new program entitled “GOOD Guys — Guys Overcoming Obstacles to Diversity.” Originally developed by the NCWBA, GOOD Guys is a program designed to break the impasse in women’s advancement by engaging people who have been missing from the conversation for too long — the guys.

This event is designed for guys, in consultation with guys, and will showcase “GOOD” guys who have realized the tangible benefits of diversity at the leadership table and are employing diversity to their business’ advantage.

We encourage our male colleagues to come to this downtown Vancouver event* (which was originally scheduled to occur in May) to hear from the keynote speaker Sheryl Axelrod and a panel of “GOOD” guys about the monetary benefits of placing women in leadership positions. Help BC WLF celebrate the practical wisdom of their panelists who have positioned themselves ahead of the curve and are already capitalizing on the increased outcomes associated with promoting diversity at the top. BC WLF’s panel will include lawyers and C suite executives from prominent global businesses and boards who will speak about their practices and resulting outcomes.

The GOOD Guys program has been met with much enthusiasm in a number of states in the US, including New York, California and DC. It has recently been run in the UK with great success. It is time we bring it to Canada, and who better than the BC WLF to do it!

Stay tuned for the official notice of the Canadian launch of the GOOD Guys program in Vancouver. We look forward to seeing you and your colleagues! * This event is being rescheduled to a later date. Watch for announcements because you don’t want to miss this exciting event.

Ryan joins the Tax/Trusts Group as an Associate.

His practice focuses on tax planning, including estate and succession planning, corporate reorganizations, and business structuring.

Ryan has been awarded a Certificate of Achievement for completing the CPA Canada In-Depth Tax Course.

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advocacy CBABC ADVOCACY UPDATE SAYING NO TO NO-FAULT On February 6, 2020, the government and ICBC introduced a significant change to vehicle insurance in British Columbia, referred to as “Enhanced Care Coverage.”

This plan was introduced to the legislature in Bill 11 on March 4, 2020. It provides benefits to all those injured in a vehicle accident regardless of fault, eliminates compensation for the accident’s impact on an injured person’s life, and leaves all decision about the nature of the injury, loss of income, and medical care treatment in the hands of ICBC claims adjusters.

Complaints will go to a Fairness Office established by ICBC, while appeals go to the Civil Resolution Tribunal (“CRT”).

the public itself. Particulars will be contained within regulations expected to be introduced in the fall of 2020.

CBABC is opposed to this no-fault insurance plan as it removes the right of injured people to have claims assessed based on their personal situation and makes it difficult for British Columbians to access the help of a lawyer. Studies show that it also creates more bureaucracy, inefficiencies and increases accident fatalities. It also creates a barrier for accident victims who are unable to afford the cost of expert reports over and above the limitations imposed in the amendments, making it difficult for low to middle class plaintiffs to prove the extent of their claim. The government’s position is that it is necessary to help manage the financial problems experienced

by ICBC, and it will result in a

reduction of insurance premiums paid by drivers as much as $400 annually.

Our advocacy plan includes a thorough review of the government’s proposed changes to the Evidence Act and the vehicle insurance plan in collaboration with the Auto Insurance Working Group and other committees in the coming weeks.

CBABC will develop a formal submission to the Attorney General to influence the implementation.

Plans are underway to meet with key government officials to communicate our position to BC’s lawmakers and to the Attorney General.

To follow what CBABC is doing, read News and Jobs, the President’s Message, and see CBABC in the Media.

Jo-Anne Stark, CBABC Director of Advocacy

Bill 9 was introduced on February 24, 2020 to amend the Evidence Act, as part of the government’s plan to limit the number of expert reports allowed for a claim, as well as the cost of each report and total amount of allowable disbursements in personal injury awards.

Unlike other major changes in British Columbia such as the introduction of the Family Law Act, the Provincial Government developed this major policy change and Evidence Act amendments without any consultation with CBABC members, or even

APRIL 2020 / BARTALK

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grantsapproved LAW FOUNDATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

$190,000 BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre Regulatory Justice Program

Outlined below is a list of grants adjudicated at the March 7, 2020 Board of Governors meeting.

Funding totalling $7,270,500 was approved for the following 42 continuing and on-track programs: $960,000 Community Legal Assistance Society Major Programs $470,000 West Coast Environmental Law Association Access to Justice Programs $468,000 Access Pro Bono Society of BC Major Programs

$150,000 Migrant Workers Centre BC Society Migrant Workers Centre Legal Advocacy Program $150,000 People’s Law School Society Dial-A-Law: Enhancing A2J Through Innovative IT Applications $142,500 Access Pro Bono Society of BC APB Lawyer Referral Service $105,000 Community Connections Society of Southeast BC East Kootenay Poverty Law Advocacy Program

$400,000 BC Law Institute Program Grant

$100,000 PovNet Society PovNet Program

$385,000 Justice Education Society of BC Major Programs

$100,000 University of Victoria Access to Justice Centre for Excellence

$380,000 West Coast LEAF Association Litigation and Law Reform Program $370,000 People’s Law School Society Major Programs $280,000 Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre Society Tenant Legal Advocacy Program $250,000 Environmental Law Centre Society, University of Victoria Environmental Law Centre Clinic Program $220,000 Seniors First BC Society Elder Law Clinic

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$190,000 Pivot Legal Society Homelessness and Police Accountability Programs

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$100,000 West Coast Prison Justice Society Human rights, Charter and health care initiative $95,000 Atira Women’s Resource Society Legal Advocacy Program $95,000 Battered Women’s Support Services Legal Services and Advocacy Program $95,000 Dze L K’ant Friendship Centre Society Legal Support Program

$95,000 Immigrant Services Society of BC ISS of BC Legal Advocacy Program $95,000 North Shore Community Resources Society North Shore Legal Advocacy Program $95,000 Okanagan Advocacy and Resource Society Legal Advocacy for the North Okanagan Program $95,000 Quesnel Tillicum Society Family Law Advocacy Program $95,000 Quesnel Tillicum Society Poverty Law Advocacy Program $95,000 Seniors First BC Society Legal Advocacy Program $95,000 SHARE Family and Community Services Poverty Law Advocacy Program $95,000 Sources Community Resources Society Legal Information & Advocacy Program $95,000 Sources Community Resources Society Poverty Law Advocacy Program $95,000 Terrace and District Community Services Society Poverty Law Advocacy Program $95,000 Wachiay Friendship Centre Society Wachiay Advocacy Outreach Program $95,000 Watari Research Association System Negotiator Program

$95,000 Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows Community Services Poverty Law Advocacy Program $80,000 Upper Skeena Counselling & Legal Assistance Society Legal Advocacy Program $70,000 Mediate BC Society Public Education Program

Searching for a new legal career?

$60,000 Community Legal Assistance Society David Mossop, QC, Public Interest Articling Fellowship $55,000 University of Saskatchewan Indigenous Law Centre $40,000 Kinbrace Community Society Accessing Refugee Protection $30,000 University of British Columbia LSLAP For — Credit Program $10,000 University of British Columbia Indigenous Legal Studies Academic Leadership Certificate

Legal Opportunities are waiting for you.

Funding totalling $177,000 was approved for the following grants: $120,000 Society for Children and Youth of BC Wayne Robertson, QC Fund for Access to Justice for Children and Youth — Articling Fellowship $57,000 Spirit of the Children Society Court Elder Program, Aboriginal Family Healing Court Conference, New Westminster, Burnaby and Coquitlam

cbabc.org/LegalOpps

Funding totalling $102,000 was approved for six Law Foundation Graduate Fellowships.

Funding totalling $103,300 was approved for seven other grants.

APRIL 2020 / BARTALK

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nothingofficial TONY WILSON, QC

A Place to Grow. A Place to Be. r

Work closer to your family in Sur-ur-ey r

S

ome years ago, I ran into an old friend in Victoria who had deliberately moved into the neighbourhood I had grown up in off Henderson Road close to UVic, in what is sometimes called “North Oak Bay.” She had specifically moved there so that her kids could go to nearby “Uplands Elementary School,” which was the elementary school that I went to in the 1960s. But shortly after she moved there, the Ministry of Education closed Uplands School. Although it was overflowing with neighbourhood kids in the 1960s and 1970s, the cost of real estate eventually made the neighbourhood unaffordable for young families. They could only afford other parts of Greater Victoria, like the “Western Communities” of Colwood and Langford. Without a regular infusion of young families moving into North Oak Bay, Uplands School closed. There simply weren’t enough kids anymore.

I mention this to illustrate, in my own roundabout way, what I think could happen to the Vancouver legal market in the next 20 years. In fact, I think it may be already starting. As we all know, the cost of residential real estate is ridiculously unaffordable in Vancouver (and its adjacent suburbs). I predict that more and more young and mid-career lawyers who would ordinarily climb the ladder to partnership in the big downtown Vancouver firms, may actually choose to abandon the downtown firms for Surrey, Langley, Maple Ridge and the other suburbs in “The Valley.” Or indeed, they may leave Metro Vancouver entirely and move to the Island or the Okanagan — closer to a more inexpensive place to live, and arguably, a less hectic lifestyle, and to be nearer to where their kids go to school.

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BARTALK / APRIL 2020

Anyone who works in downtown Vancouver but lives in Surrey, Langley, Maple Ridge, Mission or Abbotsford knows that the tortuous commute is over an hour each way every day (but only on good days), and unless you’re close to a Skytrain station or a West Coast Express station, it’s getting worse and worse every year.

So, who wants to be stuck in traffic for an hour or more each way, every working day (effectively spending more time in your car than with your kids), if you could practice law closer to home in or near British Columbia’s soon-to-be biggest city: Surrey. I think it’s an issue for the big Vancouver firms when talented lawyers (who would otherwise want to buy into the partnership) decide they’d rather put that money toward a house in the burbs without the commute, and join a firm (or start a firm) closer to home and the kids.

I know that some Vancouver firms opened satellite offices in Surrey in the early 2000s, and I’m pretty sure that experiment didn’t succeed.

Maybe it was a clash of corporate cultures. Maybe it was too early. Maybe the Surrey firms were making more money per partner than the Vancouver firms. Or maybe clients were terrified that their legal fees would rise once their Surrey lawyers had been assimilated by the Borg Collective and started charging Vancouver rates. There’s obviously a discrepancy between the hourly rates and billing practices in Vancouver and the hourly rates and billing practices in Surrey, Langley and “The Valley.”

So why would the big firms move to Surrey if the clients aren’t there

or won’t use them because of a perceived high-price point? Why would they go there if the last “experiment” failed? Well, in my universe, the big firms wouldn’t be going to Surrey for the clients. They’d be going there for the lawyers. They’d be going there for their support staff. It’s not client retention that’s the issue. It’s lawyer and staff retention.

You see, if your partnertrack associates, junior partners, and your excellent support staff are no longer prepared to live in their cars for the privilege of working in Vancouver anymore, you might as well establish a beachhead in Surrey, Langley or other BC cities, so that you don’t lose them.

Surrey is expected to become BC’s largest city in less than 10 years. A thousand new residents move to Surrey every month. Rents are cheaper.

Homes are bigger, but average house prices are far lower than Vancouver, West Vancouver or even New West.

Surrey has the largest school district in British Columbia and is becoming a health care hub. And although Walley isn’t for everyone, South Surrey, Crescent Beach and White Rock are beautiful neighbourhoods. Faskins and RBS now have offices in Surrey. Lawsons now has an office in Kelowna.

So let’s see if I’m right. Let’s see if the Vancouver firms establish “beachheads in the burbs” and other smaller BC cities to protect their most important investment — their lawyers and staff.

Tony Wilson, QC is a franchise lawyer at Boughton in Vancouver and is now a Life Bencher of the Law Society, so don’t phone him anymore to complain because it won’t help. The views expressed herein do not reflect the opinions of the CBABC, or their respective members.

news&events TIPS FROM

VOCATIONAL DRIFT AND THE PROFESSION

With this issue’s theme being “Beyond Private Practice,” it would be an oversimplification to focus solely on stories about lawyers going in-house or taking other gigs in the legal economy. For starters, if it is a place that can be moved “beyond,” the borders of “private practice” must first be defined. Is ownership structure a fundamental feature? How about the staffing model? The billable hour? The monopoly for providing legal services according to statute? Or, if we’re mostly talking about moving on from orthodox concepts of the law business, is it not useful to see how orthodoxy has changed over the generations?

A fascinating read (freely available through CLBC’s Remote Access Subscription Database at courthouselibrary.ca) is “The Three Ages of Modern American Lawyering and the Current Crisis in the Legal Profession and Legal Education” (Santa Clara L. Rev. 58 (2018): 453), which examines how lawyers’ identities have evolved throughout three distinct ages, with us now being on the cusp of a fourth age.

Closer to home, a corpus of published commentary continues to explore other facets of these changes — what lawyers experience as “vocational” drift. See Prof.

Julie Macfarlane’s The New Lawyer, 2nd ed. (2017). Vocational drift is a catch all term for the sense of displacement many lawyers feel as market forces, technology, generational conflict, and other factors challenge the status quo around what a “private practitioner” is, and who can lay claim to being one. Meanwhile, a book like Remaking Law Firms: Why and How, looks at just how variegated the legal service provider market is becoming... and confronts us with many examples (such as the concept of “outsourced in-house counsel”) that demonstrate how mutable the business of legal practice has become.

CLEBC Update CLEBC SPONSORS BRITISH COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOLS COMPETITIVE MOOT CLEBC is delighted to have recently sponsored the British Columbia Law Schools Competitive Moot, a competition between teams from UVic Law, UBC Allard Law, and TRU Law. This is the first year of a three-year sponsorship for each school, which will provide $3,000 per year to support the travel for the moot teams.

CLEBC’s CEO, Linda Russell, attended the competition

at the Kamloops Courthouse on February 8, 2020, and was extremely impressed with the calibre of the presentations. She commented that “Each of the mooters did an extraordinary job in presenting their arguments before nine currently sitting Supreme Court and Court of Appeal justices and fielding and responding to difficult questions in a very polished and professional manner. CLEBC is excited about furthering their support of the law schools and the law students through their sponsorship of the BC Law Schools Moot, which teaches the students critical advocacy skills that they will use in practice.”

At the reception, Linda congratulated the students, shared information about CLEBC’s sponsorship, and told the students that CLEBC would be honoured to have them speak at future CLEBC courses. The scores for the three teams were very close, but ultimately UVic Law’s moot team was declared the winner.

Congratulations to all the students who competed, the coaches and administrators who supported them, and the judges who volunteered their time to give the students this invaluable experience.

APRIL 2020 / BARTALK

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sections Keep Current on CBABC Section Meetings Beyond Private Practice topics discussed in 2019-2020 Two CBABC Sections are dedicated to fostering the interests of corporate counsel, as well as of lawyers employed within the government and public sector: the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (“CCCA”) BC and the Public Sector

Interest, Impact and Influence: Leveraging a Strong Professional Presence for Success — January 16, 2020

Katharine Lazaruk of Lazaruk Consulting delivered an insightful session on professional presence: what it is, why it is important, and how it directly contributes to the success of corporate counsel.

Lawyers Section. Other Sections have also hosted meetings for public practitioners, such as

uuu CCCA BC

— October 16, 2019

Paul Armitage and Danhoé Reddy-Girard, partners at Gowling WLG, discussed the implications of the European Union (“EU”) General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) on Canadian companies involved with businesses in the EU. The meeting outlined the obligations and responsibilities of companies, and subsequently, corporate counsel, when engaged in businesses in which the GDPR applies.

Recording: bit.ly/bt0420-Sections-1 26

BARTALK / APRIL 2020

uuu Public Sector Lawyers Tort of Misfeasance: Recent Developments and Practice Points — October 15, 2019

Graham Underwood and Johnny Van Camp, legal counsel for the BC Ministry of Attorney General, shared their experience applying the tort of misfeasance when working with public servants accused of intentionally abusing their power.

uuu Other meetings relating to practice beyond private firms

Municipal Law and Family Law.

Data Protection: What Canadian Companies Need to Know about Operating in or Trading with the European Union

corporate counsel to ensure that their business is compliancefocused, in light of the recent changes to the Lobbyists Transparency Act, one of the most expansive lobbying statutes in North America.

Treasures from Counsel for BC Family Maintenance Enforcement Program — February 18, 2020

Annual Update of Contract Law Developments Relevant to Commercial Practice — February 4, 2020

Lisa Peters, QC provided her annual update on contract law developments, with topics ranging from notional severance of illegal or unenforceable terms, to consequences of failing to pay notional consideration.

Changes to British Columbia’s Lobbying Law — Are You “Compliance Ready?”

— March 11, 2020

Guy Giorno, partner at Fasken, provided an in-depth focus on reputation and legal risks for

The Family Law — Westminster Section hosted Paul Hundal, counsel for BC Family Maintenance Enforcement Program, who spoke on various topics, including which issues retained counsel negotiate and which issues they must avoid.

Ethics and Practice Management for Local Government Lawyers — December 16, 2020

In a meeting hosted by the Municipal Law Section, Peter Johnson of Stewart McDonald Stewart spoke on issues that lawyers, practising in the field of local government law, can encounter.

Recording: bit.ly/bt0420-Sections-2

April 8 Title Insurance Fundamentals for Residential Properties in BC | Register April 22 Preventing Mortgage and Real Estate Fraud in BC | Register May 6 Best Practices for Second and Private Mortgages | Register May 13 Title Insurance Fundamentals for Commercial Transactions | Register Cost/Webinar: Members $50 | Non-Members $100

BRITISH COLUMBIA

In partnership with

APRIL 2020 / BARTALK

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barmoves Who’s Moving Where and When

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Mark McPhee

Gordon Behan

joined Harper Grey LLP and was called to the BC Bar in 2014. Mark will focus his practice on insurance law, acting for insurance clients on coverage, liability defence, and subrogation matters, and health law.

is now a partner in Clark Wilson LLP’s Estates & Trusts group. His estate litigation services include wills variation claims, executor and trustee compensation, committeeships, breach of fiduciary duty and elder law.

Joe Antifaev

Karen Ngan

joined Harper Grey LLP and was called to the BC Bar in 2015. Joe will focus his practice on insurance law, acting for insurance clients on coverage, liability defence, and subrogation matters, and health law.

is now a partner in Clark Wilson’s Commercial Real Estate, Private Company Mergers & Acquisitions and General Business Law groups.

Bruno Desparts

Katie Mak

joined Harper Grey LLP’s Health Law group. Bruno’s expertise is in the area of medical defence, with a focus on professional liability, medical malpractice, and disciplinary matters.

is now a partner in Clark Wilson’s Banking, Insolvency & Restructuring, Business Litigation, and Fraud & Asset Recovery groups.

Athar Malik

Gaurav Parmar

is now a partner at Clark Wilson LLP. He is both an intellectual property lawyer and a registered trademark agent in Canada. He practises in the areas of intellectual property, information technology and higher learning.

joined Lindsay Kenney LLP. Formerly with the Prince George law firm of HSJ Lawyers, Gaurav has moved his corporate solicitor’s practice to Lindsay Kenney LLP’s Langley office.

Avery Saunders

Dalton Stark

is now a partner at Clark Wilson LLP. She has a broad range of experience in merger and acquisition transactions, corporate reorganizations, corporate amalgamations and other business combinations for private companies.

joined Lindsay Kenney’s Family Law group in Vancouver.

BARTALK / APRIL 2020

Bar Moves space is at a premium and available for free to members on a first-come first-served basis, so send your Bar Move (max. 30 words) and a high-resolution headshot photo to bartalk@cbabc.org now.

TO VIEW ALL BAR MOVES GO TO CBABC.ORG/BARMOVES.

Gosia Piasecka

Zakhir Nathoo

joined Miller Thomson’s Vancouver office as an associate in the Business Law group. She maintains a broad securities and M&A practice.

is a new associate in Clark Wilson’s Technology Transactions group, who joins them from his previous role at MEP Business Counsel in Vancouver.

Maneesha Dakha

Laurence S. Klass

joined DLA Piper’s Vancouver office.

Maneesha practises corporate/ commercial law and assists clients with general corporate commercial and corporate governance matters.

joined Watson Goepel LLP as a partner in the Family Law group. As the practice group leader, he helps families navigate difficult transitions in all areas of family law.

Mike Reid

Ryan Bencic

joined DLA Piper (Canada) LLP as a partner in the Vancouver office.

Mike practises technology-related business law, with a particular focus on corporate, commercial and information technology matters.

joned Harper Grey LLP as an associate in their Business Law group. He was called to the Alberta Bar in 2017 and the BC Bar in 2020.

E X P E R I E N C E D . C R E AT I V E . P R A C T I C A L .

Terra Law Corporation is pleased to announce

renita swamy has been made a director of the firm Renita’s practice involves all aspects of commercial real estate transactions and property development.

She has extensive experience in acquisitions, dispositions, nancings, structuring and the sale of development and income properties. Renita has particular experience representing owners and operators in connection with acquiring and selling hotel and resort properties and negotiating management and franchise agreements with international ags. She frequently advises clients on matters related to the Real Estate Development Marketing Act, development, rezoning, subdivision and strata property issues. Renita offers clients a practical, creative and strategic approach for meeting their business needs.

APRIL 2020 / BARTALK

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Disability Income and Business Expense insurance plans offer a simple and effective way to protect everyone who relies on you (at home and work) in the event an accident or illness prevents you from working.

Disability Income Insurance Business Expense Insurance • Pay bills if your income stops. • Pay business expenses if your income stops.

• Maintain your lifestyle.

• Maintain the operation of your firm.

• Protect your retirement • Protect your firm from the absence savings. of a key employed lawyer.

Connect with your local Lawyers Financial advisor David Hodgson 604.247.8007 or Toll Free: 1.888.477.5630 lawyersfinancial.ca Lawyers Financial products and plans are sponsored by The Canadian Bar Insurance Association (CBIA).

Lawyers Financial is a trademark of CBIA. Disability and Business Expense insurance plans are underwritten by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company (Manulife).

12/2019