Category: Ethics and the Legal Profession Page 10 of 20

By: Alice Woolley

PDF Version: Don’t Gossip About Your Client to the Press… Some (Mildly) Complicating Thoughts on Robidoux

Decision commented on: In the matter of the Legal Profession Act, and in the matter of a hearing regarding the conduct of Kristine Robidoux, QC, a Member of the Law Society of Alberta

On June 9 2014 the Law Society of Alberta suspended Kristine Robidoux for four months after she admitted to violating her duties of confidentiality and candour to her client, provincial Conservative party candidate and former journalist Arthur Kent. Robidoux was legal counsel to Kent’s election team in the 2008 Alberta provincial election. She was also Kent’s agent and the Conservative party’s quadrant chair for five of the electoral constituencies in Calgary. During that time Robidoux had e-mail correspondence with Don Martin, a journalist, in which she gave Martin information about problems with the Kent campaign and, in part based on which, Martin wrote a column that “was unbalanced and wholly negative, thereby leaving a misleading and false impression about the candidate” (Agreed Statement of Facts, para 24).

Because of Robidoux’s admissions, the Law Society Hearing Panel reasons (see here) are relatively limited. After noting that Robidoux was Mr. Kent’s counsel, they state that they had “no difficulty in accepting that she improperly disclosed confidential information” (para 11), that she was not candid about having done so (para 12) and that there was an “element of cover-up” given her failure to admit what she done, instead hoping that journalist-source privilege would mean her disclosures were never revealed (para 13).   The bulk of the Panel’s decision focused not on the finding of professional misconduct, but rather on the issue of whether the 4 month suspension proposed by the Law Society and Ms. Robidoux was the appropriate sanction.

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By: Alice Woolley

PDF Version: Defining Prosecutorial Discretion (With an Invitation to the Court to Re-define Abuse of Process)

Case Commented On: R. v. Anderson, 2014 SCC 41

With its unanimous judgment in R. v. Anderson, 2014 SCC 41, the Supreme Court has clarified the scope of “prosecutorial discretion”, distinguishing it from matters that go only to “tactics and conduct before the court” (para 35) while confirming its application to a “wide range of prosecutorial decision making” (para 45).  The Court also confirmed the non-reviewable nature of prosecutorial discretion absent demonstration of an abuse of process, and reviewed the law governing assessment of an abuse of process. Finally, the Court held that Crown counsel have no constitutional obligation to consider an accused’s aboriginal status when they tender Notice to the accused that the Crown intends to seek the mandatory minimum punishment that may be applicable given that accused’s prior convictions.

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By: Alice Woolley

PDF Version:#Yesallwomen/#Notallmen: Sexual Harassment in the Legal Profession

How do we understand bad things done to women by men?  Through the few men who do them (#Notallmen)?  Through misogyny in our culture as a whole?  Through the experience of all women living with the risk that such bad things can happen (#Yesallwomen)? The ferocity of recent internet debate on this topic clouds the possibility that harm done by men to women should be understood as about all these things: the men who inflict it, the society in which it occurs and the lives of the women who live with the possibility of that threat.

In this post I explore the thought that sexual harassment and sexual discrimination in the legal profession must be understood with this sort of breadth of perspective: it is conduct reflecting the pathologies of the specific men who do it; it in no way reflects the conduct of all – or even that many – men in the profession; yet it is conduct that reflects aspects of our professional culture, aspects that we need to address to achieve gender equity and fairness.

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By: Alice Woolley     

PDF Version: Ethical vs. Unethical: The Troubling Tales of Tony Merchant

Case commented on: Merchant v Law Society of Saskatchewan 2014 SKCA 56

Introduction

Last week the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal upheld the Law Society of Saskatchewan’s three month suspension of E.F. Anthony (Tony) Merchant for conduct unbecoming.   The Court did so unanimously and without evident hesitation, rejecting clearly and unequivocally each of the many objections raised by Merchant to the Law Society’s decision.

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By: Alice Woolley

Case commented on: Orr v. Alook, 2014 ABQB 141

PDF version: Defining the “Client” (or not) in Former Client Conflicts

When teaching the law on conflicts of interest to students, I suggest they start by determining the relationships between the parties, lawyer-client, lawyer-lawyer and client-client, and between the matters. This starting point helps the students because knowing whether a client is a former or a current client, whether the matters are the same, related or unrelated, and whether the clients are represented by the same lawyer or lawyers at the same firm, will direct them to the norms and rules that appropriately govern the situation.

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