Law Society of Upper Canada

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The Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) is responsible for the self-regulation of lawyers in the Canadian province of Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1797, it is known in French as "Le Barreau du Haut-Canada". The motto of the Society is "Let Right Prevail".

1 History and function
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History and function

The Law Society of Upper Canada was created almost 20 years before the earliest such association in any other Canadian province or territory. The creation of this self-governing body by an Act of the Legislative Assembly was an innovation in the English-speaking world and it became the model for law societies across Canada and the United States.

Yet on March 27, 2008, for the first time, Conovcation, the governing body made up of 32 lawyer-benchers and eight provincial appointees, most of whom also sit on the quasi-judicial law society hearing and appeal tribunals, voted to begin releasing tribunal decisions made on or after March 28, 2008, where licencees prevailed at hearings, according to its website, www.lsuc.on.ca. In the past, the Law society only provided access to those decisons which resulted in a penalty. Decisions that resulted in a dismissal or withdrawal of a complaint, or where licenees were lightly censured were never referred to in any way. Surprisingly, there is no complete public registry of matters heard by this quasi-judicial body, according to the society's tribunal office. Pre-March 27, 2008 legal victories by licencees remain inaccessible.

Although the law society was created to serve the public interest and enhance the rule of law, it is not possible for any adjudicator, judge, lawyer or licencee to perform comprehensive research of all quasi-judicial tribunal deicisions, given the policy passed by Convocation of Canada's largest regulator of lawyers on March 27, 2008, or the practise that existed prior to that date. This is a unique legal feature in Canada, a Charter-protected democracy, as the "open courts" principle derived from S. 2(b) of the Charter provides for public access to all publicly-made court and tribunal decisions to enable the public and bar to perform meaningful legal research and comment on the activities of all courts and tribunals, according to the Canadian Charter of Rights Decisions Digest, formerly the Charter Digests. It is now published at www.canlii.org under the category of federal legislation.

In 1994, the Law Society affirmed its role by adopting the following Role Statement: The Law Society of Upper Canada exists to govern the legal profession in the public interest by ensuring that the people of Ontario are served by lawyers who meet high standards of learning, competence and professional conduct, and upholding the independence, integrity and honour of the legal profession, for the purpose of advancing the cause of justice and the rule of law.

The Law Society regulates approximately 40,000 lawyers (barristers and solicitors) in Ontario. It is responsible for ensuring that lawyers are both ethical and competent. The Society has the power to set standards for admission into the profession. It can discipline lawyers who violate those standards. Available sanctions range from admonitions to disbarment. It is based in Toronto, at Osgoode Hall.

Unlike other provincial law societies (which have Presidents), the Law Society of Upper Canada is headed by a Treasurer. He or she is selected by, and from among, the Benchers, who comprise "Convocation" - in effect, the Society's board of directors as the Society is an Ontario Corporation without share capital. All lawyer-benchers are elected by the Society's members, and eight lay Benchers are appointed by the provincial government. Section 12(2) of the Law Society Act, R.S.O. 1990, provides that Ontario's Attorney-General is a Bencher of conovcation while Section 13(1) provides that the Attorney General is "Guardian of the Public Interest" and, as such, may require the production of any document or thing possessed by the regulator. The regulator falls under the supervision of the Ministry of the Attorney General, according to the ministry's web site.

The current Treasurer is Gavin MacKenzie. The current CEO, or staff head, of the Society, is Malcolm Heins. In 2006, the Law Society had close to 400 staff.

The Law Society of Upper Canada was successfully sued for wrongful dismissal and punitive damages in 1997 by its registrar L. Brown, according to the report of this case in the All Canada Weekly Summaries. However, it now strives to be known as employee-friendly.

In a form of invitational competition, the Law Society has been designated one of Canada's Top 100 Employers every year since 2003, as announced in Maclean's magazine.^[1]