Lawrence Greenspon has suffered the effects of taking on unpopular clients more than once.
Most recently, his staff suffered abuse in incidents he believes relate to his defence of a client accused in the Ottawa firebombing at a Royal Bank branch. Those events escalated last month into an act of vandalism at his law office (
see "Lawyers suffering violence alone").
It’s not the first time he’s had such experiences. As he points out, he’s incurred the public’s wrath in past cases, including his work on behalf of Momin Khawaja, the first person charged under Parliament’s anti-terrorism law.
While it’s not surprising, it’s sad that lawyers should have to deal with such nonsense.
Greenspon, of course, is merely doing his job, an important one given the presumption of innocence that’s at the heart of our justice system and, in particular, society’s overriding goal of avoiding wrongful convictions.
Nevertheless, as B.C. researcher Karen Brown tells us, not much is happening to protect lawyers from violence and threats, particularly sole practitioners without the resources of a big firm or a government ministry responsible for Crown prosecutors.
In fact, she says the big difference in Greenspon’s case was the fact that it received police and public attention in the first place.
Brown’s own research from her home province several years ago showed there was considerable debate within the profession about the extent of the problem. Still, she says it’s an issue that needs attention, particularly since much of the problem remains hidden as lawyers rarely judge the threats against them to be serious enough to report to police.
For family lawyer Victoria Starr, a key concern is the lack of discussion within the profession. “It’s not something we talk about, and maybe that’s the first step,” she tells Law Times’ Michael McKiernan.
In Brown’s view, the law societies should be taking the lead on the issue. For its part, the Law Society of Upper Canada says it doesn’t have any research on it. So maybe it’s time for someone - and the LSUC or a body like the Ontario Bar Association would be ideally placed to do it - to survey the profession on the issue.
In that way, we’ll learn the extent of the problem and what options exist for addressing it. Certainly, if violence is prevalent, services like counselling for lawyers and their staff should be available.
It’s important to note that it’s not only violence and overt threats that we need to be talking about. Lawyers, particularly those practising family and criminal law, often find themselves subject to varying levels of abuse every day, whether from disgruntled clients or people on the other side of a matter.
Such incidents can also be disturbing, making some sort of effort to explore ways of dealing with the overall problem an urgent priority.
Hopefully, then, the Ottawa incident will spur some sort of response. The vandalism at Greenspon’s office wasn’t a particularly violent incident but it is a sign of a broader issue lawyers face.
As Brown pointed out in her research in 2003, “with only a few supporters in the legal profession voicing their concerns about violence against lawyers, this issue might continue to remain hidden and unresolved. Perhaps only a catalytic event may catapult the profession into action.”
- Glenn Kauth
