Monday, August 15, 2016

DONALD BAYNE WINS 2016 CATZMAN AWARD
The Advocates’ Society has announced this year’s Catzman award will go to Donald Bayne.

The Ottawa criminal lawyer is known for defending high-profile clients in complicated cases throughout the years at all levels of courts.

Last year, Bayne successfully defended Senator Mike Duffy against charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust in his trial.

Bayne, who is a partner at Bayne Sellar Boxall LLP, has practised criminal law for 36 years and the Law Society of Upper Canada has given him the designation of a specialist in criminal litigation.

The Advocates’ Society created the Catzman award in 2008 along with the Catzman family and recognizes legal professionals who exemplify knowledge of the law, integrity, fairness, civility, as well as a number of other virtues.

It was named after Marvin Catzman, a deceased former justice of the Ontario Court of Appeal, and is presented annually by the Chief Justice of Ontario in the fall. Previous winners include Toronto lawyer Samuel Marr, Superior Court Justice Michal Fairburn and lawyer Connie Reeve.

Bayne is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a past director of the Criminal Lawyers Association and the director of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute Foundation.

He will receive the award at the Opening of the Courts Ceremony in Toronto on Sept. 13.

MARCH APPOINTED TO ONTARIO COURT OF JUSTICE
A veteran criminal lawyer has been appointed to serve as a judge at the Ontario Court of Justice in Pembroke, Ont.

Called to the bar in 1992, Michael March has practiced mainly in Renfrew County. He has often taken on pro bono work in his career, developing a reputation for sticking up for the vulnerable and those in need.

Recently, March volunteered with Project Welcome, an initiative that sponsored refugees.

TORONTO FIRM HAS A LAUGH WITH BREXIT AD
A Toronto law firm has had a laugh at the expense of its counterparts across the pond.

Lax O’Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb LLP has circulated a postcard poking fun at the United Kingdom’s recent vote to leave the European Union. The card is in the style of a news story from the Guardian newspaper with the headline “LAXIT!” and informs readers that the law firm has decided to pull out of the U.K. (The firm does not have any offices in Great Britain.)

“The partners of Lax O’Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb, the self-proclaimed legendary Canadian firm of barristers and solicitors, have voted unanimously to close all their UK offices,” the tongue-in-cheek advertisement reads.

“This was a decision short in the making,” the firm’s managing partner, Matt Gottlieb, was quoted as saying on the postcard.

“Besides, I was personally exhausted from all the commuting and just want my wife back.”

The card also includes a made-up quote from the British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson saying the firm will not be missed.

“I always found LOLG a really difficult acronym to pronounce,” it quotes him as saying.

LAW TIMES POLL
Law Times reported recently that the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that sent text messages can be used as evidence against the sender when seized from a recipient’s phone.

Readers were asked if they thought sent text messages should be considered private.

Almost 38 per cent said yes, sent text messages should be excluded as evidence, as they are a private communication between two people.

The remaining 62 per cent said no, they should not be considered private, as “senders are alive to the fact that their communications may no longer be private once sent of made.”