The regulator called a special meeting an hour after a group of benchers published their demand
The Law Society of Ontario called a special meeting of its governing board roughly an hour after several LSO benchers demanded the “immediate full public disclosure” of a report on ousted chief executive officer Diana Miles’ pay hike. The meeting is set to take place Thursday evening.
LSO treasurer Peter Wardle notified the LSO governing board about the meeting by email on Thursday morning, specifying that it would not be open to the public. The notice did not say what the meeting would be about.
Roughly an hour earlier, a group of 10 benchers had released a statement demanding that the LSO immediately disclose the report into the circumstances around Miles’ pay hike, which surged to nearly $1 million without the knowledge or approval of the regulator’s benchers.
In February, the Toronto Star reported that the LSO had retained former associate chief justice of Ontario Dennis O’Connor to investigate the matter and prepare a report on his findings. The LSO announced Miles’ departure hours after benchers were allowed to review the report for the first time, under highly restrictive conditions.
The 10 benchers said their demand was “in furtherance of our fiduciary duties to protect the long-term interests of this regulator and its stakeholders, including the legal professions and the public they serve.”
Among the signatories was bencher Murray Klippenstein, who criticized the LSO for focusing on “going-forward changes, without dealing with what happened in the past” following a benchers’ meeting last week on the O’Connor report’s fallout. After the meeting, Wardle unveiled an action plan for changing the LSO’s process for determining executive compensation but said the regulator had not yet decided against releasing the report.
The benchers’ statement joins a growing chorus of voices in Ontario’s legal community calling for the report’s disclosure.
In a Canadian Lawyer op-ed Thursday, Ontario Bar Association president Kathryn Manning said the LSO’s “reputation continues to fray with each passing day and every communication.”
Calling her statement a “rare departure for the OBA, an organization that, time and time again, has demonstrated its willingness to forego the attention generated by pronouncements of disapproval in favour of working with our partners toward solutions,” Manning noted that the bar association “initially offered advice, assistance and patience” to the LSO.
She added that the OBA had sent a letter to the LSO asking that it release “a meaningful summary” of the O’Connor report.
“We take this uncharacteristic step because calls for urgency have been met with inertia, calls for transparency with secrecy, and calls for collaboration with an increasingly insular approach,” Manning said.
The OBA is one of the largest organizations representing legal professionals in Ontario, with more than 16,000 lawyers, judges, notaries, academics, and students across the province as members.
Earlier in March, the Federation of Ontario Law Associations, which represents roughly 12,000 practising lawyers across 46 law associations outside of Toronto, sent a letter to Wardle demanding the report’s release. FOLA issued the letter two days after the Law and Mental Disorder Association and Women in Canadian Criminal Defence, collectively representing fewer than 1,000 members, sent similar letters to Wardle.
In a statement Thursday, an LSO spokesperson said, “Convocation is continuing to consider whether all or part of Mr. O’Connor’s legal opinion should be released, balancing the interest in transparency as a public interest regulator against the highly sensitive nature of the discussion in the opinion about specific employees of the Law Society.
“The Law Society will come to a decision on whether or not to release the opinion and that decision will be communicated publicly once reached.”
