The letters by FOLA and the TLA outlined concerns about representation and the democratic process
Organizations representing lawyers throughout Ontario have submitted letters to the province’s legal regulator, arguing that proposed changes to its governance model will dilute regional representation, prevent benchers from effectively passing on knowledge to successors, and upend the regulator’s democratic process.
The Federation of Ontario Law Associations and the Toronto Lawyers’ Association made separate submissions to the Law Society of Ontario on Jan. 31, the deadline the LSO gave to the public to comment on its proposed reforms. The LSO has granted multiple organizations extensions to submit comments by the end of February.
First introduced in October, the proposals seek to change how the LSO is governed. Proposals to reduce the overall number of governing seats, significantly slash the proportion of elected lawyers who can fill them, and increase the proportion of appointed benchers have garnered criticism from stakeholders, who argue the changes will prevent self-regulation within the bar.
In their letters to the LSO, both FOLA and the TLA expressed concerns about expanding the proportion of appointed benchers so that they sit in nearly half of the law society’s governing seats. An LSO board and the Ontario government would appoint these benchers.
The LSO report on the proposals is not clear about “how the body who selects candidates for appointment is constituted, and at what point in the LSO election cycle it will make its selection,” said the letter written by FOLA chair Allen Wynperle.
“Is it a ‘winner’s circle’ of elected benchers who will be more likely to select their peers (a return to the ‘old boys club’)? Or is it composed of LSO staff who will have their own interests in selecting their own governors?” Wynperle asked.
In an interview with Law Times on Thursday, the FOLA chair added, “We do have a time-honoured tradition, and it has worked for the most part, and we're not seeing the need to make this kind of change where the power [is] in the hands of a few.”
The TLA letter, authored by organization president Mark Crane, expressed similar concerns. Crane noted that TLA members “are concerned about the proposed shift away from a democratic process toward an appointment process as a means of selecting a significant number of LSO benchers.
“Our members are concerned about the concentration of power that would be held by the proposed Governance & Nominating Committee,” Crane wrote.
Both organizations argued that the LSO’s proposed governance model would dilute representation for their respective members. Crane said TLA members “expressed overwhelming disagreement” with the proposal to reduce the number of elected Toronto lawyer benchers from 20 to four, given that Toronto practitioners make up approximately 50 percent of all lawyers practising in the province.
Meanwhile, Wynperle worries that reducing the number of governing seats will result in less representation for lawyers working outside urban areas.
“Just as an example… FOLA is very concerned about the ‘graying’ of the bar, and certainly, that is more acutely felt in rural areas where the average age of practitioners is greater than it is in a place like Toronto,” he says. “The less representation these lawyers have, the less these concerns may be addressed or put to the forefront.”
FOLA and the TLA also protested the LSO’s proposal to reduce bencher term limits from 12 years to eight, arguing that the longer limit promotes continuity.
Crane told Law Times on Thursday that he met with the LSO in mid-January and said the organization was “very receptive and interested” in the TLA’s feedback.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the LSO said, “Stakeholder feedback is crucial.” She added that the LSO task force that worked on the proposals “will carefully consider the input received in providing their recommendations for Convocation to consider.”
The spokesperson confirmed that comments on the proposed reforms will be published on the LSO’s website at a later date, along with a report by the task force with recommendations for Convocation.
