A report released yesterday says federal and provincial laws are failing to protect the increasing number of migrant workers being brought into Canada to do work that is in fact not as temporary as many people think.

Osgoode professor Fay Faraday made 22 recommendations in her report on how to fix the current migrant worker systems in place across Canada.

Authored by Osgoode Hall Law School professor Fay Faraday, “Made in Canada: How the Law Constructs Migrant Workers’ Insecurity” examines the problems with the current migrant worker systems in place across Canada and makes 22 recommendations as to how it can be fixed.

The main recommendation of the report is that Canadian immigration policy must be reframed to ensure workers of all skill levels can apply to immigrate to Canada with permanent resident status.

“In the interim, as long as Canada and Ontario operate temporary labour migration programs to deliver migrant workers to Ontario workplaces, they must have real security, real access to their rights, and real access to decent work,” the report states.

The number of migrant workers in Canada has tripled in the past decade to 300,111 in 2011. About one-third of them work in low-skilled jobs in sectors such as agriculture, construction, and hospitality, according to the report.

Faraday says the way the migrant worker system has evolved in Canada has contributed to the multiple risks workers experience.

“A lot of the vulnerabilities these workers face are a made-in-Canada problem. It doesn’t have to be this way. We’ve created a system that puts them at risk and some of the pieces that can be put into the system to increase security are really quite simple.”

One of the suggestions is that the federal and provincial immigration laws be developed in unison.

“I think there is a good opportunity right now to look at how the two systems need to work together,” says Faraday. “Right now, they operate as silos where policy is developed separately and there isn’t a lot of communication of information back and forth that can ensure a clear enforcement of standards.”

On a more practical front, Faraday says workers need resources that explain their rights as soon as they set foot in Canada.

“Right now, immigrant workers come to Canada, are given virtually no information about what their rights are, no information about what the enforcement mechanisms are, and no information on what organizations exist on the ground in terms of who can help them.”

Other issues include the fact that workers are brought in on tied work permits and therefore can only work for the one employer named on them. “You can see how that is a disincentive to complaining about poor treatment,” says Faraday.

At the same time, the live-in caregiver and agricultural workers programs require people to live in homes provided by the employer, something that increases isolation and vulnerability since they risk becoming homeless if they complain.

Many recruiters also charge migrant workers to place them in jobs. They arrive in Canada and come to find the job they came for either doesn’t exist or is different from what they thought they were being brought in to do.

At the end of the day, Faraday says the bigger problem is that the jobs performed by migrant workers really aren’t temporary positions. They are core parts of the economy that can’t be sent offshore.

“We need to think about why it is we are characterizing this work as temporary and why we are not addressing the core issues that cause the labour shortages,” says Faraday.

“Are we contributing to the growing income gap instead of bringing in citizens with status who can help build a nation? The workers who are being brought in are people who were, two generations ago, people who immigrated and did these jobs with status. If the people are good enough to work here, why not good enough to stay?”

The report’s 22 recommendations include:

• Legislation must be extended to ensure that all migrant workers have effective protection against the charging of recruitment fees and to ensure that employers will be joint and severally liable for recruitment fees that have been collected by private recruiters.

• Provincial legislation, including the Employment Standards Act, should be amended to ensure that anonymous complaints can trigger investigations and to permit complaints to be filed by third parties such as community organizations and public interest groups.

• Provincial legislation, including the Employment Standards Act, should be amended to ensure that all disputes over the terms of migrant workers’ contracts can be heard before a single expert administrative body in an expedited process.

• Provincial legislation should be amended to ensure that migrant workers in all sectors have access to effective and meaningful legal protection for the right to unionize and bargain collectively.

• Rather than being excluded from Canada after four years of work with temporary status, migrant workers should have a right to apply for permanent residence.

The former general counsel for Vision TV has been disbarred for professional misconduct when he was working for the faith-based television network in 2007.

According to the Law Society of Upper Canada, Brant David Kostandoff, who now lives in Vancouver, B.C, lost his licence for several reasons including creating and distributing false letters patent to his employer, the CRTC, and others.

He was also found to have engaged in the following professional misconduct:

• Failing to serve his client/employer by failing to incorporate it in his capacity as general counsel;
• Creating and distributing a false affidavit and a falsified shareholders’ agreement;
• Creating and providing to his employer LawPRO application forms falsely indicating that he was obliged to pay premiums and by falsely stating that he had paid the premiums by credit card;
• Misleading his employer into believing that he had incurred expenses for LawPRO premiums which he had not paid;
• Accepting money from his employer for fictitious LawPRO expense claims;
• Signing for the chairman and CEO of his employer rather than circulating documents for proper execution.

Kostandoff was ordered to pay costs in the amount of $12,132.03 within six months from the date of this order. He was not present and not represented at the LSUC hearing Aug. 13.

A member of the LSUC until December 2007, Kostandoff in fact reported himself to the society for conduct in breach of Rule 33 of the Rules of Professional Conduct and also resigned from the television network. He has not worked as a lawyer since.

In an affidavit provided to the law society hearing panel in July, Kostandoff stated, “I have no intention of returning to the practice of law in Ontario or any other jurisdiction.”

In January 2008, Kostandoff submitted an application to resign as a member of the LSUC but the society refused to accept the resignation. In March of that year, the LSUC commenced an investigation that took three years to complete. In his statement, Kostandoff was critical that while the LSUC’s investigation was not completed until March 2011, the actual time spent on the matter was 10 days.

Kostandoff sold his home in July 2008 and left Ontario for British Columbia to become a photographer but indicates in the affidavit he was not successful.

He insists if the discipline matter had reached a hearing within the LSUC guideline of 18 months of being filed, he would have had the financial resources to attend the hearing in person.

Kostandoff joined the VisionTV group of channels as director of legal affairs in June 2001. His responsibilities included representing VisionTV on the Canadian Association of Broadcasters committees devoted to regulatory and copyright issues for specialty and pay television.

In 2003, he was promoted to the position of director of legal and corporate affairs and in 2005, to the position of general counsel for VisionTV.

Prior to joining VisionTV, Kostandoff was manager of professional standards and arbitration for the Toronto Real Estate Board where he worked from 1999 to 2001. He oversaw dispute resolution and ethics for the 15,000-plus realtors in the Toronto area, and advised the board of directors on corporate governance and contracts. Before that, he was a senior Associate at Mills & Mills LLP in Toronto.

Kostandoff, who holds a law degree from the University of Victoria, was called to the bar in 1998.

The RCMP has laid charges against 39 people in an alleged marriage immigration scam dubbed Project Conjugal.

The RCMP’s probe into bogus marriages has netted its first 39 charges. (Photo: Shutterstock)

A total of 78 new counts of indictment, including misrepresentation and procuring feigned marriage, have been laid against individuals in an investigation conducted by the RCMP’s immigration and passport section.

It is alleged that Canadian women married in exchange for money so that their North African “husbands” could stay in the country.

The initial part of the investigation led last February to the dismantling of an alleged criminal organization involved in illegal immigration. The purpose of the current part of the probe was to lay charges against the individuals who allegedly took part in marriages of convenience. They are scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 16.

Immigrations lawyers say such fake marriages are a problem in Canada and often the women here in Canada are willing participants complicit in their involvement.

“I think the overwhelming percentage of marriage cases we see are genuine, however there is a problem and I think it’s good it’s being addressed,” says Mario Bellissimo of Bellissimo Law Group in Toronto.

“I’ve seen both side of the divide. I’ve seen females that are complicit and individuals who were exploited and not aware of what is happening. Sometimes in arranged marriages it can become even more blurred because often there isn’t the progression of a relationship we would see by Western standards.”

The RCMP initiated the investigation with the purpose of addressing the legitimacy of hundreds of suspicious marriages.

The investigation was of a bogus immigration consultant who is believed to be the mastermind behind this scheme, who gave advice on how to submit misrepresented facts to Citizenship and Immigration Canada to individuals whose visas were due to expire. Specifically, he organized fake marriages with the assistance of accomplices to allow these individuals originating from North Africa to remain in Canada.

The network recruited young Canadian women in the Montréal area and arranged for them to participate in marriages of convenience in exchange for money.

Amadou Niang, 56, appeared in Court this past March to face 42 counts of indictment, including for offences under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. He appeared again yesterday at the Montréal Court House.

As part of Project Conjugal, an investigation took place into the legitimacy of about 315 suspicious weddings that took place between 2007 and 2009. These 39 people are the first of 630 the RCMP plans to charge as a result of Project Conjugal.

CIC is trying to address such fake marriages with new laws, says Lloyd Ament with Basmen Smith LLP.

“There is a new regulation introduced in March whereby someone who has been sponsored can’t sponsor another spouse for five years. I think that’s a pretty good way of stopping this stuff depending on what was the motive. If it was to bring in another spouse that would cover it,” says Ament.

Also, the CIC is considering making the sponsorship visa conditional for two years.

“That could have more teeth because if you tried to get divorced within that period you lose your status,” says Ament.

Imax’s summary judgment motion based on a limitation defence was denied yesterday, giving the class action bar cause for celebration in light of other recent decisions that seem to go against plaintiffs in similar circumstances where lengthy proceedings have delayed matters.

In Silver v. Imax, Justice Katherine van Rensburg dismissed Imax’s motion for summary judgment dismissing the statutory claims of the plaintiffs for secondary market misrepresentation.

“I think it’s a great decision and is turning the law back in the direction in which it should have been in the first place,” says Kirk Baert, a partner at Koskie Minsky LLP. “I thought it was quite brave of her to disagree with both the Court of Appeal and Justice Strathy in essence, and say, we’re not going to allow these types of cases to get dismissed when the plaintiff couldn’t have done anything differently than what they did.”

In her decision, van Rensburg wrote: “No public interest would be served by permitting a cause of action to be defeated by delays inherent in the litigation process. As argued by the plaintiffs in Nor-Dor (at para. 4), ‘[the expiry of a limitation period while the leave motion is pending] cannot have been the intention of the legislature when it enacted this section of the Act”.

Last month, plaintiffs in a secondary markets securities class action case involving CIBC and its subprime mortgage exposure were denied certification, even though Ontario Superior Court Justice George Strathy indicated he saw merit in the case.

On July 3, Strathy ruled in Green v. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce that the plaintiffs failed to obtain the required leave to proceed with the action within the three-year period mandated by the Ontario Securities Act. The plaintiffs’ request to certify common law claims for negligent misrepresentation was also rejected. However, Strathy indicated that had he found the limitation period hadn't expired, he would have granted leave and certified the action as a class proceeding.

Strathy relied on Sharma v. Timminco Ltd. in rendering his decision in the CIBC case.

“I didn’t think the original Timminco decision was correct for a lot of reasons,” says Baert. “Mainly because it’s forcing people to go through these types of motions for really no purpose whatsoever. It’s also the only example of a limitation period that runs off when a judge makes a decision as opposed to something the plaintiff can actually control.”

The Imax litigation arose from allegations the company made misrepresentations that led to a precipitous decline in its share price a few years ago. The U.S. action was filed in 2007. Shortly after, Dimitri Lascaris of Siskinds LLP in London filed a parallel case in Ontario.

Given the debate created by Timminco, Baert says it may be time to address it in a more formal way, so that case that already complicated, costly and time consuming, aren’t further delayed.

“It’s another diversion to getting to the real issue. The way to fix this is to amend the legislation. Otherwise we’re going to have a lot of motions and appeals over the periphery of the case rather than the merits of the case. If you think the reason there is a three-year time limit is to get the cases disposed of more efficiently having this issue out there just makes the cases take longer,” he says.

Guy Pratte, the independent lawyer leading the inquiry into a Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Associate Chief Justice Lori Douglas has resigned, leaving the Canadian Judicial Council scrambling to find a replacement for him at the controversial proceeding.

Guy Pratte has resigned as independet counsel for the Douglas inquiry.

Norman Sabourin, executive director and senior general counsel of the CJC, would not comment on Pratte’s reasons for resigning, saying only that the hunt is on for an immediate replacement.

“My top priority is ensuring that a new independent counsel is appointed and chief justice Wittmann, who appointed Mr. Pratte is considering a successor at this time. We hope that within a few days we can announce an appointment,” says Sabourin.

Pratte declined to comment when contacted by Legal Feeds.

In a statement released today, the council indicated a replacement would be appointed as soon as possible to ensure the hearing continues in a “fair and expeditious manner.”

A council committee is looking into the conduct of Douglas, whose husband posted sexually explicit photos of her online in 2003, when the couple were family law lawyers at a Winnipeg firm.

Douglas’s lawyer Sheila Block has asked the Federal Court to quash the inquiry, arguing questioning by the lawyer acting for the committee members, George Macintosh, was too aggressive and showed bias against Douglas.

Pratte had threatened to quit, insisting the inquiry committee can’t act be a referee of the proceedings and an active participant. But the committee insisted it had a duty to strongly question witnesses. In May, the CJC clarified the role of the independent counsel, noting that: “Independent counsel may make recommendations but must carry out his duties in a manner that does not impinge on the discretionary decision-making responsibility of the committee.”

Sabourin admits it won’t be easy to find a replacement for Pratte.”I’m sure it will be challenging, like in any proceedings where one is called in as a substitute, so to speak. This inquiry is complex, there’s no question, but I’m hopeful with very able counsel things will unfold in a satisfactory way.”

He noted that the inquiry committee hasn’t set dates for its next hearings yet and it was difficult to find the amount of time they feel they need to continue.

“I imagine they will want to hear from the newly appointed independent counsel and hopefully they can agree on dates in the near future,” he says.

Despite the complexity of the inquiry and the complications it has encountered Sabourin said he doesn’t think it will be difficult to find a replacement for Pratte.

“Lawyers at that level of expertise and experience are usually very receptive to answering the call of public duty. This is an important process and we’re a public body trying to get things done in the public interest. Lawyers are often very receptive. We look for seniority and reputation and ideally someone who has knowledge with inquiry committee processes.”

There are pending judicial review applications in the Federal Court and Sabourin said time may be required to take steps to address those issues as well.

“The inquiry committee is there to ensure that there is an investigation and light thrown to the allegations made against the judge. For the council it’s critical that any serious allegation against a federally appointed judge is thoroughly reviewed. Hopefully it can happen in good time, but it is a complex issue and the process has to be fair to everyone. It will have to take the time needed to ensure it continues to be fair.”

Instead of sightseeing around the cities they go to for their professional development conferences, young lawyers from international law firm network Multilaw are pitching in to help in local communities around the world.

Manly Parks, Duane Morris, Philadelphia, (Chancellor of Multilaw Academy); Bryce Chandler, Shibley Righton, Windsor, Ont.; Christiane Schuman Campbell, Duane Morris, Philadelphia; Flavio Spaccaquerche Barbosa, Mattos Filho, Viega Filho, Marrey Jr. E Quiroga Advogados, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil sorted food at a Philly foodbank.

At its training conference in Philadelphia this month, Multilaw lawyers stepped up to help at a local food bank — all part of the network’s goal to give back to the communities they work in around the world through its Multilaw Pro Bono Mission.

Multilaw, the Multinational Association of Independent Law Firms, has existed for 20 years and consists of 73 member firms with 6,000 lawyers in more than 150 commercial centres throughout the world including two Canadian firms — Shibley Righton LLP and Miller Thomson in Toronto.

“Multilaw now has an official pro-bono mission and our primary goal is to make a difference in the cities we visit,” says Hope Krebs, a partner at Duane Morris LLP in Philadelphia.

The pro-bono initiative includes both monetary donations and hours of service.

“We ask member firms to make a contribution of one billable hour per firm or individual. The billable hour struck a chord with us — every lawyer can relate to what it represents. That’s really the way we fund the mission,” says Krebs.

From the billable hours project, a donation of €6,865 was made to the Smile of the Child children’s charity based in Athens during Multilaw’s 2012 European Regional Conference this past May in Greece.

The association also identifies local charities to provide hours of service to during the its weeklong Multilaw Academy for young lawyers, such as the one held recently in Philadelphia.

“Instead of having a sightseeing component to the conference, we helped out at a large local food bank called Philabundance,” says Krebs.

All 16 of the academy delegates from 11 countries along with the course organizers took an afternoon out of their study time to take part in service work.

“The reality is our younger generation cares a lot about the welfare of the places they go to,” says Krebs. “In the case of Philabundance they didn’t want our legal services, they wanted our time to go through the food at the food bank.”

The Multilaw Academy serves three functions, says Bill Northcote, a partner with Shibley Righton LLP in Toronto.

“One is the pro-bono effort, and it does cross-cultural and international law training for senior associates. It also builds relationships among the younger lawyers.”

About 11 years ago, the network realized most of the lawyers attending its professional development conferences tended to be more senior.

“There was a feeling that in order to ensure Multilaw continued to develop indefinitely we needed to bring a younger generation through and form the leadership base of the association in the future,” says Adam Cooke, head of development at Multilaw.

Eric van Emden, a former senior partner from Bosselaar & Strengers in the Netherlands, also saw it as a way to enhance the retention of his associates. The conferences, which move to various cities around the world, became a way for young lawyers to gain some international experience.

“In our firm it’s viewed as a sign of appreciation, and the associates who go are on the partnership track and we want to retain them,” says Northcote, noting Shibley Righton has sent five associates over the last 11 years.

Bryce Chandler, a senior associate from Shibley Righton based in Windsor, Ont. attended the 2012 Academy in Philadelphia.

“I found the academy to be an excellent opportunity. It addressed cross-border legal, social and cultural issues but also, you’re put in a room with 18 to 20 other people with whom you have very little in common and it becomes a lesson in networking and socializing. It also provides excellent insight into business development and getting to know member firms,” says Chandler.

CCCA chairman Geoff Creighton says it would be interesting to find out if the gender issue is systemic or based on individual circumstance.

Female in-house counsel are making less than their male counterparts and on average receive lower annual salary increases, according to a survey released today by the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association.

Conducted by Ipsos Reid and developed jointly by the CCCA and The Counsel Network, the In-House Compensation and Career Survey provides information on compensation, benefits, work hours, and job satisfaction of Canadian in-house counsel.

According to the survey, in-house counsel earn about $155,000 per year on average. That represents an increase of $4,500 since 2010.

“The good news is it’s gone up on a modest basis,” says CCCA chairman Geoff Creighton while speaking from the annual Canadian Bar Association conference in Vancouver. “Many have been constrained by less than three per cent throughout the period from 2009 as a general salary increase.”

For the most part, average salaries have increased consistently across the various industries. Salaries within the information technology, manufacturing, automotive, and aerospace sectors have seen the most significant hike of $18,000 while average pay within the telecommunications sector as well as government and Crown corporations have seen the greatest downward shifts since 2010.

Results show that women earn about 16 per cent less than their male counterparts on average. Among those surveyed, a higher proportion of women hold the more junior, lower-paying jobs of legal and senior counsel. Surveyed men, on the other hand, are more likely to hold the higher-level positions that offer a better salary as general counsel at the director and executive levels.

While that would appear to explain the disparity in salary by gender, a further look at the results tells another story.

When each role is isolated and the average salaries are compared within each of them, men’s pay is consistently higher than that of women. On average, men are making more than women in comparable roles.

“While there seems to remain an issue with gender, it would be interesting to conduct interviews to see if it’s something systemic or how much of it is particular to the individual circumstance,” says Creighton.

As well, male in-house counsel are also twice as likely as women to be the beneficiaries of a 10-per-cent or higher salary increase over the past year.

Among those surveyed, 37 per cent of female in-house counsel are in legal counsel roles compared to only 29 per cent of males. Twenty-three per cent of men occupy executive vice president legal, vice president legal, and director of legal roles. That compares to 14 per cent of women.

The survey also found 96 per cent of those in-house counsel surveyed work full time.

“I would have thought the in-house context lends itself to part-time work more than a law firm ever did,” says Creighton. “When you’re an employed lawyer in an in-house context, there should be greater flexibility for that.”

By organization type, Crown corporations (24 per cent) are far more likely to have a freeze on salary. That number compares to privately owned companies at 14 per cent, publicly quoted entities at 13 per cent, and not-for-profit organizations at nine per cent when it comes to having no salary increases over the past year.

Satisfaction with work/life balance and base salary differentials by region, organization, and industry are among the other findings contained in the survey this year. In-house counsel’s satisfaction with their work-life balance improved in 2012 with 78 per cent either somewhat or very satisfied. The number is slightly above 2009 at 76 per cent.

It also seems the last few years have had an influence on how loyal in-house counsel feel to their employers as the number of people who expressed loyalty has gone up. At the same time, the number of people who feel less loyal also increased compared to previous years.

“Perhaps stressed economic times has created potential for greater polarization,” says Creighton.

The survey was completed by 738 in-house counsel between May and June 2012 with the majority, 43 per cent, from Ontario; 21 per cent from Alberta; 13 per cent from Quebec; 11 per cent from B.C.; and the balance coming from the rest of the country.

Clients may be the main catalyst pushing lawyers to adopt the use of technology, according to a new report that predicts big spending on information technology by law firms and corporate departments over the next two years.

The study from Robert Half Legal released last week, “Technology's transformation of the legal field,” looks at how emerging technologies are affecting management strategies at law firms and corporate legal departments and changing how legal services are delivered. The report is part of Robert Half Legal’s 12th annual Future Law Office project.

“Certainly, in the last two or three years, there’s been close to an explosion in terms of what firms and companies are doing. Whereas two or three years ago it might have been a pipe dream, it’s now being implemented,” says John Ohnjec, division director of Robert Half Legal.

As clients in large companies use enterprise hardware and software tools to better manage their own businesses, law firms are feeling the pressure to keep up and they’re seeing the economic benefit as they do so.

“There’s certainly a recognition of how this can be very cost-effective for a firm. Sometimes, the corporations firms are working with may be more advanced as a whole in their operations, and all of a sudden it has leached into the legal field and firms realize they have to keep up to date and service their technology-savvy corporations,” says Ohnjec.

For the report, Roberta Half Legal interviewed 175 lawyers from the largest law firms and corporations in the United States and Canada to assess how legal organizations might operate in the future. In total, 350 lawyers were interviewed for the report. For the questions that were only asked of corporate legal departments (175 in total), the Canadian sample was 75. For the questions that were asked of both law firms and corporate legal departments (350), 150 Canadians were interviewed.

The report also shows that while there will be an investment in information technology, it might result in a reduction in staff as firms and corporate departments will be able to minimize employee numbers through advances in technology. Law firm office size is already shrinking with mobile devices and wireless networks enabling lawyers to work remotely from any location.
Technology is also levelling the playing field. With firms of all sizes using similar services and tools, small firms and sole practitioners are able to establish a bigger presence online and, in some cases, better compete with larger firms.

“Technology has also allowed some smaller- and mid-size firms to catch up,” says Ohnjec. “Some smaller shops that are technologically advanced can take on work that in the past they may not have been able to due to volume. Not only is using an iPad or BlackBerry fun, but it’s far more reaching and can have results on the bottom line which obviously everyone is most concerned with.”

That doesn’t mean all lawyers are jumping on the bandwagon.

“There is certainly a prevailing attitude that if it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” says Ohnjec. “Those who have been practising for 20 or 30 years may be set in their ways and if those ways are productive they may be hesitant to try something new and it may be a bit intimidating for some.”

The report’s findings include:

• Nearly six in 10 (59 per cent) of lawyers interviewed said their law firms will increase spending on technology in the next two years. Law firms plan to purchase software (79 per cent), hardware (72 per cent), desktop PCs (62 per cent), laptops (49 per cent), tablet PCs or handheld computers (44 per cent), and smartphones (41 per cent).

• Web-based tools are improving client communication and the delivery of legal services. Lawyers surveyed said their law firms used electronic-filing systems (83 per cent), meeting or audio-conferencing tools (79 per cent), document storage sites (58 per cent), collaborative or information-sharing sites (51 per cent), and client portals or extranets (30 per cent).

• Corporate legal departments are using technology to manage higher workloads. Nearly one in three in-house counsel (30 per cent) interviewed said their legal department’s greatest challenge is reducing budgets and controlling costs. Software designed to monitor expenses and improve the work process is gaining in popularity among corporate legal departments.

As a result, they’re using technology to streamline communications with outside counsel and improve efficiencies. As the amount of electronic data grows exponentially, e-discovery remains a growth area and a challenge for law firms and their corporate clients.

A growing number of firms are also marketing their services using social media, the report found. However, law firms using these online networks, as well as cloud computing-based services to store data, must address new privacy concerns regarding the security of privileged information. This has prompted many firms to allocate additional resources toward protecting their systems and safeguarding confidential data.

Technology is also influencing the kind of work being assigned to outside counsel. While litigation and e-discovery projects are typically outsourced, if internal teams have access to the same software programs and systems as their law firms, general counsel might keep certain matters in-house to contain costs.

The Association of Corporate Counsel has formed a chapter in British Columbia to serve Vancouver and surrounding area. It makes B.C the third ACC Canadian chapter alongside Ontario and Quebec.

The B.C. chapter is the third in Canada for the ACC. (Photo: Shutterstock)

“Having a new chapter in British Columbia will provide its members with both a local and global network of the top in-house counsel and resources that address their needs,” says ACC president and CEO Veta T. Richardson.

The B.C. chapter will serve about 100 in-house lawyers representing more than 50 organizations through networking and continuing legal education.

“The creation of the ACC-BC chapter is a very exciting development for all in-house counsel in British Columbia,” said Robert Piasentin, general counsel, Sierra Systems Groups Inc., and the new chapter’s president. “The ACC has a long and well-established history of delivering high quality legal programs aimed specifically at in-house counsel. I look forward to introducing even more of British Columbia’s in-house lawyers to the ACC and giving them the opportunity to benefit from its collective experience, knowledge and expertise.”

Serving alongside Piasentin on the chapter board will be Joel Guralnick, general counsel at Vision Critical Communications (vice president); J. Dean Readman, director, legal services and corporate secretary, legal services, Port Metro Vancouver (treasurer); and Nicole Chen, legal counsel, AMEC (secretary).

Kim Ott, solicitor and counsel, legal services, BC Hydro; Randall Milner, senior vice-president, general counsel, corporate secretary, Methanex Corp., and Karen Corraini, general counsel, corporate secretary, Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. will serve as board members at-large. ACC now has more than 1,000 members in Canada.

“I am really pleased, both as a member of the ACC’s global board and as a Canadian in-house lawyer, to see a B.C. chapter,” said David Allgood, executive vice president and general counsel of Royal Bank of Canada, and treasurer of ACC’s board of directors. “ACC’s growth in Canada has been tremendous.”

ACC, which started as a U.S. in-house counsel group with about 3,000 members, now has more than 30,000 members worldwide.

“We are proud that ACC has been there every step of the way of the transformation, working to support our members and help them stay out in front of changing needs and expectations,” said Richardson.

The offices of a Bay Street law firm may seem far removed from the July 9 street party shooting on Danzig Street in Toronto’s east Scarborough neighbourhood, but Heenan Blaikie LLP has a well-established connection to that community.

Ryan Teschner says the pro bono work done through the East Scarborough Store Front fills a real need.

“I view this as a tragedy on many levels,” says Ryan Teschner, an associate in Heenan’s litigation department. “This is near and dear to me as a volunteer and more now than ever all hands need to be on deck.”

Two years ago Teschner, along with fellow associate Trevor Guy, helped launch a pro bono program to provide improved legal services to the residents via the East Scarborough Store Front, an umbrella organization that brings together 40 different partner agencies to help residents in the Kingston-Galloway area of Scarborough.

Through the firm’s pro bono legal services initiative created in January 2010, help is available to clients in the community who need assistance that goes beyond that of a legal aid lawyer.

“Often 15 minutes with a legal aid lawyer isn’t enough to help some people,” says Teschner. “Sometimes there are issues that are more complicated.”

When that is the case, the legal aid lawyer fills out a referral form and sends it to Teschner and Guy who co-ordinate with their colleagues and determine whether it’s an area the firm practises in, and can assist, for free.

The firm has worked on 20 matters for East Scarborough residents over the last two years.

Recently, an associate in the firm’s tax department assisted with the paperwork required to set up a trust fund for the funeral of 14-year-old shooting victim Shyanne Charles, whose funeral will be held July 28.

Money needed to be raised to fund different aspects of the girl’s funeral so her family could have the type of service they wanted to have, Teschner explains.

“They came to us in an effort to set up a fund that could operate to collect those funds in the appropriate way to apply to the appropriate expenses. An associate in the tax department worked on the relevant documents and in a few hours provided the services to get the fund up and running,” he says.

“Fortunately, there was a very real way we could help here, unfortunately it was after the tragedy had already occurred, but so as not to leave somebody without the ability to have the kind of funeral that they would like to have for their loved one. We were able to step in and play a small role in making that happen,” says Teschner.

While he acknowledges that “access to justice” has become a bit of a buzz phrase over the last few years, Teschner feels the pro bono program Heenan Blaikie has established with East Scarborough Storefront is “real access to justice.”

“It’s great for our lawyers here too — they are given experience on matters they might not always get experience with and to see very real examples of how their legal skills benefit a particular person,” he says.

The pro bono program is part of the firm’s overall efforts to assist Toronto’s priority neighbourhoods with legal services and access to youth employment opportunities.

“What’s been eye opening, and unfortunately confirmatory to me, is that people who are not able to access counsel find themselves in a situation more difficult to handle simply because they don’t have the resources to go up against those who might be making life a little bit difficult. It’s a consistent theme in the 20 matters we have handled. The missing ingredient of access to justice is often what creates dire situations.”