Canadian Lawyer

Regional wRap-up atlantIC laWyers (anD Others) On laWyers T here's a new book out. It's about lawyers — but it's not for lawyers. Why Good Lawyers Matter is intended to help the public understand the role lawyers play in their lives, their society, and their future. "There is confusion in the public. There's not a lot of time given in the general media to explaining how the profession works," says co-editor Darrel Pink, executive director of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society in Halifax (the other co-editors are Dalhousie University law professor David Blaikie and Supreme Court of Canada Justice Thomas Cromwell). The book is a collection of essays from lawyers and non-lawyers alike that explore a range of issues related to how the profession practises, how it contributes, and how it has faltered. Part one looks at what a lawyer is and includes an essay by Daphne Dumont, a lawyer in Charlottetown, P.E.I., that peers inside the lawyer-client relationship. Pink says it's one of his favourite pieces in the book. "It talks about her work in a small community. It reflects the role of trusted adviser." This opening section also reflects on how the Canadian landscape has changed. University of Ottawa law professor Adam Dodek concludes in his article, "Lawyers, Guns and Money: Lawyers and Power in Canadian Society," that "the Canadian legal profession may be nearing the tipping point, one scandal away from government intervention to curb their collection power." The book's two remaining sections investigate the role lawyers play and the role they should play. In their essay, "The Great Canadian Lawyer: A Manifesto, Eh," legal ethicist Jocelyn Downie and Dal law professor Richard Devlin turn to disciplines outside the law to develop a set of goals, knowledge, capabilities, and character traits the best of the profession must exhibit. In the end, however, it is a quote from the beginning of the 214-page book that succinctly captures why the legal profession has been and will remain quintessentially important. "Ultimately," writes novelist, playwright, and poet George Elliott Clarke in his forward, "the basic ideal of the law must be that every person or cause merits an advocate who must advance well-informed, well-crafted, truthful, and persuasive arguments in aid of the client. That's why good lawyers matter." — DONALEE MOULTON donalee@quantumcommunications.ca A LEGAL SEAGULL BY ANY OTHER NAME F or six years, the Legal Seagull has represented the Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia. Until now, however, the fine-feathered mascot has been nameless. In celebration of its 30th anniversary, the nonprofit association, which provides easy-to-understand information about the law, held a name-the-seagull contest. More than 50 entries were received. The moniker that created the biggest flap among judges: Seacil, the Legal Seagull. The winning entry, submitted by Jeffrey Mitchell, a law student at Osgoode Hall who has also worked while a student at McInnes Cooper, evokes images of the East Coast and sounds both approachable and accessible — like the mascot and his organization. "The seagull is synonymous with the coast, and so was a good match for Nova Scotia. You will find seagulls everywhere — just like the law," says LISNS executive director Maria Franks. — DM www.CANADIAN L a w ye r m a g . c o m Seacil, the Legal Seagull. F e b r uary 2013 7

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