Canadian Lawyer

24 O c t O b e r 2 0 1 4 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m Cross ExaminEd Donald Bayne is passionate about mentoring and teaching young lawyers. An abiding belief in the system Thrust into the spotlight again as Mike Duffy's counsel, Donald Bayne has been making his mark for 43 years. by Dale SMith T here are many words to describe Donald Bayne, a member of the defence bar for some 43 years, but one of his associates has a choice few. "You would expect him to be incredibly intimidating but he's not so at all," says Meaghan Thomas, one of Bayne's colleagues at Bayne Sellar Boxall LLP in Ottawa. "He's a wonderful guy, incredibly approachable, and prob- ably one of the happiest lawyers around. He's got so much energy." Bayne, a former quarterback during his days at Queens University, prefers triathlons these days, but it's his passion and enthusiasm for law that is tireless. "He has a love for criminal law that few people have," says partner Rod Sellar. "He still loves doing it, even at the age that he is. He loves the challenge, he loves the court work, and when he's in, he's in. He has an unbelievable commitment to the case once he's involved, and he may not have the same number of files that other people have, and when he has one, there's no one that can spend more time on it." Bayne himself says he's committed to criminal law because he really believes in it "I believe in legal, human, civil rights, and it's where you get to have an impact on that daily," he says. "Let's be realistic — it's where the action is. A lot of people become lawyers and never see the inside of a courtroom. It's really where the advo- cacy action takes place." It is also his particular sense of the importance of the system, and ensuring a person gets the best defence possible, no matter how unpopular the accused may be. It's why he's defended the RCMP before the Arar inquiry, accused war criminals, and most recently, disgraced ex-senator Mike Duffy. "It's not only for the popular," Bayne says of the criminal law procedures and the presumption of innocence. "Otherwise, you're back into a privileged, elitist system where only the powerful and popular have rights." Beyond his passion for the law, one thing Bayne is particularly known for among his colleagues is his desire to teach and mentor, particularly the asso- ciates and articling students at the firm. "He takes the time to get to know each person individually and wants to know what you're genuinely interested in and what you're working on," says Thomas. "No matter how trivial the matter is, as compared to what he's doing, he's sincerely interested in what I'm doing, why I'm doing it that way, and what my thinking is. That's always been his per- spective on it — that it's as much about teaching as it is about having the associ- ates there to assist, and that is permeated throughout Bayne Sellar Boxall's history." Sellar notes Bayne takes a great satisfaction in explaining at length —

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