Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m N o v e m b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 11 like the hefty sum of $800. O'Brian and another former clerk, Lisa Lindquist, have remained integral to the dozens of dinners that have followed. The auctions for the dinners take place during annual banquets held by the Calgary Bar Association to roast, on alter- nate years, either newly appointed judges or new QCs. At this year's banquet the bidding was fierce between Savage and another group of lawyers. The price was going up and up. That is when Rawlins stepped in. "I stopped the bidding at $25,000, thinking it was getting out of hand and simply said we would provide a dinner to both for $25,000 each." While that doubled the work for the justices, it also doubled the take for charity. The Justices in Aprons have done the same thing before. When the bid- ding gets high they "take judicial notice" and declare two winners. They've also answered special requests from members of the legal community and have hosted as many as five dinners in one year. All the profits go to charity. Doing a bit of quick calculating in his head, LoVecchio says "in total we've raised close to $200,000." In spite of the astonishing success of the events Rawlins admits that every year when the dinners come up for auction, "I am absolutely terrified that no one will bid." That may be a reflection of her attention- to-detail nature or her competitive drive. She was one of the first women to become a partner in a major Calgary law firm and even Canadian Lawyer took notice ("Making it in macho city," May/June 1984). Savage flatly dismisses the suggestion that he, or any of the other lawyers who bid on the dinners, are trying to buy access to the judges. "Frankly, the Calgary bar and bench have a number of oppor- tunities to mingle throughout the year," he says. "This particular dinner is no different from having a chat with a judge at a bar function." And he points out if he is trying to buy access it isn't working. "The last time I appeared before Justice LoVecchio . . . he found against me." The judges, of course, are very much alive to any suggestion the dinners may interfere with their judicial independence. "We are very, very restricted about how we can be involved in the community," says Rawlins. That is why she and LoVecchio have always sought and obtained the approval of the chief justice for the dinners. LoVecchio says, "when I first went to the bench I was shocked at all the isolation." Nevertheless, he acknowledges he and his fellow judges "are very privileged" and like the rest of the legal community there is a desire to give back. "Yes, we are judges and must be independent but we don't stop being citizens." LoVecchio says the dinners are a suc- cess because "word has hit the legal com- munity in Calgary. This isn't a burger on a barbeque." And it is not just the food, Rawlins works hard with colour and deco- rations. "We take the wow factor very seri- ously," she says. The two couples plan the occasions months in advance "over dinner, of course." They even went to cooking school together in Tuscany a few years ago. The meals are relaxed and somewhat liquid. As a consequence there is one firm Rule of the Dinner: no car keys and nobody drives home. — GEoff ELLwAND writerlaw@gmail.com poverty lAw impACts lives of vulnerAble p overty law is an area of law that has significant financial impact on a provincial economy and health care system but also one that is often ignored as the indi- viduals needing legal support are unable to afford the cost of bringing forward cases that enshrine their rights, says Kendra Milne, a social justice lawyer working with the Community Legal Assistance Society and a research associate for the B.C. office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The situation is even more acute today with prov- inces cutting back legal aid on civil cases. Those cut- backs result in cases affecting other areas such as the health care system, social services, and the criminal justice system if individuals do not receive legal sup- port to solve a problem. "There really is no publically funded legal assistance for poverty law in B.C. anymore [with legal aid cuts]," she says, but through funding from organizations such as the Law Foundation of B.C. there has been a move to fill the gap using advocates. The advocates work with CLAS on cases that need to be carried beyond advice and into legal representation. However, budget restraints mean CLAS has to restrict its cases to those with a health-related impact. Milne says the five central areas it handles are housing, human rights, income secu- rity, mental illness, and workers' rights. "They are really the fundamental determinates of health," she says. CLAS handles 700 to 1,000 cases annually. Examples of the types of cases that CLAS take on might involve taking action against a landlord not improving a building that has health issues (such as mould) causing residents to become ill, the eviction of a mentally ill individual on short- notice or unfairly, or a foreign worker who is forced to work on unsafe worksites or conditions. In all cases, the lack of representation can result in health or injury issues. "It can start a downward spiral," says Milne, with the result the individual is not only Poverty law has wide societal impact, says Kendra Milne. continued on page 12

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