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LEGA L E THICS BY PHILIP SLAYTON There can be too much Sure, lawyers should all be nice to each other, but it's not the end of the world if sometimes we're not, and sometimes we shouldn't be. with it. He's the Toronto lawyer who successfully defended John Felderhof, of Bre-X Minerals Ltd. notoriety, on insider-trading charges. Groia was said to have a "win-at-all-costs" attitude at trial (he made the same complaint about the prosecution). He was accused of being strident and sarcastic, rude to the lawyer for the Ontario Securities Commission, and prone to "rhetorical excess" and "petulant invective." At one point, in convoluted proceedings that surrounded the Felderhof trial, Justice Marc Rosenberg of the Ontario Court of Appeal adopted the language of justice Archie Campbell below who described Groia's trial conduct C ivility. Sometimes it seems the word is on every lawyer's lips. Joe Groia has something to do as "appallingly, unrestrained, and on occasion unprofessional." Groia has become the poster boy for incivility and is now the subject of dis- ciplinary proceedings before Ontario's law society. Several of the Law Society of Upper Canada's Rules of Professional Conduct bear on the civility issue. Rule 4.01(6), for example, requires a lawyer to be courteous and civil in the course of litigation; the commentary on the rule says, "a consistent pattern of rude, provocative, or disruptive conduct by the lawyer, even though unpunished as contempt, might well merit discipline." Despite formal exhortations like this, there's a growing feeling in the legal community that Groia has been treated unfairly, and that careful review of what actually happened shows his conduct 18 M AY 2010 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com civility was not egregious. Some even think that this whole civility thing has gone too far. Is it that Canadians like decorum and restraint, and object when someone raises his voice? Complaining about a lawyer's lack of civility smacks a little of whining to your mother because some- one was mean to you in the schoolyard. But legal heavyweights say there is real substance to the problem. They say incivility contributes to the complexity, cost, and slowness of legal proceedings, and diminishes respect for the admin- istration of justice. And the volume of complaints to law societies from the public about lack of professionalism by lawyers has accelerated dramatically in recent years. In Ontario, complaints about inci- DARCY MUENCHRATH