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Book thrown at Brodsky O ne of Canada's top criminal defence lawyers has had the book thrown at him after pleading guilty to breaching professional standards. Greg Brodsky, who has defended more than 600 alleged killers during a 46-year-plus career, was fined $20,000 plus $19,000 in court costs on a pair of counts — failing to act with integrity by requesting and receiving payment for legal services without accounting for such payment to his law firm and failing to deposit a retainer to a pooled trust account on two occasions. According to the facts of the case, Brodsky was retained by a client and received a $5,000 cheque payable to his law firm, Brodsky & Co., in December 2005. Three months later, the client THE WEST Conduct review ordered for senator-lawyer T he Law Society of British Columbia has ordered a conduct review for B.C. lawyer and senator Mobina Jaffer and her son Azool Jaffer-Jeraj to consider a complaint that they engaged in excessive and inaccurate billing to a client. The LSBC said they also "failed to fully and fairly inform a client about their retainer." The decision to hold the conduct review followed an investigation by the LSBC's discipline committee into the over-billing allegation by the Order of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which hired the firm to defend it against abuse claims from former students at residential schools. It was billed $5.1 million. In January 2008, the LSBC started the investigation into Jaffer and Jaffer-Jeraj's billing practices. The Order alleged in some cases the lawyers' daily billing exceeded the number of hours in a day. Work was carried out from 2000 to 2004. The Order launched a lawsuit after firing the firm, and in December 2007 the matter was settled out of court. There has been no date set for the review. Jaffer was the first East-Indian woman to practise law in B.C. and the first Muslim appointed to the Senate. — JEAN SORENSEN jean_sorensen@telus.net www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com NO VEMBER / DECEMBER 2009 11 ardinerRoberts_CL_Nov_09.indd 1 10/14/09 10:22:28 AM Gardiner Roberts LLP welcomes Carol Hitchman, Paula Bremner and Esther Jeon who will be continuing their intellectual property Carol Hitchman, Partner 416 865 8259 chitchman@gardiner-roberts.com Paula Bremner, Partner 416 865 4029 pbremner@gardiner-roberts.com Esther Jeon, Associate 416 865 6676 ejeon@gardiner-roberts.com GARDINER ROBERTS LLP 40 King Street West, Suite 3100 Toronto, Ontario M5H 3Y2 www.gardiner-roberts.com provided a second such cheque. In August 2006, Brodsky requested an additional $10,000 be paid to him personally for professional legal services to be performed and the client obliged. The cheque was not deposited into the pooled trust account of Brodsky's firm but instead into his personal account. A subsequent statement of account to the client, which was signed by Brodsky, did not make any reference to the $10,000 paid to him personally. Following a complaint to the Law Society of Manitoba, Brodsky provided the client with a refund of $10,000. Allan Fineblit, CEO of the LSM, described the charge as "fairly serious" but Brodsky's actions clearly didn't warrant a suspension or disbarment. He says in some ways, high-visibility lawyers pay a greater penalty than their lesser-known counterparts because of their profile. "That's an awful price to pay for somebody like Greg. His reputation is important to him, he's proud of his accomplishments and this was something that was very hard for him," he says. Fineblit says while Brodsky deserves recognition for all the good he's done for the community and the legal profession over the course of nearly half a century, the fact he was penalized shows the LSM doesn't play favourites. "It doesn't matter who you are or how connected or well known you are, we try to treat everybody the same way. If somebody is deserving of a sanction, we'll sanction them," he says. — GK