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 J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 6 25 THE LINES Lori Douglas L ori Douglas is proud to point out her former offices as she passes by the courthouse in downtown Winni- peg, but she pauses when she notices something. "Oh, the light's on," she says, obviously saddened at the idea that someone else has moved in. Despite the linger- ing emotions over five years of proceedings at the Canadian Judicial Council, Douglas says she's doing better than ever since her retirement from the bench in the spring. "I feel fine," says Douglas, 59. "I haven't been so well now for five years." Douglas, of course, has largely been silent amid years of proceedings over the infamous nude photos of her posted on the Internet by her now-deceased husband, lawyer Jack King. But she's ready to talk now that the years of wranglings at judicial council are over. In an exclusive interview in the fall, Douglas spoke to Canadian Lawyer about her experiences. Not sur- prisingly, she's very critical of the judicial council and its process in the case against her. Nowadays, she's back to work on a limited basis at King's former law firm, Petersen King, where she handles family law files. She's also planning to do some work at the University of Manitoba's Robson Hall Fac- ulty of Law. "I'm looking forward to some presence at the university," she says. "I like teaching. I like young people." It's clear her home in a rural area north of Winnipeg remains a sanctuary for her. Besides working part-time in Winnipeg, she also does lots of gardening and takes care of the horses on her property. "I have a very close network of friends that are rural and horse-oriented," she says. That home and many of those friends were also her rocks during the darkest days at the outset of the revelations of the photos and the judicial council proceedings against her. Initially, she thought things would blow over quickly when King's former client, Alex Chapman, went to the Law Society of Manitoba in 2010 alleging she had sexually harassed him. At the time, she assumed the story "would be about Jack, not about me." But as she realized the coming media storm after Chapman went to the CBC with his story, she began to worry about the effect on her parents, who didn't know about the photos, even though word about them had spread throughout the Winnipeg legal com- munity since 2003 amid Chapman's legal proceedings against King. So she called her father to ask him not to listen to the news and had a cousin tell him directly. Still, she felt she could continue to sit on the bench. She went to court the next day for a 10 a.m. hearing and managed to avoid the media waiting for her in the hall- way by having the lawyers come into chambers. Later, however, the chief justice of the Court of Queen's Bench came to say she should no longer sit. Douglas refused to step down as associate chief justice, insisting she could continue with administrative duties. She believed THE NOW-RETIRED HEART OF THE LENGHTY AND HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL CANADIAN JUDICIAL COUNCIL HEARING TALKS EXCLUSIVELY TO MANITOBA JUDGE AT THE CANADIAN LAWYER BY GLENN KAUTH ABOUT HER ORDEAL. THOMAS FRICKE

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