w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m A P R I L 2 0 1 6 27
REME
DRESS
HEARSAL
Jonathan
Dawe
Avi
Sirlin
For 10 years, volunteers at the Supreme
Court Advocacy Institute have been
prepping lawyers to face the pressure
cooker of litigating at the top court.
By Kirk Makin
J
ames LeNoury had scarcely launched into his oral submission on a Supreme Court
of Canada wrongful dismissal appeal when questions began to fly thick and fast. One
of the jurists impatiently asked for his position on the appropriate standard of review.
Another unleashed a salvo of questions about remuneration: "Why do you say sever-
ance pay wouldn't make sense? How do you square that?"
LeNoury found himself momentarily thrown off course; an unhappy fate many
a Supreme Court litigant faces when the bench begins to heat up. He faced a choice
between two options: respond off the cuff or risk the ire of the panel by shunting their questions
JOHN
HRYNIUK
