Canadian Lawyer

8 A P R I L 2 0 1 7 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m \ AT L A N T I C \ C E N T R A L \ W E S T REGIONAL WRAP-UP C E N T R A L L u Chan Khuong is one tough cookie. Less than two years after she suddenly and unceremoniously resigned as bâtonnière of the Quebec bar, ending a months-long public drama and legal standoff that divided lawyers in la belle province like never before, the Quebec City jurist has thrown her hat back in the ring. "It shows my force of character," Khuong told Canadian Lawyer in February after announcing her bid to become the second elected president in the 168-year history of the Quebec bar. She became the first on May 22, 2015 when she won nearly two-thirds of the 10,000-plus votes cast electronically by Quebec lawyers following a hotly con- tested campaign in which she promised to bring radical reforms to their staid law society. Universal suffrage was introduced to the Quebec bar with the passage in Dec. 2014 of Bill 17, which aimed to modernize the institution with a new system of governance that was considered more corporate and trans- parent than the traditional regional bar councils-based elections of presidents. Khuong was dethroned by the bar's board of directors a month after she was elected in the wake of a report by La Presse that she had been arrested a year earlier for shoplifting two pairs of designer jeans. Khuong blamed the incident — which had been dealt with non-judicially under a confidential Quebec diversion program for dealing with minor Crimi- nal Code offences by adults who do not have a significant criminal history — on a moment of distraction and inattention. But the board voted to suspend her for failing to divulge the matter, trigger- ing a tsunami-like wave of accusations, recriminations, insinuations, lawsuits and an extraordinary general assembly meeting of the bar with a circus-like atmosphere. The brouhaha lasted until September, when Khuong agreed to step down and be replaced by the current bâtonnière, Claudia Prémont. Eighteen months later, the two Que- bec City jurists are squaring off in the current campaign, which runs from Feb. 28 to May 12. Also vying for the bar's top job is Montreal lawyer Paul-Matthieu Grondin. Unlike Prémont, who is considered the candidate of the status quo and has had to fend off criticism on various issues, including her approval of a two- per-cent hike in her salary to $314,000, plus a nearly $200,000 severance pack- age, both Khuong and Grondin are promising to revolutionize the Quebec bar by slashing the president's salary and members' dues, as well as transforming its structures to reduce costs and improve transparency. Khuong wore the same reformer's mantle in 2015, when she soundly defeat- ed big firm-backed Montreal lawyer Luc Deshaies in 2015. But she has had to share it this time around, however, with the youthful Grondin. An outgoing bar board member from Montreal, he served as a lawyer for the House of Commons and two high-profile commissions. One was the federal Oliphant Com- mission, which investigated the financial dealings between former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and German businessman Karlheinz Schreiber. The other was the provincial Basta- rache Commission, which looked into allegations of influence peddling in former Quebec premier Jean Charest's government. Those allegations were made by Khu- ong's lawyer-husband Marc Bellemare, who served briefly as justice minister in Charest's cabinet. Grondin's eligibility to run for bâton- nier, however, is being questioned by some Quebec jurists. They say that under the new electoral procedures adopted by the bar last year to avoid a repeat of the disastrous chain of events involving Khuong in 2015, bâton- nier candidates must have served a full year on the board before being elected, which Grondin has not. "He might not get in because of a technicality," said Louis Fortier, a legal translator and part-time law professor at Université Laval in Quebec City. A virulent critic of the bar's new elec- toral procedures, which he calls "cranky" and thinks they "break three fundamental rules of law," Fortier said he and the many other lawyers who voted for Khuong in 2015 are leaning her away again. "Some are still concerned about the shoplifting thing, but the way she was treated and the way her case was mishan- dled by the bar trumps that," he said. "I think she's got a good shot to win again." For her part, Khuong has no doubt that she is still the best person for the job. "All the issues I talked about in 2015 remain; nothing has changed," she said. — MARK CARDWELL Former bâtonnière who was dethroned runs again FRANCIS VACHON Lu Chan Khuong

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