Canadian Lawyer

on Histed while protecting King, a veteran barrister with a prominent law firm? Fineblit denies this, pointing out the courts have upheld their rulings in Histed's discipline cases. Still, Fineblit indicates when more information came out in 2010 about what exactly King had done, it seemed more detailed and troubling than he'd been led to believe years earlier. In the end, it's safe to say if Manitoba's law society had conducted a thorough investigation in 2004 of King's behaviour — and spoken to Histed and Chapman — the media circus that engulfed the CJC hearings last summer might well have been avoided. And the embarrassing photos of Douglas would not have ended up on the Internet all over again. A nd then there is the case of T. Sher Singh, once one of Canada's most high profile and respected barristers. Today, the 63-year-old works as a writer and runs a Sikh arts and cultural web site from an apartment he rents in the village of Mount Forest, Ont. From 1985 until he was disbarred in 2007, Singh was a litigator with a sterling reputation and a recipient of the Order of Canada. He'd articled at McCarthy Tétrault LLP and practised at the now-defunct Goodman & Carr before opening his own practice in Guelph, Ont. "I was a gladiator for my clients," he tells me at one point when we meet at roadside diner near Toronto. Yet Singh recalls when he started his career, he'd been warned by one of his mentors to stop being a litigator after seven years or risk getting burned out. Despite wanting to heed this advice, Singh practised more than twice that long. By 2005, he was indeed burned out and finding it harder to deal with any situations of conflict or combativeness. Just as he was weighing his options, he says he received an appealing offer from the Law Society of Upper Canada. "Out of the blue I got a call from a headhunter asking if I would consider a job," he recalls. The LSUC was looking for someone to head up its employment equity department, designed to encourage the legal profession to be more welcoming to women and minorities. Singh had a lengthy interview with a dozen benchers, who quickly offered him the job. They agreed on a salary, a start date, designated him an office and secretary, and told him to start shutting down his practice. But as the day for him to take up the post drew closer, he says he noticed signs of unresponsiveness from the law society. "The [LSUC] bureaucracy and the benchers aren't always on the same page," he explains. "The bureaucracy had no say in my hiring." ntitled-1 Then he got a call saying there was an outstanding client complaint against him. Singh says he had been told months earlier this complaint was going to be resolved. He says the complaint was frivolous and baseless and believed the law society was now using it to rescind his job offer. By then, Singh was in no emotional state to fight them on the matter. "I didn't want a new conflict in my life," he says. It's not uncommon for sole practitioners to receive client complaints, simply by the nature of whom they defend. "Big firms don't take clients who are the alienated and the most abused members of society," explains one Toronto sole practitioner. "So they don't have irrational clients who, when you don't win their case despite your best efforts, lash out at the lawyer. The sole practitioners, to some extent, are complained against more often because they are dealing with more vulnerable clients." Once the first complaint against Singh emerged, he says more came out of the woodwork — six in total. Singh says they were all frivolous and he could have easily defended his actions with every one of them, but his inability to deal with stressful situations prevented him from doing so and he chose not to fight. In 2007, the law society disbarred him, claiming he had inappropriately taken money from clients while failing to provide promised work (the amounts of money in question were small, ranging from $535 to $4,000). "Nobody from the law society said 'Can we help you', or 'Tell us more', or 'Give us a doctor's letter'," says Singh. "You know, some sort of human response. There was nothing whatsoever." Today — after Singh's story was put to them by Canadian Lawyer — the law society refused to discuss the affair, citing a non-disclosure agreement. Whatever the truth is, if Singh was brought low by the reality he was a sole practitioner and therefore an easy target to be disciplined, it would appear this is no anomaly. Law societies might be fickle in who they choose to discipline, but going after powerful lawyers from big firms is something they seem more loathe to do. And that is not always good news for the legal profession. PrOFESSIOnaL DIrECTOry Supreme Court of Canada Counsel and Agency Services Henry S. Brown, QC Brian A. Crane, QC Graham Ragan Guy Régimbald Matthew Estabrooks Eduard J. Van Bemmel, Law Clerk 160 Elgin Street Suite 2600 Ottawa Ontario K1P 1C3 T 613-233-1781 montréal ottawa toronto hamilton waterloo region calgary vancouver beijing moscow london Announcing CanLNC Experts 1 ntitled-2 1 Case Merit Service: An invaluable early assessment 12-01-17 of case facts, issues, players and strength 10:50 AM MEDICAL MALPRACTICE PERSONAL INJURY The experts you need, The quality you deserve. CLASS ACTION TESTIFYING OR CONSULTING PLAINTIFF OR DEFENCE www.CANADIAN www.CanLNCExperts.ca 855-278-9273 (toll free) Experts@CanLNCExperts.ca L a w ye r m a g . c o m Jan uary 2013 31 12-10-23 9:27 AM

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