BarTalk December 2000
Volume 12, Number 6

CBABC Legal Aid Committee

The CBABC Legal Aid Committee remains committed to increasing access to justice for all British Columbians. To that end, the committee supports fully the initiatives of the National Legal Aid Committee, particularly the Legal Aid Watch. Lawyers in BC are asked to forward to the National Legal Aid Watch any accounts of unacceptable repercussions resulting from limited access to justice. We have many such stories here in BC, and everyone involved is urged to ensure that they receive the attention of government funders.

Winning Advocacy in Today's World

Cross-Cultural Communication in the Courts
Cultural orientation is a crucial component of doing business today and being able to communicate effectively with your client is no different. If you are looking for ideas and strategies to help you manage today's multicultural client base and courtroom, plan to attend the upcoming CBABC's President's Forum, "Winning Advocacy in Today's World".

"Our goal is to build awareness of the cross-cultural issues facing clients and their advocates and to present positive methods for working together in court," says organizer Catherine Sas.

Scheduled for January 18, 2001 in Vancouver, the half-day forum will feature a keynote address by internationally recognized consultant Laraine Kaminsky on linguistic and cultural challenges to the court process. Laraine Kaminsky is President of Ottawa-based Malkam Cross-Cultural Training, specialists in the development of customized language and cross-cultural training programs for more than 160 Canadian and US businesses, including Hong Kong Bank of Canada, Nortel Networks, IBM Canada and EDS Systemhouse Inc.

Using an interactive format, the forum will cover cross-cultural competence in preparing clients for trial, documentary evidence and working with interpreters. The event will also include a screening of Points of Departure. Created by the Open Learning Agency and Vancouver Community College, this instructional video presents challenging courtroom scenarios with corresponding comments by an experienced panel of court interpreters.

Winning Advocacy in Today's World will conclude with a Judicial Panel featuring comments and insights from The Honourable Mr. Justice Wally Oppal, Supreme Court of British Columbia, and The Honourable Judge Shehni Dossa, Provincial Court of BC and former Assistant Deputy Chair of the Immigration and Refugee Board's Immigration Appeal Division. Mock hearings, including criminal, family and personal injury trials, will demonstrate the application of cross-cultural principles in action.

Mark your calendar now from noon to 5 pm on January 18 and complete the fax-back registration form included with this edition of BarTalk. Watch for more details over the coming weeks.

CBABC Provincial Council and AGM Highlights

Key highlights from recent meetings are presented here to update CBABC members on the Association's operations and decisions. Complete minutes are also available from the BC Branch.

AGM 2000
The CBABC Annual General Meeting opened with the Secretary/Treasurer's positive report, announcing a surplus of $157,000.

In its ongoing efforts to support equity and access to the organization, it was resolved that the CBABC bylaws be amended to ensure the availability of teleconference facilities at selected sites throughout the province. The objective is to provide members with greater opportunity to speak and vote at future Annual General Meetings. The meeting concluded with an introduction of the 2000 - 2001 Executive Committee members.

Provincial Council: September 2000
John Hoyle, QC Executive Director of CBA National, spoke to their current initiatives, including intervention in Supreme Court of Canada matters, multi-disciplinary partnerships, legal services for the future, changing public expectations, legal aid watch and the image of the profession.

Branch President Margaret Ostrowski, QC highlighted her background and experience. She identified volunteer recognition as one of her primary goals for the year and announced her commitment to have a CBA National representative at every Council meeting.

A demonstration of the new CBABC Web site, www.bccba.org, illustrated how the site was designed to improve the value of services to members.

Guest speaker Maureen Geddes, a globally recognized expert in the field of diversity management, discussed the impact of our changing society on the legal profession, including shifts in consumers' cultural, generational and gender values.

David Paul reviewed the role of elected members and reinforced their responsibility to advise the Branch of regional issues.

Additional meeting highlights include:

• Establishing the International Resource Network Committee as a Special Committee of the Branch until June 2003.

• A call for volunteers both in favor of, and opposed to, cameras in the courtroom from Mayland McKimm to work with him in relation to the matter, which has been referred to the National Media and Communications Committee.

• Approval to merge the Real Estate Practice Issue Committee and the Solicitor's Issues Committee as a single special committee

• Disbanding the Special French Speaking Lawyers Committee, with allowance for a member to represent the CBABC on matters affecting French speaking lawyers.

• Ratifying the Prepaid Legal Services Committee as a Special Committee for a period of three years.

• Reinstating the Women Rainmaker's, Vancouver Island Section subject to a minimum enrollment of 25 members.

• Resolution to support the Lawyers Assistance Program in the amount of $20,000 annually for the next five years.

• A call for Section feedback and debate on the Ultimate Limitation Period issue.

Halifax 2000: Controversial debates and predictions

The following Halifax 2000 coverage is excerpted from the October 2000 issue of National magazine.

MDPS
The CBA's report on multi-disciplinary practices (MDPs), Striking a Balance, came before Council in the form of resolutions. The result was a lively and often heated debate among Council members. After much discussion and wrangling, Council voted to accept a revised resolution that approved of lawyer participation in MDPs with the following provisos:

• MDPs' delivery of legal services (but not MDPs themselves) is controlled by lawyers.

• Lawyers can share fees with non-lawyers in MDPs.

• The law society in each jurisdiction requires MDPs to obtain a licence as a condition to offering legal services. To obtain a licence, an MDP must satisfy the law society that it has taken all reasonable steps to comply with the legal profession's core values and rules.

• MDPs adhere to the confidentiality of client information, the protection of solicitor-client privilege and the avoidance of conflicts of interest.

• MDPs advise clients that the firm includes those not subject to the legal profession's rules and values.

• MDPs maintain insurance for each lawyer practising in MDPs no less comprehensive than that carried by lawyers not in MDPs.

• Lawyers do not practise in MDPs that contain professionals whose ethical responsibilities conflict with lawyers. For instance, lawyers practising in MDPs should not provide legal services to clients who retain the MDP for auditing services.

• The CBA and law societies develop rules that address the preservation of privilege and confidentiality, and the avoidance of conflicts.

• Only lawyers and Quebec notaries can practise law in MDPs.

Residential Schools
The CBA's Aboriginal Law Section - led by CBABC member Linda Locke of Hazelton - introduced a resolution to set standards of conduct for lawyers who wish to provide services to victims of Aboriginal residential school abuses. Specifically, the resolution called on the CBA to urge law societies to adopt guidelines for conduct as follows:

• Do not initiate communications with individual survivors to solicit them as clients or inquire as to whether they were sexually assaulted.

• Do not accept retainers until they have met in person with the client, whenever reasonably possible.

• Recognize that survivors may be seriously damaged from their experience and that healing may be a necessary component of any real settlement. Be aware of available counselling resources for these clients prior to testifying.

• Understand the clients' cultural roots and ensure appropriate instruction and training for their own employees, including available referrals in time of crisis.

The resolution received approval by Council and also garnered a great deal of media attention.

Phil Shuey
The Annual Conference's Opening Plenary was delivered by controversial legal futurist Phil Shuey. A five-time Chair of the American Bar Association's Techshow and Inaugural Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management, Shuey brought to Halifax his belief that great change is upon the profession and lawyers must act now in order to survive.

Animated and vocal, Shuey rattled off the numerous challenges facing the profession and the business world in general. He described the astonishing growth of technology and the Internet, as well as massive demographic change already underway. And he believes the profession is ill-equipped to handle it.

"The natural reaction to the new competitive challenge is to 'circle the wagons,' defining carefully the practice of law and defining everything within that ever-decreasing circle as the protected practice of law," he said. But Shuey rejects that approach. "We must commit not to wasting our efforts in stemming a tide driven by consumer needs, but rather to redefine, reinvent and revitalize our profession into the innovative practice we can be." Shuey told lawyers to immerse themselves in technology, redefine and reinvent law practices to meet client demands, face new competition, and in all things gear our careers towards our clients' needs.

These articles were published in the December 2000 issue of BarTalk and are subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2005, all rights reserved.