BarTalk April 2001
Volume 13, Number 2

A National Organization

Margaret Ostrowski, QC, President
Canadian Bar Association, BC Branch, www.bccba.org

Richard Margetts, QC, President
Law Society of BC, www.lsbc.org

There has been a brief exchange in the recent BarTalk and the Benchers Bulletin respecting the forces of market change, and the appropriate response of the Law Society. President Ostrowski stated in the February BarTalk that “Our Law Society is contemplating opening up the practice of law and letting the marketplace govern.” A brief response was offered in the March-April Benchers Bulletin. It is appropriate to provide clarification of the issues involved, as we have discussed this matter and are ad idem.

The Law Society’s Futures Task Force has contemplated a variety of changes that the profession must address in discharging our responsibility to deliver legal services to the public in a cost efficient and professional fashion. These issues include, amongst others, Multi-Disciplinary Practice, Marketing and Advertising, and Paralegals.

The Task Force’s mandate is to consider appropriate responses to these emerging issues. One response is the option of letting the marketplace determine what is appropriate. Another response is to regulate toward the maintenance of outmoded and socially and politically unacceptable standards. There are a myriad of options between these two extremes. Each initiative demands an individually crafted solution.

We both agree that aggressive deregulation of the profession is not an appropriate option.

For the Law Society, the responsibility of governance requires the Benchers to consider changes occurring about us so that they can best work to protect the interests of the public and our profession’s core values, and ensure that lawyers are well positioned to take advantage of these changes. For the Canadian Bar Association, our responsibility is to ensure that the interests of lawyers are protected and promoted in the consideration of any regulatory changes.

Both the Canadian Bar Association and the Law Society have established committees, working groups and task forces to address the developments taking place about us. There is a constant exchange of information, ideas and recommendations on important issues. Through this synthesis, we believe that we will develop an appropriate response to these changes which balance the interests of the public and the profession.

This article was published in the April 2001 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2005, all rights reserved.