In response to the serious and growing problem of conflicts of interest in Canadian law firms, the CBA has launched an expert task force that will develop practical guidelines, advice and solutions to help lawyers and law firms serve their clients better:

• About the Task Force
• Background
• Mandate
• Members

Final Report, Recommendations and Toolkit

The focus of the work of the Task Force is the lawyer-client relationship. This Report and its recommendations consider how the lawyer-client relationship is established, the fundamental duties lawyers owe their clients, and the benefit of written understandings between clients and lawyers:

Final Report (.pdf)

Conflicts of Interest Toolkit
To help lawyers to recognize, deal with and avoid conflicting interests, the Task Force also prepared a toolkit containing practical checklists and precedents that lawyers may use and adapt for their practices.
 

CBA Response to Federation of Law Societies of Canada Advisory Committee Report on Conflicts of Interest

On August 16, 2010 the CBA submitted its response to the Federation of Law Societies of Canada Advisory Committee Report on Conflicts of Interest.

Universal Engagement Letter Initiative

The CBA Task Force continues to work on the conflicts of interest file on behalf of CBA members.

Recent case law report
We have prepared an overview and list of recent cases on conflicts of interest matters for you. Please contact us about relevant cases that we have not included.

Update re: FLSC, US, England/Wales
The Federation of Law Societies of Canada recently published its new Model Code of Professional Conduct. The American Bar Association and the Solicitors Regulation Authority for England and Wales are also considering reforms to conflict of interest rules in their professional codes. more

Universal Engagement Letter Survey
We are now developing an electronic engagement letter precedent which would be adaptable for use in a wide range of areas of law and types of practice. The goal is to provide practitioners with a template that they can easily customize for every client.

Next steps
In the months to come we will be incorporating your survey responses into our work on a more comprehensive model engagement letter. And we will continue to monitor court decisions on conflicts issues. We will send out further e-Updates, including a summary of the survey results, in due course.

If you would like a direct email notice when the CBA model engagement letter is released, please register your email address here.