THE LAWYERS WEEKLY / Vol. 19, No. 37 / By Norman MacInnes
Profession threatened on many fronts, CBA head says
Toronto -- Lawyers are under attack, "and no one's going to look after us but ourselves."
Members of the profession are getting those blunt messages from many quarters these days, but Eugene Meehan, President of the Canadian Bar Association, reminded them of the threats yet again in an impassioned speech to the CBA-Ontario's Institute 2000 meeting in Toronto Jan. 29.
Meehan pointed to inadequate legal aid funding, paralegals and the World Trade Organization as threats to the legal profession in Canada.
Speaking on legal aid, he said the justice system could be compared to the health care system: "Just as medicare is about access to medical services, legal aid is about access to justice.
"There's no point in building brand-new hospitals and then locking the doors and saying either you can't get in or you can get in but you're going to have to operate on yourself. We don't do that in the health care system. The justice system is no different."
"We have to fight to make legal aid access universal,"he said, citing differences in funding between provinces and territories.
"Just as there are health care providers, there are justice providers. That's us. Proper funding for appropriate cases for appropriate numbers of hours will both serve fairness for the public and serve our profession. Fair justice requires a fair wage to the vehicles of justice -- us."
Moving on to paralegals, Meehan said the CBA is concerned "because our members are concerned" about the continued increase in the unauthorized practice of law by unregulated paralegals.
Paralegals are all over -- in big cities and small towns --but they are a special problem for small firms, he said, noting that the size of the average Canadian law firm is 2.6 lawyers.
"Many lawyers are telling us about clients coming back to them for legal help after having suffered serious legal setbacks"at the hands of paralegals, and it's no wonder, he said. Paralegals are largely unregulated, unlicensed, unsupervised, uninsured and untrained. The public's unprotected.
"And they're taking our jobs. Your jobs.
"Just because electrical impulses control the brain, we don't let electricians do neurosurgery why are we letting that happen in our justice system?"
Meehan noted that former Supreme Court of Canada justice Peter Cory has been appointed to study the paralegal issue.
"We trust that his recommendations will have as their sine qua non the protection of the public."
The head of the CBAO also recognized the potential threat to the profession posed by the World Trade Organization. He noted that a year ago last December, a WTO task force dealing with the international and domestic regulation of professionals delivered a report to its council.
"We're talking about accountants, engineers, doctors. And we're talking about lawyers,"said Meehan. "But they started with the accountants."
One of the task force's 20 recommendations was that WTO member countries agree that admission requirements to the profession will not restrict supply.
Said Meehan: "We can all read between those lines."
"And let's remember, too, that there are many accountants who don't want any regulation. There are many accountants who simply go where the deals are, where the money is. There are, in fact, a fair number of accountants whose motto is 'show me the money.' They are, in fact, international buccaneers."
Meehan said the CBA sent two lawyers to the WTO conference in Seattle, to watch and listen, and "We'll continue to watch and listen. And at the appropriate time we'll apply pressure at the provincial, federal and international levels."
To respond to these grave challenges facing the profession, Canadian lawyers need to develop strong, unified leadership and political sophistication, he said.
"What we must not do is stand by and merely react to what's being done -- or worse, not react at all. We have to make sure that the profession of law is for lawyers -- and that the profession of law in Canada is for Canadian lawyers."
"Our personal and professional independence is at stake. If we don't protect the independence of the profession, we'll lose our identity as lawyers. It's that simple -- and that important."
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