Open Letter to those who wish to have my vote for Law Society of Upper Canada Bencher

Dear Candidate for Bencher, (The Council of Lawyers that runs the Law Society)

 

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your letter asking me to support you for Bencher.

 

I don't practice law. I do policy. Some might suggest that the fact that I help to write and interpret laws means I do practice law every day, but in Ontario anyway, my job isn't technically practicing law. As a result I don't have to pay full fees and insurance to the Law Society of Upper Canada. Instead I pay half fees. I thank you for this small consideration.   However...

 

...That half fee is currently eighty three dollars a month. I would consider resigning from the Law Society but you appear to have me in a bind. If I leave the law society and later want to re-join the Law Society will penalise me for leaving and re-joining by making me pay all the unpaid fees for the months of the two relevant years: the year I left and the year I came back. Since I may very well end up practicing law again - for example by getting a legal job here at the OPS later, I keep up my membership.  Essentially though I am paying $1000 a year for next to nothing. As a former boss of mine - who left the law society - said. "Why am I paying them money? Just so I can call myself a barrister and solicitor?" My understanding is that the equivalent fee in manitoba is $120 per year.  In BC the fee is $300 per year.  In Alberta the fee is $160 per year.

 

In addition, because I don't pay insurance I am precluded even from giving pro bono legal advice to friends or from volunteering at a legal aid clinic. There is no reasonable casual practitioner insurance scheme, for example, for people who only work pro bono in off hours or who bill a ridiculously small number of hours.

 

And now you want my vote.  One of you just sent me an email moaning about how voter turnout for Bencher elections has dropped to 37% of members. But do I get any promises from you? Any enticements to vote? So far I haven't received a single thing that comes close.

 

If you want my vote - and maybe the votes of thousands of other non-practicing lawyers - send me an email telling me that you will cut my fees. A placeholder fee in line with the other provinces seems eminently reasonable to me. Or promise to make it so I can quit and rejoin more easily. Or make it so that some semblance of insurance is included in my fee.  Or tie my fee to services I will use.

 

In any event, Promise me SOMETHING.

 

I have enough things to vote for already without focussing on something that doesn't seem to matter and for people who clearly couldn't give a hoot about me or my wallet.

 

Respectfully,

 

A.D. Cory MacDonald

Member

Law Society of Upper Canada