Pamela-Jane Taylor
      BA, MBA, JD for
Law Society of Ontario Bencher

The Law Society has lost its way.

Benchers have lost control of the agenda.

Budgets, staff counts and lawyer fees are all on the rise.

Serious change is afoot. First was the Statement of Principles (allegedly off the table), then the Inclusion Index or Racial Audit (tabled). The current active proposal is for Mandatory Re-education without due process as an additional disciplinary tool. As you can see the Statement of Principles was just the beginning.

Do you want this level of intrusion into your law practice?

Worse still do you want to have to pay for it?

My pledge is to restore proper governance to the Law Society, with a focus on its core mandate and best practices.

Good governance is a discipline, not a tagline.

I have over 40 years of experience on Bay Street, in house as General Counsel and most recently as sole practitioner. 

I have run businesses and chaired Boards.

I understand your concerns and will represent your interests. 

There is much work to be done and I have the knowledge and experience to do it.

Thank you for reading and thank you for your support. Merci d'avoir pris le temps de me lire et merci pour votre appui!

 

P.S. I support Law library funding!

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LET'S TALK ABOUT GOVERNANCE

 

The Law Society needs to talk about good governance. Not the tagline, but the kind of good governance that is serious work.

 

What is Good Governance and Why Does it Matter?

 

With over 35 years of leadership on Boards of not-for-profits, regulated and non-regulated for-profits and government agencies, I have observed firsthand the evolution and professionalization of corporate governance for Boards.

 

This has meant the implementation of governance best practices, with greatly increased scrutiny of the structure and processes for decision making, accountability, and transparency of Board functions. Regular policy and process reviews, and annual assessments of efficiency and performance are minimum corporate governance expectations today.

 

Therefore, I am particularly concerned when I hear the concept of good governance equated with diversity of representation.

 

Many if not most of the problems faced by the Law Society today stem from its seriously outdated governance practices, in addition to a profound lack of understanding of the role of a governing Board, a breakdown in the relationship between staff and Convocation, and a lack of understanding of the need for transparency and accountability.

 

For example, how can it be that a member of the governing board must sue the LSO to get disclosure from staff of administrative documents to which he has an absolute right in order to fulfill his fiduciary duty as trustee? Yet the current BCCG bencher candidates voted against staff disclosure of these documents. Similarly, while benchers voted to allow all members of Convocation to attend committee meetings, current BCCG bencher candidates voted against making meeting times available to all so this right could be exercised.

 

The situation is dystopian.         

 

Without a clear acknowledgement and understanding of the importance of these and similar issues, and an unwillingness to modernize LSO governance practices, BGGC candidates put continued self-regulation of the LSO at risk. The status quo is clearly not good enough and the LSO desperately deserves better.   

     

Big Budgets and Peculiar Policies

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Many of you are aware of the lack of accountability and transparency in the LSO budgeting process, and how staff-driven budgets are not challenged in any meaningful way by current BGGC bencher candidates. We know that many lawyers confess to a discomfort with figures, but that can’t be a reason to fully delegate this important function to staff. Having an MBA, experience as business consultant, director of a mid-size family business, and board chair of a regulated financial institution, I will ensure that budgets receive the scrutiny they deserve.

 

LSO staff currently drive policy development on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion issues, ostensibly under the purview of a committee of Convocation. Yet Convocation has been  repeatedly ignored and even undermined on important policy initiatives. I have spent many years chairing governance and human resources committees responsible for policy development, for similar size organizations. No organization should operate without accountability to its governing body for its actions.