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In an open letter, seven current directors of the LSO’s governing board are calling for the “immediate full public disclosure” of a report on ex-CEO Diana Miles’s contract, which was bumped by more than 50 per cent before her sudden departure.
March 27, 2025
By Betsy PowellCourts Reporter
A growing number of legal community voices are urging the Law Society of Ontario to release a retired judge’s report on former CEO Diana Miles’s controversial salary increase and sudden departure earlier this month.
In an open letter released Thursday, seven current directors of the LSO’s governing board have joined others asking to learn what former associate chief justice Dennis O’Connor found out when he investigated her contract and the process by which it was negotiated.
The LSO retained O’Connor to conduct an independent review over concerns that Miles’s salary had been bumped by more than 50 per cent to nearly $1 million without the approval of the society’s board.
“In furtherance of our fiduciary duties to protect the long-term interests of this regulator and its stakeholders, including the legal professions and the public they serve, the undersigned Benchers of the Law Society of Ontario call for the immediate full public disclosure of the report,” reads the letter signed by Sean Aylward, Ryan Alford, Lisa Bildy, Edward Choi, Murray Klippenstein, Louis Gagnon, Cheryl Lean, and ex-officio bencher Bob Aaron.
The board of directors — called benchers — includes 40 elected lawyers, five elected paralegals and eight appointed benchers, as well as ex-officio and honorary benchers.
Miles’s contract was approved by former treasurer Jacqueline Horvat, before she was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Justice last summer.
After O’Connor’s report was shared at a highly secretive convocation, the LSO released a statement saying Miles is “no longer employed” by the legal regulator. No explanation was given.
Last week, the LSO posted a notice on its website about another special meeting of the board where Treasurer Peter Wardle introduced an “action plan” to reform the LSO’s governance and administrative process relating to executive compensation and decision making at convocation and committees.
After the LSO initially indicated that O’Connor’s report would remain secret because it contained “privileged legal advice,” Wardle’s statement acknowledged the law society has received several public requests to release the report.
“We hear you. Let me assure you, this is a live discussion and one that convocation does not take lightly, given the privileged and sensitive contents of the opinion,” the statement reads.
On Wednesday, the LSO released another statement, saying the board is “continuing to consider whether all or part of Mr. O’Connor’s legal opinion should be released, balancing the interest in transparency as a public interest regulator against the highly sensitive nature of the discussion in the opinion about specific employees of the Law Society.” When a decision is reached, it will be communicated publicly, it said.
Also calling for the release of the report, the chair of the Federation of Ontario Law Associations noted the issue is not simply an internal employment matter, but one of public confidence in the governance of the profession’s regulator. The group Women in Canadian Criminal Defence also wrote in a letter to Wardle that its 600 members are questioning how they can “have any confidence in those who regulate us, when there is so little transparency about both the process and the outcome of the investigation.”
On Wednesday in the legal publication Law360 Canada, lawyer Anita Szigeti called the controversy the biggest scandal the LSO has ever encountered, but acknowledged “the profession has yet to hear decisively from many other large organizations.” The scandal “will not resolve without disclosure of the report” because, otherwise, this looks like the board “closing ranks to protect its benchers.”
The Law Society regulates, licenses and disciplines Ontario’s more than 57,000 lawyers and more than 10,000 paralegals, who elect benchers.
In 2023, Miles’s base salary was $595,000 with the possibility of a 20 per cent performance bonus. The new contract resulted in a base salary of $936,000, but did away with the performance bonus.
Betsy Powell is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and courts for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @powellbetsy.
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