The good news is the Law Society is advising licensees who have contacted them to express their concerns about the recent scandal that they will be doing something with those comments.

The bad news is who is going to “consolidate” them for Convocation’s consumption can filter and edit in the process and surely to a degree, they must do that.

Obviously, anyone who has a potential conflict in that vetting / consolidation process should recuse themselves from deciding what Convocation learns of our concerns. But will they?

Here is the response from the LSO to my colleagues who have written, as invited to do by the Treasurer’s Message in a related News release on LSO’s website. This is from the email address we are directed to write to at: convocation@lso.ca

Keep in mind however who the members of the Governance Task Force are.

You can learn more about that here:

So when you write to the convocation@lso.ca address, you may want to indicate that you would like your entire message to be shared with Convocation, without editing or deletion or omitting it altogether.

You may also consider copying the Treasurer at treasurer@lso.ca

Many of you have already contacted the Society directly with your comments and concerns. Also, I have heard from countless licensees with escalating alarm and paying closer attention to what’s happened and what’s happening or not happening now in the wake of the release of the O’Connor Report. Everyone says they’re no longer able to trust the process of addressing the underlying issues, not unless Benchers involved look at their own role in all this or more correctly, someone else examines that conduct.

In terms of your concerns, if you share mine and that of so many others, you may want to indicate that

Those who’ve lost trust and confidence in the Law Society as a result of the recent scandal require an investigation into the involved Benchers’ conduct in addition to holding staff accountable where appropriate. The Law Society or the Treasurer must look into the conduct of the Compensation Committee members, and those members should not continue in their current roles while that investigation is pending. Otherwise, licensees cannot and will not have confidence in Convocation’s integrity going forward, in light of what we now know from the O’Connor Report.

For easy reference to the Bencher Code of Conduct, see here:

However, there is always the Rules of Professional Conduct that also of course applies to lawyers.