My motion is now published on the LSO’s AGM page and you can register to attend and vote here
Law Society Virtual Annual General Meeting
In other news:
The LSO is hosting a program helping lawyers to get onto Legal Aid panels and how to trouble shoot our billing issues, which is a wonderful program led by wonderful people – chairs, organizers, steering committee, speakers – all great.
The program is terrific with substantive contributions that are designed to validate our experience as legal aid service providers and entice new counsel to join us.
All good stuff. I think everyone should go. Here is the link to register for this:
https://store.lso.ca/legal-aid-summit-2025
Also they’re charging $250-$290 to attend virtually or in person.
I cannot take credit for pointing out that there’s something wrong with that – others voiced their concerns on social media and I just happened to see it.
If LAO was getting this cash back off us, that’d be one thing. Still poor optics, but perhaps we could rationalize it as giving (even more) back.
BUT
If that money is going to the Law Society and not LAO, it’s a travesty.
I went to register and noted that the program is sold to us through the Law Society’s Store – I gather the one thing that still operates outside LSO Connects – paid for CPD programs are still disconnected, as it were then. Putting that aside:
Charging nearly $300 to those of us making $100-$150 an hour on Legal Aid instead of making the LSO cover the cost — still coming out of our fees — or better yet, making Bay Street pick up the tab since they don’t take legal aid — is just flat out wrong.
It reminds me of the era when those handful of us who worked for $67/hour in the 90s still had to give 5% of our fees back to Legal Aid to fund the program – it wasn’t funded by contributions by big firms nor was it run on the service provided by those firms – it was all on our backs. But perhaps I digress.
So anyway, that’s how people are reacting, they’re angry – and it’s a more violent backlash because the Law Society was prepared to pay their CEO a million bucks with additional pension enhancements.
If you’re still getting over that and want to know exactly how much that cost you
Join me and vote to support my motion – if that’s an option.
Information about the AGM and how to register
anitaszigeti 