Portrait of an Old-Fashioned Lawyer: Nathan Strauss, Q.C.
From the Spring 2002 issue of Nexus.
With the passing away of Nathan Strauss Q.C. on November 22, 1999, the legal profession has lost a distinguished member of the Bar and a "lawyers' lawyer." As President of the County of York Law Association and, later, as a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada, Nathan Strauss played an active and influential part in the affairs of the profession. His guidance and judgment were highly valued for their integrity and fairness, combined with compassion and a sound awareness of the realities of legal practice. Years of commitment and dedicated participation in the governance of the Ontario Bar led to Nathan's appointment as a Life Bencher.
Nathan's outlook and attitudes towards the practice of law remained unaffected by the growing success and esteem he enjoyed over the years. All clients, regardless of social or financial status, were treated with respect and accorded equal attention and diligence. Sympathetic to their needs, he often helped out with advice in personal matters and support in times of crises, which earned him the enduring respect and gratitude of generations of clients. He worked hard but charged moderately and, where conditions warranted, did the work pro bono or for a nominal fee. His bills were never itemized and he remembered with a chuckle the two occasions on which his fees were questioned by clients who claimed they were being undercharged! For Nathan viewed legal practice as a profession based on the ideal of service to individuals and the community at large, always putting clients' interests ahead of personal advantage. His reputation for expertise, astute judgment and impeccable ethics also attracted many professional colleagues who turned to him for advice and counsel, which he always provided promptly and liberally.
Acclaimed frequently as a model lawyer, he led by precept and example, leaving an indelible mark on numerous students, colleagues, associates, and clients. Many were deeply influenced not only by his exemplary professional conduct and uncompromising insistence on integrity and fairness, but also by his collegiality, daily acts of kindness, and an overall generosity of spirit which characterized his life and was manifest in his everyday practice. Over the years, mature lawyers, including prominent legal practitioners, referred with gratitude to the many varied ways in which Nathan fundamentally influenced their lives and careers.
Despite a long and successful career in the highly respected downtown legal firm he founded, Nathan retained the simplicity and lack of pretension which were the hallmark of his character. Upon his formal retirement from active practice, the furnishings of his private office still consisted of the plain oak desk and chairs, and a filing cabinet, which he bought when he started his practice more than 60 years earlier. The sparse décor included a few family photos, sketches of Osgoode Hall and the Supreme Court of Canada, and three large Daumier drawings satirizing the legal profession, gift of his wife, which appealed to his well developed dry sense of humour.
In honour and memory of his lifetime commitment to the practice of law, in all its forms, two legal scholarships were recently established at the Faculty by his surviving wife, Lilly Offenbach Strauss: The Nathan Strauss Graduate Fellowship in the Study of the Legal Profession and Social Change, intended to promote research into broad trends or specific issues currently confronting the legal profession in Canada; and a $ 3,000 Essay Prize in Legal Ethics. Reflecting Nathan's concerns, the intent of the Essay Prize is to stimulate interest and debate among law students on the subject of legal ethics, and to encourage meaningful reflection on conduct proper to the practice of law as an honourable profession and a force for the good in the community at large.
In his lifetime, Nathan Strauss touched the lives of a great many people. Through the scholarships established in his name, his legacy will continue.
