This commentary was first published in the University of Toronto Bulletin on October 28, 2008.
A year ago, a new book entitled Lawyers Are Rats made the cover of Maclean's (the book is about "how lawyers became greedy, unprincipled enablers of the rich"). Around this same time, Hollinger's lawyer was convicted, along with Conrad Black, of fraud, and the treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada was suspended for sleeping with a client. This was not a high point for the legal profession. It was at this moment, however, that the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law took the bold step of establishing a new Centre for the Legal Profession (CLP).
The goal of this new centre is to broaden and deepen our understanding of professionalism, ethics and public service and the relationship between them.We seek to provide a forum and to serve as a catalyst for dialogue about the capacities, judgment and actions necessary for effective lawyering. To achieve these goals, we are bringing together leading voices from the academic, practice, judicial and public interest communities. The centre also capitalizes on the expertise within the Faculty of Law, the broader University of Toronto and the legal community in Ontario and beyond and seeks to deploy these resources in order to forge a stronger link between the study of law, the practice of law and the implications of law.
