Canada

Law firm owes $35M to car dealers because it also represented government in GM talks

A well-known Bay Street law firm has been ordered to pay 45 million in Canadian dollars to 181 former car dealers it represented in restructuring negotiations with General Motors of Canada Ltd. Toronto-based Cassels Brock & Blackwell was ordered by an Ontario judge to pay the judgment—which amounts to about…

Jul 9, 2015 1:15 PM CDT

UK and Canadian firms OK 1,400-lawyer merger of equals, setting stage for more international growth

Two well-known law firms in Canada and the United Kingdom have agreed to a merger of equals, and are already looking ahead to further international expansion in upcoming years. The approximately 1,400-attorney firm to be formed in January by Gowling Lafleur Henderson and Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co. will also…

Jul 8, 2015 1:45 PM CDT

Divorce lawyer hurt by package bomb will return to work ASAP, bar president says

A Canadian lawyer who was hospitalized after being seriously injured Friday in a package-bomb blast at her Winnipeg law office plans to return to practice as soon as possible. Maria Mitousis “wants people to know that she’s going to be right back in the game as soon as she is…

Jul 7, 2015 3:55 PM CDT

Lawyer’s routine day in court ends when car bursts into flames in parking lot

Attorney Rob Sutherland was having a routine day in court Monday morning. But out in the courthouse parking lot, his car was having a spectacular meltdown. A little after 9 a.m., Sutherland’s vehicle erupted into flames, officials in Truro, Nova Scotia, told the Hants Journal and the Truro Daily News.…

Apr 27, 2015 4:00 PM CDT

Man who lied about assets to get free defense counsel is convicted of perjury in federal court

Already serving an almost 19-year federal prison sentence for possessing and transporting child pornography, a New York man was convicted of perjury last week in federal court in Syracuse. Prosecutors said Joseph Jenkins, 45, concealed $200,000 in investment accounts and his ownership of boats and recreational vehicles when applying for…

Apr 6, 2015 6:30 AM CDT

Artist attended nearly 2,000 trials over 13 years, painting the ‘true essence’ of what he sees

Justice was in short supply when David Louis Wall was growing up. Abused by a man posing as his mentor, he says, he was kicked out of his home at age 11 after he blew the whistle. Four years later, his mother was shot to death by her boyfriend. The…

Mar 27, 2015 8:35 AM CDT

DLA Piper and Canadian law firm vote to merge

DLA Piper and Canadian law firm Davis have agreed to a merger. The Vancouver Sun and the Am Law Daily (sub. req.) have news of the deal, approved by Davis last Wednesday and by DLA Piper the prior week. Davis has about 260 lawyers, including about 112 partners, in six…

Mar 2, 2015 7:11 AM CST

Court filing says attorney took up to $15M or more from clients, seeks freeze on bank accounts

A well-known lawyer may have improperly taken $15 million or more from clients over a several-year period, the Law Society of Upper Canada says. In a Thursday filing in Toronto’s superior court, the group seeks a freeze on Claudio Martini’s client trust-account funds and bank accounts related to his law…

Dec 18, 2014 12:45 PM CST

Judge to end case over nude photos posted online by her husband by retiring from bench

As a 10-day hearing was set to begin Monday in a legal ethics case over nude photos of a senior Canadian judge, a lawyer for the Manitoba jurist asked that the case be dropped because her client plans to retire in May. Although the graphic photos were posted on the…

Nov 24, 2014 2:07 PM CST

Police at court for unrelated reasons spot suspect in theft case they’re investigating

Police officers called to investigate a Nov. 2 shoplifting at a Canadian grocery store didn’t have to put in a lot of legwork to find their suspect after obtaining a surveillance photo. As they were at work in the Barrie Courthouse on Friday, they spotted him. He was wearing the…

Nov 14, 2014 3:55 PM CST

Lawyer is reportedly missing, along with over $3 million in trust account

A Canadian real estate attorney is missing, along with all but about $89,000, in U.S. dollars, of over $3 million in mortgage funds from institutional lenders that had been held in a trust account at the sole practitioner’s law firm, according to the The Law Society of Upper Canada. Credit…

Nov 3, 2014 8:05 AM CST

Money, sex, madness and murder at fictional Bay Street law firm is focus of ex-partner’s new novel

In the wake of a best-selling nonfiction book about lawyers behaving badly, a former law school dean and ex-partner at one of Canada’s elite law firms has turned to fiction. In his self-published legal thriller Bay Street, Philip Slayton writes of money, sex, madness and murder, the Globe and Mail…

Oct 24, 2014 4:30 PM CDT

Dozens of shots fired in Canada’s parliament building; Soldier killed at nearby war memorial

Most of downtown Ottawa, Ontario, is in lockdown—though restrictions have been eased as the day has gone on, the Guardian reports—after a gunman entered Canada’s main parliament building Wednesday, where witnesses said 30 to 50 shots were fired. The showdown there followed the shooting of a Canadian Armed Forces solider…

Oct 22, 2014 11:20 AM CDT

Fax from Toronto lawyer helped police find victim’s head

A faxed note from a Toronto lawyer helped police find the dismembered head of a murder victim, a Montreal detective testified on Wednesday at the murder trial for the suspect. Montreal detective Antonio Paradiso testified that the fax was from the office of lawyer Raphael Feldstein and contained his initials,…

Oct 16, 2014 9:00 AM CDT

Does government owe moose-vehicle crash victims? Lawyer vows appeal after losing class action

More than 100 years ago, Canadian officials introduced moose on the island of Newfoundland, intending to provide a source of food. However, the moose population got out of control and is now the cause of hundreds of vehicle accidents annually as the nearly 1,000-pound, top-heavy animals suddenly sprint across roadways…

Sep 23, 2014 1:55 PM CDT