Aan Malahia Chaudhry

I recently came across an article in Canadian Lawyer Magazine which discussed the need for having more in-house counsel representation within the Law Society of Ontario. Jayashree Goswami, an in house counsel, spoke about this, stating: “Because they haven’t been represented in Convocation, in-house are very isolated from the law society. There is a general problem of lawyers not being engaged enough in the profession, and I feel in-house counsel feel disconnected from what’s happening in the profession and, in my view, the law society has to make more of an effort to reach out and better represent in-house counsel.”

As I am currently taking ethics, the important role of a law society on a lawyer’s professional work is something that I am coming to understand. While, not in the field myself, I understand Goswami’s concern with the lack of engagement between law societies and in-house counsel. I think both the law society and in-house council should make an effort to be more engaged and more communicative with each other.  While not discussed in the article, a further issue, potentially, is that as in-house counsel increases should the composition of hearing panel tribunals (which currently consist of a bencher chair, lawyer wingman, and a member of the public) be remediated to include the already sidelined in-house counsel demographic?

Link to article: https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/author/jennifer-brown/corporate-counsel-candidates-bring-diverse-perspective-to-election-16981/