In Part One, I told the story from out west of a lawyer who I called Bill. Bill, apparently at the urging of his boss (who had bigger fish to fry), tried to dump a client by making a motion to get off the record a few days before the trial date, and returnable on the trial date. He showed up, having done no trial preparation, and put the client at risk of being ordered to proceed with the trial.
Bill did get off the record, the trial got adjourned, and Bill is now free to work for the bigger client that his boss, Sue, wanted him working on. Chalk up a win for Bill and Sue.
On the other hand, I am willing to bet that Bill lost a lot of sleep worrying about whether he was going to be forced to proceed with a trial that he did not prepare for, or be hit personally with a cost award. He sure seemed nervous when he showed up at court, having just retained a lawyer specializing in professional regulatory matters to accompany him.
He had, and still has, good reason to be jittery. He may or may not get sued for negligence, and he may or may not be reported to the Law Society for his numerous breaches of the Rules of Professional Conduct. He may also have his accounts assessed. He certainly is not going to get paid for all the time spent trying to get off the record, or for what he paid his hired gun.
Janina is the lawyer who referred the file to Bill and had recently offered to refer to her a much bigger and better file. You can bet that is not going to happen now. Janina will not be referring any other files to Bill either.
A lawyer with thousands of followers on LinkedIn knows the story, and you can be darn sure that he will not be referring any files to Bill or Sue either, or suggesting that anyone else do so.
So what did Bill achieve, other than sullying his reputation and sinking to the ethical bottom of the profession, presumably to satisfy his boss? He probably spent more time and money trying to shirk his responsibility than he would have spent doing his best to represent his client as he was ethically bound to do.
I just don’t get it.
Happily, there is a sub plot which reflects much better on the legal profession.
When the proverbial poop hit the fan, Janina took responsibility for helping Bob address the motion that Bill made to get off the record. She worked many hours familiarizing herself with the relevant Small Claims Court procedures so that she could appear in court and assist Bob, and be ready to try to assist Bob if the parties had been ordered to proceed with the trial.
Janina also reached out to a lawyer who I will call Veronica who has Small Claims Court experience. Veronica jumped in to help Janina navigate the system and took time off work to attend at court with Janina.
Janina stood by Bob for several reasons. First, Bob was a long-time client and friend who was put in an awful position by two unethical lawyers, and someone had to do something about it. Second, because it was her referral who had put Bob in that position. And third, because it was the right thing to do. Veronica offered her help because Janina is a friend and because it was the right thing to do. Neither Janina nor Veronica charged Bob anything for their assistance.
I imagine that Sue and Bill are, or will be, more “successful” than Janina and Veronica, if you judge success by how much money they generate or how much of a public profile they buy themselves.
Janina and Veronica are my type of people. They should be yours too.
This article was originally published by Law360 Canada, part of LexisNexis Canada Inc.