Lawyers Gone Bad: Money Sex and Madness in Canada's Legal Profession (Philip Slayton)

• Author: Julia Renouf
• Position: Is a third year student at the University of Victoria, Faculty of Law
• Pages: 99-101

APPEAL VOLUME 13 n 99

BOOK REVIEW

LAWYERS GONE BAD: MONEY, SEX AND MADNESS

IN CANADA’S LEGAL PROFESSION

BY PHILIP SLAYTON

Reviewed By Julia Renouf*

CITED: (2008) 13 Appeal 99-101

I always said that I would never become a lawyer, or worse, marry a lawyer. I believed that

lawyers were self-important, immoral workaholics, that lawyers bent the truth all day long so

that even when they were out of the off‌ice they didn’t really know what was right and what

was wrong. I believed that lawyers cared more about their potential liability than another per-

son’s potential injury. I ended up going to law school, but I try my best to take an outside per-

spective, though I often fall astray. I see now only in shades of gray. My non-law friends often

point out, much to my embarrassment and to their annoyance, how quick I am to focus on the

legal issues in their personal crises.

So I was excited with all the hype created this past summer by the Maclean’s issue with

the headline “Lawyers are rats”, 1 which featured an interview with Philip Slayton regarding his

then upcoming book Lawyers Gone Bad.2 I laughed when the Canadian Bar Association deliv-

ered its overzealous response,3 which only conf‌irmed my opinion that lawyers don’t respond

well to criticism. I looked forward to reading the book. Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed.

Instead of being a thoughtful analysis of potential problems with Canada’s legal system and its

allowance (even encouragement) of problematic practitioners, the book is instead a series of

sensationalist stories. The accounts of “lawyers gone bad” are choppy and hard to follow. The

stories are one-sided. Slayton writes like a gossip columnist, devoting pages to rumours, and

gives the explanations of the fallen lawyers only a line or two. These explanations are respond-

ed to in a mocking tone accompanied by a description of his subject’s declining appearance and

living conditions. His style is reminiscent of Rita Skeeter.4

In this book Slayton delivers fourteen stories about twenty different lawyers in Canada

who have behaved contrary to legal ethics. Most of the instances of wrongdoing were proven

through criminal proceedings and/or disciplinary proceedings under the particular provincial bar

though some of the wrongs were merely alleged. The misdeeds these lawyers committed are

* Julia Renouf is a third year student at the University of Victoria, Faculty of Law.

1 Kate Fillion. Lawyers are rats. A top legal scholar exposes the corruption of his profession. MacLean’s Magazine (26 July

2007), online: Macleans.ca .

2 Philip Slayton, Lawyers Gone Bad (Toronto: Viking Canada, 2007).

3 CBA Press Release, “CBA condemns unfair characterization of lawyers in Maclean’s magazine” (July 26, 2007).

4 Rita Skeeter, notorious journalist in the Harry Potter series, is known for bending the truth and taking quotes out of context.

See J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Vancouver: Raincoast Books, 2000).