Personal Reflection. Advocacy at the crossroads

• Author: Linda R. Rothstein
• Pages: 59-68

59

R PERSONAL REFLECTION | INTER 2010

Acacy a he crsra

LINDA R. ROTHSTEIN, LSM

Perhaps every generation of Canadian advocates has won-

dered whether and how great advocacy will survive the ascendancy

of a new generation of advocates. Or maybe it’s the oft-described

collective narcissism of my generation, the baby boomers, that makes

us convinced we are always at some sort of crossroads. But I think that

whether you choose advocacy in the courtroom or in the boardroom, the

challenges will be daunting. And I worry that those of us who practise

civil litigation have already lost our way– that we must respond to the

dramatic ways in which law and advocacy have changed in the last 20

years if advocacy is to continue to be the fuel of a fair and robust justice

system.

CHANGING TIMES

My generation of advocates has moved through a period of unparalleled

and rapid social and technological change. Our laws, our legal culture

and society’s basic notions of fairness and equity are dramatically dier-

ent from what they were when I was in law school almost 30 years ago.

Consider the sweeping changes in the law. I know you still read

contracts and torts cases that are decades, maybe even centuries, old:

Hadley v. Baxendale, Donohue v. Stephenson, to name just two. You may

not yet appreciate how much our laws have changed since you were