The Great Canadian Lawyer: A Manifesto, Eh
| Author | Jocelyn Downie & Richard Devlin |
| Pages | 149-165 |
[149]
The Great Canadian Lawyer: A Manifesto, Eh
JoCelyn downie & riChard devlin
“Imagination and hope will be our tw in guides”1
INTRODUCTION
a great Ca nadian lawyer? Who do you think epitomizes
the great Canad ian lawyer? What are the essent ial qualities a nd charac-
teristics of such a lawyer? The an swers to these questions probably depend
on who you are, and what experiences you have had with law yers and the
legal system. Have you ever been taken to cour t? In a crimin al matter? In
a civil matter? Do you know any lawyers or judges personally? Are you a
lawyer? Are you a judge? Have you ever hired a lawyer? The answers also
probably depend on what exposure you have had to depictions of lawyers
in the news, books, television, a nd movies.
Not surprisingly, as so many people will have had so many di fferent
kinds of experiences with l awyers and the legal system (as well a s expos-
ure to conflicting perspec tives on what makes for a great law yer through
the news media, books, televi sion, and movies), there are a wide variety of
opinions about what it takes to be a great C anadian lawyer.
1 Roberto Mang abeira Unger, The Self Awakened (Cambridge, M A: Harvard Univer sity
Press, 2007) at 2 [Unge r].
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However, few formal attempts have been made to answer the ques-
tion we have been set: What makes for the great Canadian law yer? More
attention has been paid to the question of what it ta kes to be a qualified
lawyer. Sadly, though, recent attempts to answer even this more modest
question are somewhat lacking. One litt le red book, from south of the bor-
der, suggests that the ans wer is straightforward: a lawyer must be respon-
sive, accessible, communicative, confident, loyal, knowledgeable about
the client’s business, capable of providing value, delivering promptly, and
smooth with the persona l touch.2 Other, more sophisticated, ana lyses
tend to answer the question implicitly th rough a focus on reform of the
legal educational system s. The Carnegie Foundation in the United States,
for example, proposed redesigning the cur riculum of the law schools by
uniting what it cal ls “the three apprenticeships”: knowledge, skills, and
ethics.3 North of the border, the Federation of Law Societies of Canada
(FLSC) recently released its Task Force on the Canadian Common Law De-
gree Final Report, which demanded an “Approved Common Law Degree,”
and dictated mand atory coverage of a range of “competencies in skills,
ethics and professionalism , and substantive legal knowledge.”4
Against this thin background v ision of lawyering as merely apprenti-
cing, competencies, and quali fications, we concluded that there is a relative
vacuum with respect to what it mea ns to be a great lawyer. Consequently,
we decided to mine literature outside of law for inspiration. Speci fically,
and not surprisingly since one of us works in bioethics as well as hea lth
law, we turned to a rich debate from the field of bioethics on the profile of
a health care ethics consultant.5 We pulled from these sources elements
that we believed were potentially relevant for a profile of a great Can adian
lawyer, modified them to fit a law rather tha n bioethics context,6 and then
returned to the legal literat ure (both academic and popular) to refine and
2 James Durham, The Ess ential Little Book of Great Lawye ring (Dedham, M A: James A.
Durha m, 2006).
3 William Sul livan et al., Educating La wyers: Preparation for the Professio n of Law (San
Francisco: Jossey-B ass, 2007) at 27 and 145–61 [Sul livan et al].
4 Federation of Law Soc ieties of Canada, Task Force on the Canadi an Common Law
Degree Final Report (October 2009) [FL SC Report].
5 Most notably, Françoise E. Bayl is, “A Profile of the Health Ca re Ethics Consulta nt”
in Françoise E. B aylis, ed., The Health Care Ethic s Consultant (Totowa, NJ: Humana
Press, 1994) at 25. S ee also America n Society for Bioethics a nd Humanities, Core
Competencies for Health Care Ethics Consultation (Glenview: ASBH, 19 98) [ASBH].
6 Professor Baylis has generously and e nthusiastical ly endorsed our deployment of her
work in this way (so as to avoid v isually dis ruptive multiple quotation ma rks around
whole and parti al sentences, simply to ack nowledge here the debt owed to her and
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