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Government Lawyering: Duties And Ethical Challenges Of Government Lawyers, Andrew Flavelle Martin

Dalhousie Law Journal

Are government lawyers different than lawyers in private practice? If so, why does it matter? While these questions have been addressed piecemeal in the Canadian legal ethics literature, Elizabeth Sanderson's Government Lawyering: Duties and Ethical Challenges of Government Lawyers is the first comprehensive and long-form answer to them.1 As Adam Dodek hints in the foreword 2 and has noted elsewhere,3 the degree to which government lawyers have been overlooked in the Canadian legal literature is incongruent with their sheer numbers as a proportion of the legal profession in Canada. The need for this book is pronounced.

Legal Ethics And The Political Activity Of Government Lawyers, Andrew Martin

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The ability to engage in political activity is an essential feature of a democratic society. However, the ability of government lawyers to do so is unclear. While most governments have passed legislation identifying permissible political activity of their employees, it is unclear how the professional obligations of lawyers apply in this context and how these professional obligations interact with this legislation. This article answers these questions. The duty of loyalty to the client requires most government lawyers to refrain from all political activity at the same level of government. The special professional obligations of Crown prosecutors require these lawyers to …

The Year In Spousal Support: Appeals, Material Changes And More, Rollie Thompson

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

At last year’s Family Law Summit, after reviewing the 2016 appeal cases, I focussed my presentation on two SSAG issues: location in the ranges for amount and duration; and the SSAG exceptions. 2016 was a big year for SSAG cases in the Ontario Court of Appeal, notably the decision in Mason v. Mason, 2016 ONCA 725. Mason joins the three other “must-read” SSAG appeal decisions: Fisher v. Fisher, 2008 ONCA 11; Cassidy v. MacNeil, 2010 ONCA 218; and Gray v. Gray, 2014 ONCA 659.

2016 was also the year of the release of the Revised User’s Guide, an updated user’s …

Orphans No More: A Review Of Elizabeth Sanderson, Government Lawyering: Duties And Ethical Challenges Of Government Lawyers, Andrew Martin

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Elizabeth Sanderson’s Government Lawyering: Duties and Ethical Challenges of Government Lawyers is the first comprehensive and long-form assessment of why government lawyers are different than lawyers in private practice and why that difference matters. This book review essay begins by setting out Sanderson’s position on a few concepts key to legal ethics for government lawyers: a definition of government lawyers, an account of the duties that apply to them, and the identity of the client. It then goes on to highlight the book’s four major contributions: an emphasis on the role of the Deputy Attorney General as an interface between …