LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTER
Thirteen articling students have been the subject of a Law Society of Upper Canada investigation into allegations they cheated on their bar admission course by sharing and copying work.
The investigation, which began June 23, had threatened to put their promising careers at prestigious Toronto law firms on hold.
But last Friday, after a meeting between the law society's chief executive officer, Malcolm Heins, and three senior law society employees, the investigative file was closed with no further action taken against the students, who will be called to the bar this month as originally planned.
Later that afternoon, those who knew about the investigation were warned not to provide "any information about this matter to anyone," including other employees and law society benchers, the lawyers and lay people who form the legal profession's governing body, according to an e-mail sent to a handful of law society employees.
The students had been told during the investigation that their admission to the practise of law would be delayed pending the outcome of the investigation.
The law society was apparently determined to keep the investigation low profile and took the unusual step of moving four investigators off site from the society's Osgoode Hall headquarters into rooms at the nearby Metropolitan Hotel on Chestnut St., according to a source.
One student was told during an interview by a law society investigator on July 5 the probe could take eight months to a year to complete. He was also told that if allegations he committed an academic offence were true, he could end up failing an individual course or the bar admission course in its entirety.
He was also told he could be referred to a law society admissions panel to determine if he met the "good character" requirements for becoming a lawyer, according to documents obtained by the Star.
"The decision is to close these investigation files without regulatory action," Lesley Cameron, the law society's senior discipline counsel, said in the e-mail, under the subject line "Investigation of Possible Student Cheating in BAC (Bar Admission Course).
"The other point I should mention is that Malcolm (Heins) emphasized that it is important that no one provide any information about this matter to anyone including other LS staff or benchers," Cameron said, emphasizing the need for confidentiality must be made "crystal clear" and thanking the recipients for helping her to "understand all of the issues."
The investigation was triggered by a 36-page package of information, which arrived anonymously June 15 at the office of Roman Woloszczuk, the law society's registrar of professional development. The package contained e-mails allegedly sent between students, who were required to complete several technical assignments independently as part of the bar admission course.
The allegations involve assignments completed by the students one year ago, during the academic portion of the bar admission course. Following that, they began articling at law firms.
One assignment involved preparing a notice of motion for a fictitious civil lawsuit, filed on behalf of a camp counsellor injured when the wall of a cabin collapsed. Others involved drafting a real estate offer, writing a legal opinion letter to a client and mapping out strategy for researching a case.
The law society's secretary authorized the investigation June 23.
According to an interim report filed by investigators last Friday, the students were under investigation for collaborating on the assignments rather than completing them independently. Thirteen students were originally named, but three were cleared early in the investigation, the source said.
"Hey guys, here's the motion," said one e-mail.
"mine looks just like everybody else's. think I should change it more?" read another.
"Make sure to make some cosmetic changes so that things do not seem too similar," yet another said. Several were sent with the greeting "hugs and kisses."
According to the investigators' report, some of the students had admitted collaborating on assignments — with one acknowledging he had made a "serious error in judgment" and offering to volunteer with the law society's program to provide meals to the homeless as some sort of resolution.
At the same time, several of the students who admitted collaborating on the assignments insisted they did not understand what they were doing was wrong, adding that bar admission students routinely discussed their assignments with each other.
But the source said it's made clear to students at the outset of the course, and in written instructions for assignments, that the work is to be their own.
When asked about the investigation yesterday, law society spokesperson David Gambrill said the Law Society Act prohibits him from divulging "any information."
The investigation was "kept quiet," he added, because the law required it. "There are good policy reasons behind this law, most obviously, the protection of innocent people," Gambrill said in an e-mail.
"It is also the only possible way that the Law Society can balance the public interest in transparent proceedings against the need to protect the reputations and careers of those being investigated," he added. While law society disciplinary hearings are public, investigations are not.
Lawyer Chris Paliare, who represented one of the students, said he doesn't know why the law society felt it was in a position to complete its investigation.
But his client, who was called to the bar in Ottawa on Wednesday, had done "nothing improper" and "that was borne out by the law society indicating he could be called to the bar," he said.
Paliare said he was "critical" of the manner in which the law society carried out its investigation.
"Natural justice," he said, requires something other than "investigation by ambush." People under investigation and facing possible adverse consequences have the right to know the precise allegations against them and have a lawyer present while being questioned, he said.
Bill Trudell, another lawyer who gave advice to two students, agreed the investigation was "aggressive." But it was also thorough and the students, who co-operated with investigators, did not cheat, he said.
But the source said the law society's decision to close the file was surprising in light of the admissions of some of the students.
The registrar, who normally makes a decision about whether to proceed with further regulatory action, had not had a chance to review the fruits of the investigation, he added.
And the law society's intense desire for secrecy is troubling, he said. It also raises questions about whether the law society, which has been asked to regulate paralegals, is up to the job, he suggested.