Date: Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Call to order: 12:30pm PDT
Meeting location: Virtual meeting via Zoom webinar
Advance Online Voting
Pursuant to Rule 1-13.1(1), the Benchers have authorized the Executive Director to permit advance online voting on the 2024 Annual General Meeting (“2024 AGM”) resolutions, which will be available from September 6, 2024 until 4:30 pm PDT on September 23, 2024.
Voter credentials and instructions on how to access the voting site will be sent to all eligible voters shortly, and will be displayed in the Member Portal, following the receipt of this Notice. All resolutions will continue to be available for view and comment within the member portal, throughout the voting period, along with a statement on each resolution by the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer, Don Avison, KC. Only Law Society of BC members in good standing will be eligible to vote and to comment on the resolutions.
Virtual Meeting
Pursuant to Rule 1-9.1, the Executive Committee has directed that the 2024 AGM will be a virtual meeting. Members will be able to join, vote, and speak at the meeting virtually.
If you are planning to attend the virtual meeting, you will need to register prior to the meeting. Please register by using the RSVP function available in the Member Portal by 4:30 pm PDT on Monday, September 23, 2024.
Instructions on how to join the meeting will be sent to all registered members in advance of the meeting.
To watch a live stream of the meeting, go to the Annual General Meeting page on the Law Society website on the day of the meeting, and click on the link to access.
2023 Audited Financial Statements
The Law Society’s audited financial statements for 2023 are now available on the Law Society website.
Business of the Meeting
The business of the 2024 AGM will be as follows:
- Election of Second Vice-President for 2025
- Benchers’ report of proceedings since last meeting
- Bencher Resolution 1: the Appointment of Law Society Auditors for 2024
- Member Resolution 2 submitted by Jamie Maclaren, KC and Zackary Uganec
- Member Resolution 3 submitted by James I. Heller and Mark T.K. Berry
- Member Resolution 4 submitted by Jamie Maclaren, KC and Mariyah Ali-Costain
- Member Resolution 5 submitted by Jay Michi and Daniel McNamee
Second Vice-President-elect for 2025
Each year at the AGM, a Second Vice-President-elect for the following year is confirmed. Pursuant to Law Society Rule 1-19, if only one candidate is nominated, the President will declare that candidate to be Second-Vice-President-elect. The Benchers are pleased to announce their nomination of Thomas L. Spraggs for Second Vice-President-elect.
Pursuant to Rule 1-5(2), the Second Vice-President for 2025 will be First Vice-President in 2026 and President in 2027.
Thomas L. Spraggs
Thomas L. Spraggs (Tom) is the owner and operator of Spraggs Law and has been an elected Bencher for Westminster County since 2020. He holds a Bachelor of Laws, Master of Laws, and Master of Business Administration. Tom is also a Qualified Arbitrator and has attained his ICD.D designation. His law firm focuses on civil litigation and dispute resolution.
Tom is passionate about integrating technology and continuous learning into legal practice. These efforts have helped him develop unique collaborative work processes and practice management approaches. The Canadian Bar Association recognized the firm with the 2016 Innovative Workplace Award.
Tom's past volunteer work includes serving with the British Columbia Law Institute and Canadian Centre for Elder Law as a director from 2012 to 2020. Tom has also served as a Director in higher education.
Tom is active with the Canadian Bar Association and a frequent presenter with Continuing Legal Education of BC, recently presenting on “Closing Submissions in Civil Litigation” in April 2024.
Resolutions
Bencher Resolution 1: the Appointment of Law Society Auditors for 2024
BE IT RESOLVED that PricewaterhouseCoopers be appointed as the Law Society auditors for the year ending December 31, 2024.
Member Resolution 2 submitted by Jamie Maclaren, KC and Zackary Uganec (Amended September 3, 2024)
Full Text:
WHEREAS persons seeking to be called and admitted as a lawyer in British Columbia are generally required to enroll in the Law Society Admission Program, and complete an articling term in accordance with Part 2 of the Law Society Rules;
WHEREAS articled students produce valuable work in service to employers and clients, and contribute to the Law Society’s duty to uphold and protect the public interest in the administration of justice;
WHEREAS articled students exercise little control over their articling arrangements, and are particularly susceptible to exploitation and mistreatment over the course of their articling terms;
WHEREAS articled students suffer detrimental effects on their mental health from poor working conditions, stress and financial pressures experienced over the course of their articling terms;
WHEREAS articled students have no membership standing with the Law Society, and therefore do not share in the rights and protections afforded to members of the Law Society under the
Law Society Rules and Code of Professional Conduct;
WHEREAS articled students cannot currently use the same formal means to inform and influence Law Society governance as members of the Law Society;
AND WHEREAS the Law Society Benchers have not yet carried out the 2020 Members’ Resolution directing them to ensure that all articling agreements are consistent with section 16 and Parts 4 and 5 of the
Employment Standards Act, that passed on October 6, 2020 with 1,567 members in favour, 1,163 members against, and 187 abstentions;
BE IT RESOLVED that membership directs the Benchers to promptly seek any necessary legislative amendments, and amend Part 2 of the Law Society Rules, in order to:
- establish a new category of Law Society membership for persons enrolled as articled students in the Law Society Admission Program
- grant articled members in good standing the right to vote in Bencher elections and general meetings of members of the Law Society;
- carry out the 2020 Members’ Resolution directing the Benchers to ensure that articling agreements are consistent with section 16 and Parts 4 and 5 of the Employment Standards Act;
- otherwise extend articled members the same basic rights and protections afforded to all other members of the Law Society; and
- limit mandatory articled membership fees to application fees required for enrolment in the Law Society Admission Program.
Executive Director's Statement:
For the purposes of assisting those persons entitled to vote on the AGM resolutions, I am providing the following background information relevant to the resolution.
The current Legal Profession Act does not provide the authority to establish a membership category for articled students. Implementing what has been proposed would require a legislative amendment.
Member Resolution 3 submitted by James I. Heller and Mark T.K. Berry
Full Text:
WHEREAS adherence to facts and evidence is a cornerstone of the practice of law;
AND WHEREAS the Law Society's mandatory Indigenous Training course includes the following:
"On May 27, 2021, the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc Nation reported the discovery of an unmarked burial site containing the bodies of 215 children on the former Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds. Although the discovery was shocking to many Canadians, many Indigenous residential school survivors had previously reported the existence of unmarked burial sites, and the unexplained disappearances of children; the discovery confirms what survivors have been saying all along."
AND WHEREAS the Law Society presumes that all of its training materials should not contain factual errors, and in particular should not knowingly spread falsehoods;
AND WHEREAS on July 15, 2021, Dr. Sarah Beaulieu, the ground-penetrating radar expert hired by the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc Nation to conduct a study of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, stated that no remains had been found:
(
https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=GDMXXzlVcqE&t=2080s)
AND WHEREAS on May 18, 2024, the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc Nation officially changed the word "remains" to "anomalies" on its website in recognition that no bodies of children had been found at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School:
(
https://www.tkemlups.ca/offices-closed-on-may-23-for-day-of-reflection/)
AND WHEREAS Chief Justice Marchand recently cited with approval the use of the word "potential" to describe the nature of the results of the ground-penetrating radar:
(
https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/ca/24/02/2024BCCA0272.htm)
AND WHEREAS on July 26 and August 9, 2024 James Heller, one of the undersigned, wrote to the course providers asking them to correct the false information referenced above;
AND WHEREAS the course providers have not provided a substantive response;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT:
a) the Membership affirms its commitment to having factually correct material in all of its training documents and
b) the Law Society correct its false statements in the Indigenous Training by replacing: "discovery of an unmarked burial site containing the bodies of 215 children on the former Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds".
with:
"discovery of a potentially unmarked burial site on the former Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds."
and by deleting the passage:
"the discovery confirms what survivors have been saying all along."
Executive Director's Statement:
For the purposes of assisting those persons entitled to vote on the AGM resolutions, I am providing the following background information relevant to the resolution.
The Law Society's Indigenous intercultural course is an educational course that has been designed to help British Columbia lawyers increase their Indigenous cultural awareness and understanding. From the outset of implementation of this program, the Law Society has indicated that the course is not intended to be comprehensive or definitive, and that periodic changes will be made to course content. The Law Society welcomes feedback on the course, and any questions or feedback on the course can be sent to Indigenous@lsbc.org.
Suggestions for revisions to course content are taken seriously and may require some time to review background information, other resources and consultation before next steps are taken. Clarification regarding "potential burial sites" will be addressed in the next edit, along with other suggestions that have been received and further information about this important work being undertaken not just in Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc territory, as described in their May 27, 2024 letter, but also at many other locations in British Columbia and in Canada.
The next update of the course content is underway and an updated version will be launched by January 2025.
Member Resolution 4 submitted by Jamie Maclaren, KC and Mariyah Ali-Costain
Full Text:
WHEREAS lawyer licensing applicants and new lawyers in British Columbia carry unprecedented amounts of student loan debt into their early years of practice, and must contend with higher costs of living in their early years of practice than previous generations of lawyers in BC;
WHEREAS lawyer licensing applicants and new lawyers in BC are more likely to come from racialized and equity-seeking communities than more senior lawyers in BC;
WHEREAS the Law Society’s flat rate approach to assessing annual practice fees generally creates greater financial burdens and higher barriers to professional entry and maintenance for lawyer licensing applicants and new lawyers than for more senior lawyers in BC;
WHEREAS the financial burden of high annual practice fees is more likely to reduce the ability of new lawyers to contribute to access to justice by way of lower cost legal services;
WHEREAS the Law Society had accumulated about $33 million in net unrestricted assets as of December 31, 2023, and regularly runs large annual budgetary surpluses due in part to higher than predicted practice fee revenues;
AND WHEREAS the BC Branch of the Canadian Bar Association is an example of a legal professional organization that has adopted a progressive and more equitable approach to assessing membership fees, and the Law Society of Ontario is an example of a Canadian law society that administers a financial assistance program for lawyer licensing applicants who need assistance to pay their licensing fees;
BE IT RESOLVED that membership directs the Benchers to promptly amend Part 2 of the
Law Society Rules, its attendant Schedules and other necessary policy documents to:
- establish an equitable practice fee structure that charges lawyer licensing applicants and lawyers in their first three years of call significantly less in annual practice fees than more senior lawyers;
- additionally or alternatively, establish a robust loan program for lawyer licensing applicants and lawyers who need assistance to pay their practice and indemnity fees in one or more of their first three years of call in BC, and establish a parallel and equally robust loan forgiveness program that enables lawyers to apply for forgiveness of all or part of their loan amount on compassionate grounds; and
- establish a more flexible payment structure for annual practice and indemnity fees that allows for monthly or quarterly payments, and also accommodates more forms of payment, including pre-authorized payments by credit card.
Executive Director's Statement:
For the purposes of assisting those persons entitled to vote on the AGM resolutions, I am providing the following background information relevant to the resolution.
Given that the resolution appears to contemplate a permanent change, it is unlikely that, if approved, the Law Society could fund this indefinitely through current reserves.
To provide as least some sense of what the implications of the proposed change would have for the annual practice fee, the following example is provided. This example is based on an estimated 12,500 practising lawyers, 700 new lawyers on an annual basis and the 2024 practice fee.
If the proposed change is intended to be retrospective to include those new lawyers called in 2023, 2024 and to be called in 2025, the change would impact approximately 2100 lawyers. A reduction in their practice fees by 50 percent with the cost of the program shifting to practising lawyers called for more than 3 years would result in an increase to the practice fee of $233 for those lawyers.
Member Resolution 5 submitted by Jay Michi and Daniel McNamee (Amended September 3, 2024)
Full Text:
WHEREAS the Law Society has, for more than a century and a half, required all candidates for Call and Admission to be introduced to the court before being granted a licence to practice law; and,
WHEREAS Call and Admission Ceremonies serve a vital public function in requiring aspiring lawyers to take an Oath before a public audience to uphold the law and the rights of all peoples, including the aboriginal and treaty rights of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples; and,
WHEREAS Call and Admission Ceremonies symbolize the best traditions of the bar and significantly contribute to the collegial culture of the legal profession; and,
WHEREAS Call and Admission Ceremonies serve to reinforce the role of an independent bar and judiciary in regulating entry into the legal profession.
BE IT RESOLVED that the Benchers reinstate the requirement that a candidate be presented to a judge of either the Provincial or Supreme Court by their principal, a bencher or another member of the profession of five years call or more, with appropriate exceptions for those candidates and members who have been or are granted an exemption by the Executive Director and those lawyers who have transferred into the province from another jurisdiction.
Executive Director's Statement:
For the purposes of assisting those persons entitled to vote on the AGM resolutions, I am providing the following background information relevant to the resolution.
Based on the level of engagement from eligible candidates for call and admission following the COVID pandemic, the Benchers determined that attendance at a call ceremony should not be mandatory but that those interested could continue to attend a call ceremony.
To assist licensees in considering this matter, a copy of the materials considered by the Benchers at their meeting of March 8, 2024 and the relevant portion of the minutes of that meeting, are linked below for information:
