The Law Society of Upper Canada and Ontario's Lawyers, 1797-1997

Christopher English is a professor of history at Memorial University of
Newfoundland.

In a young country, bicentenaries are occasions for celebration.
Ontario’s lawyers will welcome this account of “what the Law Society
itself was thinking and doing” as it governed them and gave corporate
expression to their interests (as interpreted, for much of the
Society’s life down to 1970, by Toronto-based white male Christian
benchers). In this task, the Society faced challen-ges from questioning
students, from members outside Toronto, and from women and ethnic and
racial minorities who felt ignored or marginalized.

In 1797, a self-governing handful of special pleaders without legal
training translated themselves into Georgian gentlemen defending the law
of private property and contract, and then into a profession that by
1914 was based on formal standards of training and admission. Although
the postwar generation was remarkable for its conservatism and visceral
dislike of even the mildest proposals for reform, activist benchers
emerged from World War II. Enforceable codes of conduct, ethical
standards for practice, disciplinary procedures for errant members, an
insurance scheme to compensate aggrieved clients, and a legal-aid scheme
conveniently funded by government came quickly. The author explains how
self-interest encouraged reform and innovation.

Although this is a commissioned work, it does not rest on special
pleading. Moore had unrestricted access to the Law Society’s archives.
His analysis of themes, problems, failures, challenges, and
personalities is even-handed and often critical. Some early sections on
the Society’s founding and governance, while appropriate to a
corporate history, will not be of widespread interest. But the attentive
reader will be quickly caught up by Moore’s well-researched and
elegantly written account.

Generously illustrated and impeccably edited, this is a first-rate
scholarly study that will engage both historians of Canadian law and the
general reader.