Responding to a Law Society Complaint: Steps & Strategies

For more than 135 years, the Toronto Lawyers' Association, located within the Courthouse Library, has represented the interests of lawyers practising in the City of Toronto. The association was founded to support its members in three key areas: Knowledge, Advocacy, and Community. To uphold these pillars, the association offers a year-round mix of online and in-person education programs for lawyers, hosts both free and paid events to foster in-person networking, and submits advocacy pieces on behalf of its members to the Ontario bench and bar, all levels of government, and the broader public.

Lisa is a graduate of the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto and has more than 20 years experience practicing exclusively in the area of professional discipline. Lisa prosecutes, investigates and trains adjudicators for a variety of regulatory organizations. She also acts as Independent Legal Counsel. In addition, Lisa represents professionals being audited, investigated, or disciplined by their governing bodies and has appeared at a myriad of provincial and national tribunals, at all levels of court in Ontario, and at the Supreme Court of Canada. Working both on behalf of regulators and for individuals being investigated or prosecuted provides Lisa a unique perspective and keen insight benefitting all of her clients. Prior to opening her own practice in 2017, Lisa was a Discipline Counsel with the Law Society of Ontario for 16 years, prosecuting lawyers and paralegals. Since 2009, Lisa has taught Trial Advocacy at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law. Lisa was a part-time member of the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board (HPARB) for two years. She is a member of the Health Professions Discipline Tribunals Pilot (HPDTP) Roundtable. In addition, Lisa is a regular speaker and panelist at a variety of CPD programs and is a member of the coaching team for the Certificate in Adjudication for Administrative Agencies, Boards and Tribunals offered by Osgoode Professional Development and the Society of Ontario Adjudicators and Regulators (SOAR). Lisa, with the invaluable assistance of Joey Tam, organizes the Duty Counsel Program at the Law Society of Ontario Tribunal.

Nadia is a strong and effective advocate committed to providing her clients with trusted counsel, creative solutions and superior strategic representation. For over 30 years, she has been a trusted advocate for clients facing professional regulatory investigation, disciplinary proceedings and criminal charges. With decades of experience navigating her clients through complaints and litigation, Nadia combines a common sense approach to legal, ethical and regulatory issues with sound judgment and creative approaches to problem solving. With over 60 reported cases before the Law Society Tribunal, Nadia has provided experienced counsel to hundreds of licensees and licensing applicants dealing with ethical, as well as disciplinary and regulatory issues relating to the Rules of Professional Conduct and involving the Law Society of Ontario. She has represented licensees on allegations of misappropriation, mortgage fraud, ineffective assistance of counsel, books and records issues and sexual misconduct. She has successfully represented numerous law students who were the subject of good character investigations, avoiding the need to proceed to a good character hearing. For licensing candidates facing good character hearings and for individuals seeking readmission to the Bar, Nadia has provided them with guidance and legal representation, successfully securing their abilities to practice law in Ontario. Since 2018, Nadia has regularly appeared as Independent Legal Counsel for the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario. She has also represented professionals on regulatory and disciplinary matters involving the Ontario College of Teachers, the Ontario College of Nurses, the Ontario College of Social Workers, the Ontario College of Pharmacists, the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario and the College of Chiropractors of Ontario. Nadia’s skills as an advocate and strategist are rooted in over two decades of representing individuals charged with criminal offences ranging from domestic and sexual assault to homicide. She has appeared before the Ontario Court of Justice, the Superior Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, as well as the Parole Board and the Ontario Review Board. Never shying away from a challenge or change, Nadia also took on prosecutorial roles, and has provided legal advice to complainants. She continues to be a member of the Criminal Lawyers Association, and has sat on their Smoking Gun Committee and contributed articles on professional regulatory issues published in For the Defence. Appreciating the importance of context and understanding the impact of external factors, as well as mental health issues have on behavior, Nadia has adopted a holistic approach in her practice. While navigating her clients through the legal challenges they face, she offers her clients both immediate and long-term support from mental health professionals. She also relies on other professionals such as forensic psychiatrists, auditors, bookkeepers and investigators to assist her clients in achieving their goals.

Brooke advises and represents clients in professional regulation matters and in appeals and judicial review applications, and provides advice and opinions to lawyers and law firms on professional responsibility and legal ethics issues. She has been recognized in Best Lawyers™ in Canada in administrative and public law. Brooke has significant experience as appeal counsel—having appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada, Court of Appeal for Ontario, Federal Court of Appeal, Divisional Court, and administrative appeal tribunals—and as counsel on professional negligence actions and disqualification motions. In addition to her practice, Brooke is a regular columnist at Slaw.ca on legal ethics issues; teaches an upper-year Legal Ethics seminar at Osgoode Hall Law School; and serves as duty counsel for licensees at the Law Society Tribunal. Her writing on legal ethics, civil procedure, and tort law has been widely published. Before going out on her own, Brooke spent several years on Bay Street working with and learning from some of Ontario's best litigators and the top legal minds in the areas of legal ethics and professional responsibility. When not practicing law, Brooke enjoys live music; crossword puzzles; road trips to national parks and ballparks across the US and Canada; exploring Toronto on her bike; and watching Jeopardy!—a lifelong fan of the show, Brooke was a contestant and became a Jeopardy! champion in February 2020.