History Cover & Text.qxp - The Advocates' Society

of OCAT in December, and wasreplaced by Paddy Griffin, a lawyerand an educator from Vancouver.Later in 1995, Joyce Harris, aDirector of both the Society andOCAT, assumed the duties of Chairof OCAT.On the Society's behalf, Frank K.Gomberg presented a response tothe Ontario Law Commission's proposalto abolish the civil jury, inwhich it was noted that fully 70% ofthe Society's membership was infavour of retention of the civil jurysystem.The Program Committee continuedwith its successful offerings, includingthe Bill 164 workshop PracticalStrategies for Advocates, Tools ofthe Trade, accident benefit workshopsand the Court HouseAdvocacy Series in Ottawa.Networking luncheons for womenwere introduced and would continuefor the next decade, later to beknown as the Women's LuncheonSeries.Past President John P. Nelligan,Q.C., LSM was the recipient of TheAdvocates' Society Medal at a dinnerin Ottawa in May and, in June,the End of Term Dinner featuredguest speaker Edward L.Greenspan, Q.C.One of the major developments inthe area of legal training in thenineties was Continuing LegalEducation. By the middle of thedecade, The Advocates' Society hadbecome one of the major providersof programs designed to fulfill theCLE mandate.In the 1995-96 term, under the presidencyof C. Clifford Lax, Q.C., theSociety presented a successful ADRworkshop titled “How To Win WinIn A Win World,” it ran both introductoryand advanced versions ofthe exclusive Harvard MediationWorkshop, and it presented anotherin its series of Practical Strategies forAdvocates programs. The popularOttawa Court House AdvocacySeries created by Bruce Carr-Harriswas expanded to Barrie, Brampton,Hamilton, London, Ottawa,Thunder Bay, Toronto and Windsor.Between these and the on-goingprograms held under the OCATbanner, the Society's mandate ofeducating the profession was in fullgear. Over the years, this momentum,together with diverse offeringsin civil litigation, criminal law,advocacy before administrative tribunals,advanced advocacy andADR, would make The Advocates'Society the premier provider ofadvocacy skills training in Ontario.The Society also was becomingincreasingly involved in pre-trialprocedures. In an attempt to cutdown on the massive backlog ofcases awaiting the courts’ attention,Society members were asked,through the province's BacklogElimination Project, to conduct pretrialsto prepare cases for trial.It was during this term that theSociety sponsored its first-ever golftournament at Devil's Pulpit,chaired by Paul Iacono, Q.C. andPeter Kennedy. 75 members attended,but there is no record of whetherany of them golfed while sportingthe newly-created Advocate'sSociety necktie. The tournamentwould become an annual event,with Norman J. Freedman, Q.C.assuming the chair from 1997 on.The changing face of technologywas playing a role in the day-to-dayworkings of the Society. In October,Cliff Lax reported on the progressof a provincial committee that wasworking on a project involving theelectronic distribution of the trialmotions list in Toronto and eventuallyall of Ontario. Closer to home,the Society debuted its web site,which would enable members toaccess the Society's submissions online,as well as information and registrationforms for CLE programsand special events, the Society'smarketplace, membership informa-22tion and more.Revealing his flair for marketing,President Lax introduced theSociety, and the legal profession, toThe Advocates' Society SuperCart, ahigh-quality, light-weight luggagecart that was guaranteed to withstandthe cobblestones of OsgoodeHall. The SuperCart would prove tobe a best-seller for the next decade.The October 1995 issue of the Journalsaw the departure of Stuart Forbesas Managing Editor. Paul H. Le Vaystepped into the role, forming a newpartnership with Editor DavidStockwood that would continue forthe coming decade.In a departure from the norm, it wasdecided to move the FallConvention out of Ontario and allthe way to Nassau, Bahamas inNovember 1995. Titled "Ethics &Advocacy in a World Gone Mad," itwas chaired by Frank K. Gombergand James A. Hodgson.In December 1995, the Civil JusticeTask Force submitted its report. TheTask Force had obtained input fromthe judiciary, created sub-committeesin the regions, and circulated aquestionnaire to the Society's membership,all of which confirmed thata civil litigation backlog was a significantproblem. The Societyretained Professor Carl Barr ofBrock University to prepare a preliminaryreport, and steps to clearup the backlog were recommended,specific to each region of theprovince.The End of Term Dinner in June featuredthe Honourable JusticeRosalie Abella as guest speaker.When Margaret A. Ross, LSMassumed the presidency for the1996-97 term, she found herself in aposition that many of her predecessorswould have envied; the Societywas on sound financial footing, withan operating surplus of approximately$125,000 generated in the