In November last year, Convocation (the governing body of the Law Society of Ontario) learned that its Chief Executive Officer had received a significant increase in her compensation five months earlier without its approval. The increase brought the CEO’s total compensation to almost $1 million.[1] The LSO reported that the CEO was no longer employed by the LSO following an investigation by Mr. Justice Dennis O’Connor.
Convocation initially refused to release the O’Connor Report, doing only so after weeks of public pressure. Once it was released on March 27, 2025, it became apparent that the highest-ranking members of Convocation had either circumvented the LSO’s governance requirements or had been complacent while others did so.
We have now completed our own review of the governance failures at the LSO, in our paper “Governance Crisis at the Law Society of Ontario: A Cautionary Tale for Boards of Directors“. As the title of the paper suggests, there are lessons here not only for the LSO, but for other organizations and their boards.
The challenge for the legal profession in Ontario is how to move forward to repair the confidence of the legal profession and the public in our governing body.
[1] Betsy Powell (Toronto Star), Law Society of Ontario benchers call for release of retired judge’s report on ex-CEO’s near-$1M contract (Updated March 27, 2025).