Glen Korstrom

Lawyers are known to get involved in other people's messy workplace conflicts, but they are not immune from having sticky disputes within their own law firms. The difference is that they settle outside of court far more often.

The rare Canadian lawsuit has involved law firms and former staff, such as Ontario's 1998 case Munro versus Thompson. That case saw the Toronto firm Thompson, Tooze, McLean, Rollo & Elkin lose when the firm alleged cause for dismissing a colleague.

Lawyers, like engineers and other professionals, are not regulated by B.C.'s Employment Standards Act. So, they do not enjoy the same legal protection that those in many sectors count on.

"They still have common-law rights. So, if a lawyer is terminated, they've still got a common-law right to reasonable notice," said Nicole Howell, employment lawyer and principal at the Vancouver firm Nicole Howell Law Corporation.

Howell said being subject to the Employment Standards Act could even be "detrimental" to lawyers because its minimums are often less than what a firm might provide for terminated staff.

For example, the Employment Standards Act provision for reasonable notice for termination is two weeks for the first year and one additional week for each year after that, to a maximum of eight weeks. Lawyers often get more than that, she said. In the 1998 Ontario case, for example, the terminated lawyer received eight months' salary and benefits in lieu of notice.

Lawyers can file claims under human rights legislation if they believe there is discrimination, said Howell.

In addition, the Law Society of British Columbia has an equity ombudsperson to empower lawyers, para-legal secretaries and others who work in law firms.

Law society ombudsperson Anne Bhanu Chopra, who is also a motivational speaker, coach and women's issues consultant, is the first to admit that her office "doesn't have teeth" to resolve those disputes.

Chopra said her role is to empower complainants, clarify their goals and advise them of their options.

Some complainants want to file a formal complaint, while others want damages, or simply want the objectionable behaviour to stop, said Chopra. She could not discuss specific cases due to confidentiality requirements, nor does she keep statistics about how many complaints she fields during the average 25 hours each week she spends working as the ombudsperson.

But many employment lawyers agree that it's rare for lawyers to go through litigation with a current or former employer.

Howell said she has worked on many wrongful dismissal cases involving lawyers but all have been resolved before litigation.

"The law firms who are terminating them know the law," she said. "If it's a large or mid-size law firm, there's probably an employment lawyer there cognizant of potential liability and on a cost-benefit analysis, you're going to settle."

She suggested that law firms could be more likely to settle because they are more aware of the costs involved with going to court.

When employees sue employers in other sectors, those employers go to lawyers to hear that going to court could be a big risk, she said. Lawyers already know the risk.

"The reality is that nine out of 10 civil litigation cases will settle. I would hazard a guess that 14 out of 15 cases involving terminated lawyers from law firms will settle -- perhaps more. Lawyers are really the last people who want to air their dirty laundry in public," Howell said.

Another factor is that if a terminated lawyer finds a new job, any money that the lawyer would have earned during the awarded notice period is offset against the lawyer's claim.

"Most lawyers find jobs and so proceeding to court on a wrongful dismissal suit is simply unnecessary," Howell said.