Lenczner Slaght Sponsors Advocacy Competition in Legal Ethics and Professionalism
March 30, 2012
Hunter Forman and Daniel Levine have won the third annual Lenczner Slaght Advocacy Competition in Legal Ethics and Professionalism. The competition was sponsored by Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP, a Toronto firm that has been consistently recognized as one of Canada’s premier litigation practices. The competition featured first-year students appealing two Law Society of Upper Canada Hearing Panel decisions about whether an applicant for a licence to practice law was of good character.
The competition was organized by Professor Stephen Pitel and Western Law alumnus Matthew Lerner ’07, an associate with Lenczner Slaght. Preliminary rounds were judged by Ian MacLeod, Yashoda Ranganathan and Paul-Erik Veel, all of Lenczner Slaght, and Professors Chris Sherrin and Randal Graham.
Hunter and Daniel, students in Group G, advanced to the final against Rachel Bengino and Julia McNabb, students in Group D. The final, held in the Moot Court Room, was judged by Regional Senior Justice Edward Ducharme of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Thomas Granger QC of Granger Legal and William McDowell of Lenczner Slaght. Thomas is a former judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and William is a Bencher of the Law Society. Hunter and Daniel won on a split 2-1 decision of the judges.
A reception and dinner for all competitors capped off the day’s oral advocacy. At the reception Stephen expressed delight at Lenczner Slaght’s willingness to sponsor this unique advocacy competition. On behalf of the firm, William warmly congratulated all competitors for their efforts and stressed the importance of building oral advocacy skills.
One additional team was recognized with an honourable mention for its preliminary round performance: Maeve Byrne and Brittany Baron of Group G. Maeve and Brittany faced Hunter and Daniel in the preliminary rounds and lost a very close decision to the eventual winners. Michelle Bothwell, Matoula Charitsis and Nanette Love provided important administrative support for this competition.
