Lawyers Gone Bad: Money, Sex and Madness in Canada’s Legal Profession (review)

Lawyers Gone Bad is an important book for many reasons. It reminds us that misbehaviour exists among lawyers, that it is not uncommon, that the range of behaviour is large and, perhaps most significantly, it provides an opening into an understudied area: the criminology of lawyers. I recommend this book for those interested in the legal profession, criminology and the study of “white collar” crime. Undergraduates will find this material accessible and engaging, while academics will find it to be a useful exploration of a neglected topic. Lawyers who have gone astray might be thought of as the ultimate white collar criminals: they are one of the most highly remunerated professions and form a de facto ruling class, comprising a highly disproportionate share of all three branches of government. Moreover, lawyers are highly influential in the corporate world and dramatically affect the lives of many ordinary citizens. Yet, they serve mainly the rich and upper classes, since only they can truly afford to retain legal counsel. It follows that lawyers have greater opportunity than white collar criminals of other professions. Slayton’s book offers hope that, if the misbehaviour of lawyers is admitted and addressed, our ruling class can gain the respect and trust of Canadians that it currently lacks.

Slayton begins his book by stating: “Only a few lawyers are dishonest,” no doubt intending to mitigate the predictable response that lawyers are being unfairly targeted in this book. Later in the opening chapter, he cites statistics belying that initial disclaimer and describing the abysmal regard in which Canadians hold the legal profession. The case is well-made here that the legal profession has improvements to make in the area of professional controls. In this way, in his first chapter, Slayton introduces the issue of professional regulation, arguing that changes in controls on the legal profession may be a solution to the problem of legal misbehaviour. Following the example of Australia and Great Britain, self-regulation could be replaced by a committee composed mainly of non-lawyers reporting to parliament. The first chapter also touches on some structural changes to the legal profession that may contribute to greater malfeasance on the part of lawyers, particularly the limited liability partnership (LLP). The LLP allows firms and many senior staff to avoid liability for the mistakes of their people. This innovation facilitates consolidation among legal firms while reducing liability and discouraging the collegiality, consultation and professional oversight which a larger organization should be able to provide.

While Slayton brings up many important structural issues in his opening chapter, this book is mainly about the cases. And this is what is so engaging and accessible about it. Fourteen chapters describe a couple of dozen lawyers, characters that range from the tragic to the mundane to the truly odd. Slayton presents high profile cases covered by the mainstream news media to obscure small town lawyers gone awry. There are cases from most jurisdictions in Canada, from both small and large firms. Despite this, the cases do not seem to be chosen along any formal rationale, except that many have some connection to the author, giving it the flavour of a sort of “rogues I have known” memoir. But this book provides far more than just personal anecdotes. The author has chosen to represent neither the reality as experienced by the lawyer in trouble, nor that of the victims or the law societies prosecuting their cases. Instead, he weaves a middle way, presenting a bit of each. Although this appears to have occurred without any particular design, it seems to have been executed reasonably enough. Many of the cases he has researched personally, going to some trouble to interview and get to know his subjects in a variety of settings. He retains a crucial respect for the world as experienced by those whose cases he presents. If we want to understand how legal negligence and malfeasance occurs, we need to understand the worlds these people inhabit. This...