Dropping the Q-Bomb: Two Review Lawyers Resign from DLS

Yesterday two criminal review lawyers at Downtown Legal Services, Mary Misener and Richard Litkowski, submitted their resignations. While it is far too early to provide any solid reasons behind this drastic course of action, we here at Billable Targets are always game for a spot of the ol’ crass speculation and rumour mongering. So far, our only real lead on this story is an email that was sent out last night by several concerned credit students asking that a general meeting of DLS members be convened to discuss this and other clinic issues in a larger forum. While generally devoid of information and substance, the email seems to suggest a connection between the lawyers’ resignation and other problems currently plaguing the clinic, such as the extended moratorium placed on criminal and (certain) civil files. Rumour also has it that there have been some issues between Judith McCormack the executive director and Mary and Richard, although we cannot say more as to the pith and substance of these problems.

For those upper years who returned to DLS this year, there have been noticeable changes to the quality of life at the clinic. Partially due to the criminal file moratorium, there has been significantly less opportunity for first years to help out on files, leaving them to the slow death of phone answering. The lack of files has also affected upper year students have been doubling up to work on files together, taking on files from other shifts, or in the case of credit students just carrying less of a workload and getting screwed out of their clinical legal education. Whatever the source of these problems, it is clear that some feel that the elected DLS executive could be doing more to improve the situation. While finger pointing can make for some hilarious innuendo, it is not clear what the Exec does in the first place, yet alone how they can fix these problems. That being said, there is (yet another) unsubstantiated rumour that a secret meeting of DLS shift leaders will convene sometime in the next few days to do further finger pointing and (hopefully) rabble-rousing.

Let’s just hope that our fair school’s legal clinic can avoid the bloated controversy that Osgoode’s legal clinic, CLASP, faced last year when its Executive Director fired one of their review lawyers. If the DLS Executive and Administration can learn anything from CLASP, it is that law students tend to be fairly loyal to their review lawyers. Allowing rumours to persist in the face of drastic and abrupt personnel changes risks infighting and creating a divide between the DLS student body and the Powers That Be.

-Borstal Boy wishes all the best to Mary & Richard