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Behind the Reporting: Emma Jarratt on Cracking the Code of Silence

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It is a profound moment when a journalist can draw a straight line between their work and material change in the real world.

Each of the stories published in the Privileged and Confidential series represents thousands of hours of work and countless keystrokes striving to bring transparency to a self-governing industry that is notorious for handling uncomfortable issues behind closed doors and off the books.

It would be an understatement to say it has been a painstaking and often frustrating process.

But this week; this week was a good week.

Following months of reporting on what the Law Society of Ontario is — and is not – telling the public about its investigations and disciplinary backgrounds of its members, a spokesperson for the regulator made an unprecedented concession.

Following a flurry of emails on the eve of publication, the LSO stated last Friday that it was “reassessing” its long-held position to keep secret an undertaking with a Toronto lawyer whose case illustrates the institutional shrouding of lawyers’ records.

And, there it was, attached to the Friday evening email: the 15-page document we had been seeking for so long.

In that moment, the curtain of secrecy lifted a little more and it felt like Goliath conceded (perhaps grudgingly) that David had a point about transparency.

It was a surprising twist in this years-long tussle between the IJB and the LSO.

But it’s far from the end of the story.

There remain many aspects of the LSO’s internal investigations that have yet to be publicly revealed.

Interestingly, the demands for increased transparency are now coming from those inside the profession as well as from the public.

Calls from Law Society insiders for the reform of  “outdated” policies dictating the public’s right to know are increasingly vocal and urgent.

We’ll see if the LSO listens.

Emma Jarratt

Reporter

Emma Jarratt
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