Canadian Bar Association joins England in approving lawyers practising within MDPs

Canadian lawyers have voted to stand side-by-side with their English counterparts and back multi-disciplinary partnerships (MDPs).

A resolution passed at last week's Canadian Bar Association (CBA) annual conference opens the way to lawyers practising in MDPs so long as the delivery of legal services within the MDP is controlled by lawyers.

It also allows fee-sharing with non-lawyers.

CBA resolutions have strong persuasive force with the provincial law societies in Canada which actually make the rules.

At its separate annual conference last week, the law societies' overarching body -- the Federation of Law Societies of Canada -- deferred a decision on MDPs as it could not achieve a consensus.

Despite the reality of MDPs or quasi-MDPs in many countries, support for them from Canada and England and Wales is against the current tide of international legal thinking.

Recently, the American Bar Association threw out attempts to repeal its MDPs ban, while the Law Society of Scotland also upheld its ban.

The CBA council rejected an attempt to ensure that MDPs have a majority of lawyer-owners.

However, it did support a controversial amendment requiring MDPs to obtain a licence from their provincial law societies.

'Licences should be conditional on the MDP satisfying the law society that it has taken all reasonable steps to comply with the core values, ethical obligations, standards and rules of professional conduct of the legal profession,' the resolution said.

This provision is likely to need legislation to make it effective.

In another controversial step, the CBA decided that there should not be Chinese walls within MDPs.

'Law societies should develop rules for ensuring that lawyers do not practise in MDPs with other service providers having conflicting ethical responsibilities,' the resolution said.

'For instance, lawyers practising in MDPs should not provide legal services to clients who retain the MDP for auditing services.'

New CBA President Daphne Dumont told the Gazette this week that she found the international opposition to MDPs 'puzzling', adding: 'A lot of our members want to be in MDPs.'

Last year, the Law Society's ruling Council voted to move towards allowing MDPs, and work is ongoing.

President Michael Napier, who was at the CBA meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia, said: 'This latest move by the CBA has simply reinforced our view that in today's business world, ways can be found to permit solicitors to practise with other professions, for the benefit of clients, without undermining lawyers' independence or ethical obligations.'

Neil Rose