By Julius Melnitzer | June 23, 2026
NORTON ROSE ENERGY CHIEF JOINS TORYS
Robert Froehlich, who led Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP’s energy practice and was chair of the firm’s business law group from 2019 to 2025, has joined Torys LLP’s Calgary office as a partner. His experience embraces some of Canada’s most significant and complex energy projects engaging LNG, conventional and unconventional upstream petroleum and natural gas, heavy oil and oilsands, pipeline and midstream infrastructure, refining, electricity, and renewable power. Froehlich is also a former president and director of the Canadian Energy Law Foundation.
LSO PROSECUTION “PATENTLY UNREASONABLE”
The Law Society Tribunal has ordered the Law Society of Ontario to pay $53,000 in costs following on the Society’s ill-advised pursuit of interlocutory suspensions against paralegals Victor Lacaria, Christina Guadagnoli, and Sachin Moudgil. They were accused of knowingly participating in a scheme by their then-employer, Ticket Justice, to enter guilty pleas followed by meritless appeals in hundreds of Highway Traffic Act cases to with the goal of delaying the registrations of the convictions and accural of demerit points. The paralegals entered the guilty pleas for clients, while Ticket Justice filed the appeals. The LST dismissed LSO’s motions for interlocutory suspensions as “unwarranted”, finding that there was no evidence the paralegals knowingly participated in the scheme. The panel concluded that “there was nothing inherently wrong about the guilty pleas on their own”, “there was no evidence that any client’s guilty plea was uninstructed”, and “the Law Society’s case was not arguable”.
CLIENT COMPLAINTS AT RECORD HIGH
The United Kingdom’s legal ombudsman has revealed that client complaints against lawyers reached a record high in Q3 of 2025. From October to December 2025, the service received almost 3,500 complaints, up 37% over 2024, numbers that exceeded the worst predictions. Estimates for 2026 predict 14,000 complaints, 120% more than the 6,439 complaints received in 2019/20.
LEGAL AID SUPPORT WORKS
A study conducted by Policy in Practice for the United Kingdom’s Legal Education Foundation showed that households who received assistance from the Central England Law Centre benefitted to the tune of C$286 annually, and 70% felt “more positive afterwards”. Elayne Hill, chief executive of the Centre, told The Law Society Gazette the study confirms that specialist legal advice “is an essential part of any serious response to poverty, inequality, and insecurity.”
LATEST EDITION OF CANADIAN TAX FACTS AVAILABLE
Tax lawyer and certified professional accountant David Rotfleisch of Rotfleisch & Samulovitch Professional Corporation in Toronto has released the 60-page fifth edition of Canadian Tax Facts. The 2026 edition includes new sections on Detaxers and the Auditor General’s Report on CRA Performance in 2025. The compendium has become a global resource for reporters, editors, and media producers as well as anyone interested in business and personal tax rates, audits, reassessment, cryptocurrency tax, information on trusts, voluntary disclosure, and tax evasion.
Julius Melnitzer is a Toronto-based writer who focuses on law, legal affairs, and the business of law. Follow him on LegalWriter.net or email him at julius@legalwriter.net.