CORE was formed because members deserve a regulator that is focused on its mandate, open about its decisions, responsible with member fees and accountable when things go wrong.
The Law Society’s governing coalition campaigned on transparency and accountability. CORE believes members should examine whether those standards have been met in practice.
Concerns about decision-making, accountability, financial stewardship and mandate have contributed to a loss of confidence from the public. This election is your opportunity to say how the Law Society should operate.
Members should be able to understand how important decisions were made, what information informed them and what reasons were given.
Substantive debates, including motions on executive salary disclosure, have been moved in camera, leaving members without a voting record on those decisions.
Leadership should be answerable for decisions, conduct, spending and results.
An independent investigation documented an unauthorized executive compensation agreement, yet bencher code-of-conduct complaints were dismissed behind closed doors.
Decisions involving member fees, compensation and institutional spending should be transparent, properly authorized and subject to meaningful oversight.
Executive compensation reached approximately $1.3 million under an amending agreement executed without Convocation’s approval, while licensee fees have climbed and regulatory delays persist.
The Law Society should be able to explain how its priorities serve its regulatory responsibilities and the public interest.
The Law Society is duplicating the Ontario Law Foundation's research mandate, funding studies with fees that should discipline lawyers and restore in-person bar exams.
CORE is offering a serious, principled alternative focused on competent regulation, open decision-making, accountability and ethical leadership. These are the principles CORE team members are prepared to be measured against.
The Law Society should return to its essential responsibilities and remain focused on its core functions as a regulator.
Decision-making should be open, clearer to the profession, and easier to scrutinize. The LSO should provide transparent reasons for decisions and make documentation public.
The Law Society’s leadership should be answerable for decisions, conduct, spending, and results.
Governance should be guided by integrity, professionalism, sound judgment, fiscal discipline and responsible stewardship.
CORE believes members should be able to assess the campaign’s concerns against the relevant documents, decisions and reports.
CORE is about governing for the good of the profession and the public. CORE is asking the Law Society to focus on its regulatory mandate, manage member fees responsibly, make decisions openly and transparently, and hold leadership accountable. Those are governance standards. The people of Ontario deserve to receive legal advice from the best and the brightest, and the most ethical legal professionals.
CORE is about restoring public confidence. CORE wants to restore the public confidence that has been damaged by the million-dollar CEO scandal, inability to discipline members in a timely manner, and eliminating the standards to become a lawyer. CORE is focused on what comes next: a regulator that explains its decisions, publishes relevant information, and applies clear standards to governance and spending. A regulator that remains within its core mandate.
CORE is a broad team from across the legal profession who are concerned about the recent governance and direction of the LSO. CORE's central commitment is the same for every person: the people of Ontario deserve legal services from professionals who are the best and the brightest at what they do, and who are the most ethical. This is delivered through competent regulatory oversight, transparent governance, and accountable leadership.
The CORE team has committed to four principles and will be measured against them: Core Mandate, Open and Transparent, Restore Accountability and Ethical Leadership.
Under Section 4.1 of the Law Society Act, the Law Society exists to regulate the legal professions in Ontario in the public interest. Every administrative hour and member dollar spent on discretionary initiatives outside that statutory remit is a dollar diverted from core responsibilities: disciplining lawyers, protecting the public, and restoring in-person bar exams. The Law Society duplicates the Law Foundation of Ontario's research mandate, funding studies with fees instead of disciplining misconduct. CORE benchers will commission an independent bylaw review to end this drift.
By restoring financial discipline and transparency to Law Society spending. Annual fees are not optional for practicing lawyers and paralegals. CORE benchers will direct an independent, line-by-line operational review of discretionary budgets and overhead, and require the Law Society to publish an itemized annual fee reconciliation showing exactly where member dues are spent before approving future budgets.
Self-regulation relies on institutional trust, and trust requires demonstrable oversight. An independent report presented to Convocation (the O’Connor Report) documented an executive compensation agreement reaching approximately $1.3 million that was executed without the required authorization of the governing body. When executive compensation rises without Convocation approval while member fees continue to increase, that is a matter of basic fiduciary stewardship.
CORE benchers will move immediately to end the routine use of in-camera sessions for substantive business and abolish unrecorded votes on policy and financial matters. Members have a right to a public record showing how their elected representatives voted, supported by published written rationales for major regulatory decisions. CORE will also restore the bencher voting record and the Regulatory Meetings page, both of which were previously public and have since been taken down.
Salary transparency is standard practice across public institutions in Ontario. Convocation should not use closed-door proceedings to block salary transparency votes. CORE benchers support clear, proactive compensation disclosure for all senior Law Society executives. The Law Society's own recent movement toward limited disclosure only underscores why proactive, comprehensive disclosure, and not disclosure made only under public pressure, should be the standard.
Paralegals perform a valuable role within Ontario's justice system, operating within the scope for which they are licensed. The Law Society has a statutory duty to regulate both lawyers and paralegals fairly and competently. Paralegals face many of the same administrative frustrations as lawyers—rising annual fees, procedural delays, and a regulator that operates behind closed doors. CORE believes that regulatory competence, fiscal transparency, and sound governance must apply across the entire institution.
Each person on the CORE team will make a binding commitment to introduce three immediate governance reforms at the very first meeting of Convocation:
LSO bencher elections allow members to vote for individuals up to the maximum number of open seats. Voting for the full CORE team gives Convocation the working majority needed to deliver these reforms starting on day one.
