Sitting Law Society of Ontario treasurer re-elected for second term, beats out challengers

Peter Wardle has been re-elected for a second term as the Law Society of Ontario’s treasurer, beating out two challengers who expressed dissatisfaction with how Wardle is handling the fallout of an executive pay scandal. 

“I am grateful to be able to continue to serve as treasurer for a second term,” Wardle said in a statement Wednesday.

“In recent months we have faced some incredibly difficult issues, but together we took swift and decisive action and set a course that will make the Law Society stronger.” Wardle added, “There is nothing more important than the public’s trust in us as a regulator.”

The challengers were benchers Stephen Rotstein and Murray Klippenstein.

According to a spokesperson for the LSO, Wardle received 35 votes from benchers. Klippenstein garnered 10 votes while Rotstein received nine.

In a statement, Klippenstein said, “I would like to congratulate Treasurer Wardle on his election, and I wish him well in the work and challenges ahead for the Law Society and our legal professions.

“I also would like to thank bencher and candidate Rotstein for his candidacy and his contributions to this campaign,” Klippenstein added.

Rotstein did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wardle began serving as the LSO’s treasurer in June 2024. The benchers who nominated his challengers told Law Times in May that while treasurer elections occur each year, sitting treasurers typically serve two consecutive terms and do not face challengers when they run for their second term.

Each treasurer for the LSO has served two-year terms since 2006. LSO news releases dating back to 2021 indicate that the regulator’s last two treasurers, Jacqueline Horvat and Teresa Donnelly, did not face challengers for their second-year terms in 2021 and 2023.

In an episode of the legal podcast and video series Justice in Pieces, Rotstein said he decided to run for treasurer in the fallout of the revelation that Jacqueline Horvat, the LSO’s previous treasurer, had signed off on a significant pay hike for chief executive officer Diana Miles without notifying benchers. The scandal led to Miles’ departure, an investigation into the circumstances of the pay increase, and the LSO’s appointment of a governance expert to help address the scandal’s fallout.

“Is our current leadership going to take the steps necessary to kind of reset the relationship to rebuild the trust and restore transparency? I felt like I had a different vision than our current treasurer,” Rostein said.

“I think our treasurer’s made some difficult decisions, many of which I’ve supported, some of which… I’m not sure I totally did. But I stayed silent about them because I believe in.... Convocation confidentiality,” Rotstein said. He added, “I wanted to present a different vision of how we could rebuild trust among each other, among the profession, with the government, with the public.”

In a May news release, Klippenstein said the LSO and the legal profession “have been badly betrayed by our two top leaders,” referencing Horvat and Miles.

“We expect and demand integrity from thousands of our members every day, and we hold them strictly accountable, but then this happens at the top without consequence or accountability,” he added. As part of his platform, he called for Miles to repay at least $500,000 to the LSO and for the LSO to call for Horvat’s removal as a Superior Court of Justice of Ontario judge.

Klippenstein also said he supported a sunshine list for LSO executives and a forensic audit of the legal regulator.

In a statement, bencher Ryan Alford said he nominated Klippenstein because he knew the latter “would take action demonstrating that the LSO could police itself. 

“I am disappointed that the benchers have voted once again to forestall further investigations of the cover-up. Under Peter Wardle's leadership, Convocation did not examine the actions of certain particularly influential directors during this scandal, and now I believe we never will,” Alford added. “Nevertheless, I would support a call for an external and independent review of why the board of our legal regulator was not informed of these serious breaches."

Michael Radan, one of the benchers who nominated Rotstein, told Law Times he believed Rotstein’s leadership would have benefited both licensees and the LSO. “It would have shown that there was some accountability for what’s gone on at the Law Society,” Radan said.

“Treasurer Wardle should be mindful of the fact that even though he was successful in securing a second term, that a large percentage of Convocation voted for change,” he added. "I don't think that that we should continue business as usual.”