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| Neha Clugh |
I came to the 2023 election in earnest. I had been approached about running in 2019, but I was very pregnant with baby number three and couldn’t imagine adding anything else to my plate. A pandemic, a busy family life and managing a practice limited my Convocation watch to reading Law Twitter and the occasional legal news reporting on the issues faced by the regulator. I wasn’t pleased with what I saw — ideology seemed to be overriding more concrete issues plaguing rural jurisdictions. However, my attitude was that the democratic process had been implemented and these were the results.
In 2022, I was approached by colleagues who wanted me to join the Good Governance Coalition. I was intrigued by the approach to use the previous incarnation of the Full Stop’s strategy find our way to Convocation. I liked the attitudes of the other members of the Coalition, and I had a message of expanding rural legal capacity to share. My littlest one was well-settled in preschool, the middle fiercely taking on elementary school and my oldest was starting high school. The law firm had a new associate coming on who could handle some of my files. After a long talk with my spouse and my law partner, it was determined that the timing was right.
Fast-forward to May 1, 2023 — I was driving to work when my husband called to tell me that, after he relentlessly hit refresh on the LSO website, the Coalition had swept the election. I had to pull over to catch my breath.
After that, every experience was bright and shiny. My first time taking a flight to Billy Bishop airport for LSO meetings. Speaking at swearing-ins. Going to events, and meeting members of the community. These were all wonderful opportunities to platform access-to-justice issues affecting Cornwall, Ont., where my practice is based.
I slowly began to learn that Convocation is a microcosm of the bar writ large. The political ideologies are across the spectrum of right to left, as are the personality types, practice areas and issues of regional, gender and ethnic/cultural representation. For this, we are lucky. But beyond this, there are the specific personas. The bullies, class clowns, the (governance) nerds. I found a way to listen and learn from those who I disagreed with and to ignore those whose tactics were tantamount to abuse.
I also met lawyers whose paths I would never have otherwise crossed but for becoming a bencher, and have made connections for life. When my stepsister died suddenly in 2024, the days felt like travelling through quicksand. It was the kindness of my fellow benchers — people I had not even known two years before — that helped me push through.
Behind the bright and shiny are a laundry list of whack-a-mole issues that, for most of us, are out of our control. In the public sphere, we find ourselves acting on the defensive. The CEO scandal was an example of this, as has been LSO Connects and other tech issues. Many of these issues were outside the scope of my knowledge or intervention. All I can do was receive the information and make determinations. I read emails on different listservs calling me and the other benchers names, criticizing our performance: Ridiculous! Embarrassing! Shambles! A conspiracy of higher order! At first, I would want to defend myself and my colleagues. Today, I try to glean constructive feedback. We are lucky to live in a society where we can criticize elected officials.
Convocation reflects what is happening more broadly in our political spheres. Collegiality and constructive dissent have been replaced by divisiveness and attacks. As the issues crop up, the default position has been to blame the Good Governance Coalition. Tech issues at the annual general meeting? The Coalition. The CEO scandal? Coalition. I forgot my password to LSO Connects — why did the Coalition implement this new portal?!
The Coalition no longer exists and disintegrated quicker than it formed. My biggest disagreements have been with other members of the Coalition, and some of the most engaging ideas have come from Full Stop counterparts.
There is much about the operational side of LSO that the benchers are not involved in. Take the technical issues at the 2025 AGM, for example. The benchers were also befuddled by the tech issues. It was not a grand conspiracy or a secret desire to quiet dissent. From the comments online, it seemed like a member of the Coalition was sitting in a backroom with their finger on the mute button.
It is not the role of the benchers to count the widgets. It is the role of benchers to ensure that governance of the widgets is accessible and transparent. Sometimes a licensee will call me with a specific operational issue. Maybe they received a letter with their bar exam date listed incorrectly. Or maybe they are struggling to interpret a specific regulation. I do my best to direct them to the right staff member at the LSO, and to facilitate the conversation by opening that door.
Behind the scenes, the benchers are working on the offensive, trying to figure out policies and procedures to improve access to justice across the province. It is hard work. We are given hundreds of pages of reading material to digest in advance of our meetings. The staff work hard to prepare memos and briefs for our consumption, and then we provide critical oversight. This is on top of our day jobs, family lives and other commitments.
With two years left in this bencher term, I am hitting my stride. I represent the women criminal defence lawyers who are still subject to misogyny by their colleagues and the press. The lawyers of colour who set out to work in regions and practice areas that are predominantly white and male. Solo and small firm practitioners who struggle to make their biweekly payroll obligations and get home in time for the soccer carpool. But most importantly, the community members in rural Ontario who are seeking affordable and accessible access to justice. With thicker skin and an eye on my priorities, I am ready to take on the next two years at Convocation.
Based in Cornwall, Ont., Neha Chugh, a criminal lawyer, started Chugh Law in 2014. She also serves as prosecutor in the Akwesasne Court and is a visiting professor at the department of criminology at the University of Ottawa. Chugh was appointed as the Law Foundation of Ontario’s representative on the board of governors of the Law Commission of Ontario, where she currently serves as the vice-chair.
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