Dispute Settlement
The best “wins” for clients are non-adversarial. Clients incur fewer costs, and early dispute-settlement often paves the way for unexpected ongoing business relationships.
We believe that emotional intelligence is as important a trait in a lawyer as research-specific or advocacy-specific skills.
While those latter skills are important, they are clearly eclipsed by a professional’s ability to meaningfully disarm those who are adverse in interest.
Wins
Aside from securing regulatory approvals for clients and handling regulatory disciplinary matters, Harris Rosen has successfully argued a number of important cases under the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005 (“PCCA”), the predecessor legislation to the amended Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005 (“OCCA”) and the Ontario Human Rights Code.
Freedom Of Information
We have had successful outcomes for clients on a significant number of Freedom of Information requests in Ontario. We have represented requesters and affected Third Parties under provincial and (less frequently) federal freedom of information legislation. Often the requesters are competitors or unions seeking to gain information shared by a private institution with the provincial government.
Discipline Cases
Most significantly, we have negotiated or settled many more discipline files involving private career colleges at the pre-hearing stage and informally with the Superintendent of Career Colleges, and without resort to litigation. An important fact since it is desirable for registrants and non-registrants to maintain a relationship with the regulator following such disagreements or disputes.
