UBC Law: History

Chapter 4: Toward a Law Faculty

Affiliation with the Law Society

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA consistently indicated its interest in developing a law programme from its earliest days. For its part, the law society seems to have frequently (if not consistently) demonstrated either a desire to work with the university in providing professional education or, at the very least, an openness to the idea in principle (it is unclear whether these desires were based in a deep professional love for the world of ideas or, as Peter Sibenik has hinted of the Alberta Law Society, a deeper and even more abiding desire to off-load educational costs to students and the public). Probably the aspirational combined seamlessly in the minds of many lawyers with more practical concerns about law society finances. Nevertheless, British Columbia came tantalizingly close to having a university-affiliated faculty of law as early as 1923—and also in 1930, 1938, and 1941!

The Law Society’s Financial Situation

All discussions of legal education in the province during the inter-war period took place within a context in which the provincial university was severely underfunded and the law society was in a permanent state of financial crisis. Alfred Watts has provided a succinct account of the scandal that was law society finances:

It was about the turn of the century that the fees of a large number of outside applicants resulted in fairly substantial funds becoming available to the Society and a capital account of some eighty-five thousand was rapidly accumulated. The Benchers concluded that something better than bank interest should be obtained. . . . By 1915 they had some fifty-three thousand dollars invested in Mortgages in Victoria and by about 1924 had lost the whole bundle.
And at the same time various matters combined to provide additional financial stress. The second digest of the B.C. Reports was printed at a cost of seven thousand dollars and given to the members while the fees of all those on active service (of which there was a very large number) were excused, and, again due to the war, there was practically no enrolment of outside Barristers and Solicitors. In addition a special meeting of the Society had authorized the Benchers to pay out the sum of ten thousand dollars to a patriotic fund. Indeed by 1916 there was an expenditure of seven thousand dollars over receipts.
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After the end of the first war the financial position of the Society continued to deteriorate, and by 1923 there were numerous complaints from the members, particularly because the annual statement showed only receipts and disbursements.
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By 1924 the Society had expended eighteen thousand dollars more than it had received and when an effort was made to increase the fees strong objection was made by members of the Society, no doubt because of the serious financial losses.

Leonard S. Klinck served as president of the University of British Columbia during the crucial inter-war period. Much maligned for not sufficiently defending the interests of the university during these times, he nonetheless put enormous effort into developing a university law faculty.

By 1924 a more or less general rebellion of ordinary lawyers developed from concern about the miserable state of law society finances. Watts records that in February 1924 Garfield King wrote to the secretary of the law society to register the sense of "ever increasing discontent and dissatisfaction felt with the financial arrangements of the Society. Some of the ‘elder statesmen’ would surely get bumped at the next election of the Benchers if the expression of opinion at the Bar luncheon are any indication".

It is hard to know what role legal education played against this backdrop of budgetary crisis and law society politics. The structure and content of legal education has always been an intensely political issue—matters of training and skill speak powerfully to visions of citizenship, professionalism, competence, self-worth, personal status, and wealth. Accordingly, every common-law jurisdiction has seen its share of sustained, heart-felt debate about the ideology of legal education. The matter is complicated when, as in early twentieth century British Columbia, concerns for economy and prudent law society management might have suggested disposing of law lectures altogether, cutting the budget provided for them to the bone, or seeking out some cost-effective long-term arrangement with a university—depending on the predilections and individual cost-benefit assessments entered into by a changing slate of Benchers.

The Law Society Proposal for a Law Faculty

On August 11, 1922, a Bencher of the Law Society of British Columbia, Arthur M. Whiteside, wrote to Leonard S. Klinck, who had succeeded Wesbrook as president of the University of British Columbia. Whiteside advised the president that the Benchers had appointed a committee (A. H. MacNeill, R. M. MacDonald, and Arthur Whiteside) "to interview the University authorities for the purpose of discussing the possibility of establishing a Faculty of Law in connection with the University". Whiteside reminded Klinck that "the Benchers have for some time past conducted a Law School, at which the students have been in attendance", and informed him that "they feel that it would be a decided advantage to those desiring to enter the profession and to the public, if the activities of the Law School were undertaken by the University". Klinck apparently responded enthusiastically, if cautiously, to this approach (he faced severe budget problems of his own) and moved quickly to meet the law society committee. He was assured that the rough plan the law society was working toward would involve only modest expenditure. In September the president met with "Mr. Reid" (most likely Robie L. Reid, a member of the university board of governors from 1913 to 1935) to discuss the Benchers’ proposal for a faculty of law. President Klinck’s memorandum of this meeting indicates that:

[d]uring the course of the interview, Mr. Reid called up Mr. R. M. MacDonald and learned from him that the representatives of the Benchers did not expect that the University would be able to defray any considerable part of the expenses. He also stated that it was their intention to have the teaching conducted in the Court House where the Library would be available to all.

So assured, the president initiated a thorough investigation of the state of legal education in Canada and the role of universities in training lawyers. On October 4, 1922, Stanley Matthews, registrar for the university, wrote to the law societies of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia to enquire about examinations, instruction, and "[t]he extent to which study at a University is required, and how far, if at all, a University degree is recognized as qualification, or as part of a qualification, for call for admission?" A copy of this letter was apparently provided to "Mr. Angus" though what further role, if any, Henry Angus played at this time is unclear.

At a special meeting of the board of governors on October 20, 1922, a letter from Arthur Whiteside was read. It put forward the proposal "that the University establish a Faculty of Law "and set out" the conditions under which legal instruction might be carried on without immediate most to the University". The board responded with interest and referred the matter to senate. The law society apparently took encouragement from its dealings with Klinck and with the board of governors, for Whiteside’s correspondence during the next two weeks seems premised on the assumption that the birth of a university faculty of law was imminent. A meeting of the Benchers on October 2, 1922, passed a resolution "that the Law Society undertake to pay $2000.- annually toward the maintenance of a Law Faculty at the University of British Columbia and that the Committee on legal education be empowered to confer with the University Authorities on that basis".

At a December 20, 1922 senate meeting, the president, further to the mandate of the senate, appointed a committee (Cecil Killam, Chair; R. E. McKechnie; Judge Howay; Dean R. W. Brock; and Theodore Boggs) to look into establishing a faculty of law. President Klinck continued to play an active role in all aspects of work directed toward establishing a law faculty.

Chapter 4 continued