The Law of Work
  • Home
  • About
  • Professor David Doorey
  • Osgoode Hall LLM
  • Books
  • Guest Contributors
  • Useful Links
    • Archive
  • Home
  • About
  • Professor David Doorey
  • Osgoode Hall LLM
  • Books
  • Guest Contributors
  • Useful Links
    • Archive
The Law of Work
Law of Work Archive

Law Firms and Drinking Functions

by David Doorey April 12, 2011
written by David Doorey April 12, 2011

Law firms that hold office parties and provide free alcohol to employees are asking for trouble these days.   A labour law firm was in the news, and not in a good way, recently.   Mathews Dinsdale Clark is one of the leading employer-side firms in the country, with many of our best labour lawyers.  It hosts a student labour law moot each year and then takes out the participants for dinner and drinks with some of the associates and partners.   At the 2009 event, the dinner moved on to a club and some of the lawyers apparently had too much to drink.   A couple of law suits resulted, including a defamation action by one of the firms’ partners against two of the firm’s junior lawyers for allegedly making false allegations about the partner’s conduct at the event.  That story is reviewed in this National Post piece form last summer. I have no idea what the truth is, but obviously what transpired that night is in dispute.  None of the three lawyers involved in the dispute are still at Mathews Dinsdale, so this fiasco has obviously not been good business for the firm.
That story was back in on the front page of the Toronto Star last  week because one of the junior lawyers who was named in the defamation lawsuit filed by the partner has just filed a $1.3 million wrongful dismissal lawsuit against Mathews Dinsdale.  Here is the story from the Law Times last week.  The ex-Mathews Dinsdale lawyer alleges that after he provided a statement on the events surrounding the night of drinking, he was shut out of work, ostracized, and forced to leave the firm.  So this is a constructive dismissal lawsuit, for my students.  He was not “fired”, but he alleges the employer stopped giving him work to leave him with no choice but to quit.  The law firm denies this allegation.  The lawyer who filed the lawsuit is now working at another Toronto employer side law firm, Sherrard Kuzz.  One of his claims in the lawsuit is that the law firm violated Section 8 of the Human Rights Code by punishing him for making a complaint under the firm’s harassment policy.
While there are disputes about the facts in this case that only a trial could sort out (and I doubt very much this will ever make it to trial), one thing is very clear:  none of this would have happened if not for a night of firm sponsored drinking and partying.   Lots of companies and law firms host events like this.  It is becoming more common for employees to sue their employers for damages incurred relating to firm events at which too much drinking takes place.  What should your company do about this?
Well, Courts have told us that employers must be proactive, monitor drinking, ensure no drunk people are served and be absolutely certain that no intoxicated people leave the party and drive home.  If I were running a business, I’d distribute two free drink chits to employees and require anything after that to be paid, for starters, because I have seen people who would never drink more than two drinks put back 4 or 5 at an open bar.  And always make sure there are taxi chits available for free to employees.
What other steps do you take, all you HR folks out there?
Here is an interesting radio discussion about how companies and firms should manage firm functions involving alcohol with Steven Shamie, a senior lawyer at another of the country’s top employer-side labour law firms, Hicks Morley.

0 comment
0
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
David Doorey

Professor Doorey is an Associate Professor of Work Law and Industrial Relations at York University. He is Academic Director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s executive LLM Program in Labour and Employment Law and a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program. Professor Doorey is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School (LL.B., Ph.D), London School of Economics (LLM Labour Law), and the University of Toronto (B.A., M.I.R.).

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

previous post
Carasco v. U. of Windsor: Professor Moon Stays, Other Intervenors Tossed
next post
Labour Arbitration Conference, Toronto, April 29th

You may also like

This Blog Entry is About the Lunacy of...

July 21, 2019

A Cross Country Update on the Card-Check versus...

October 3, 2018

The Folly of Not Voting to Strike in...

September 16, 2018

Unifor Posts Photos of Replacement Workers as Gander...

September 10, 2018

A Wrongful Dismissal Case and the Absence of...

August 29, 2018

China Said to Quickly Withdraw Approval for New...

August 27, 2018

The Latest Hot E-Commerce Idea in China: The...

August 27, 2018

The Trump Administration Just Did Something Unambiguously Good...

August 27, 2018

Unstable Situations Require Police In Riot Gear Face...

August 27, 2018

Trump’s War on the Justice System Threatens to...

August 27, 2018

Follow Us On Social Media

Twitter

Latest Tweets

David J. Doorey🇨🇦 @TheLawofWork@mas.to Follow

Law Prof. Talking #labor & #employment #law to the masses. @YorkUniversity @OsgoodeNews @LSELaw @CLJEHarvard @Jacobin @OnLaborBlog https://t.co/5V9r8VPHsh

TheLawofWork
Retweet on Twitter David J. Doorey🇨🇦 @TheLawofWork@mas.to Retweeted
josheidelson Josh Eidelson @josheidelson ·
4h

Scoop: Labor Board prosecutors have concluded Starbucks illegally refused to fairly negotiate at dozens of newly-unionized cafes across the country https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-28/starbucks-illegally-refused-to-bargain-on-zoom-nlrb-lawyer-says Starbucks’ refusal to negotiate if some workers participated via Zoom was illegal, NLRB general counsel says

Reply on Twitter 1640509028567506950 Retweet on Twitter 1640509028567506950 132 Like on Twitter 1640509028567506950 392 Twitter 1640509028567506950
Retweet on Twitter David J. Doorey🇨🇦 @TheLawofWork@mas.to Retweeted
alexisshotwell Alexis Shotwell @alexisshotwell ·
10h

This morning the president of @Carleton_U sent out a note underlining his understanding of “how painful labour disruptions can be to communities,” pleading for us to be calm and respectful and to support our students at the end of term. 1/

Reply on Twitter 1640430514627551256 Retweet on Twitter 1640430514627551256 82 Like on Twitter 1640430514627551256 235 Twitter 1640430514627551256
thelawofwork David J. Doorey🇨🇦 @TheLawofWork@mas.to @thelawofwork ·
11h

Oh fun.

‘AI is on the cusp of taking control: This is how it may all go wrong’

https://apple.news/AWvPXyT8WTVOs5byQvVk-3Q

Reply on Twitter 1640408084093779989 Retweet on Twitter 1640408084093779989 1 Like on Twitter 1640408084093779989 3 Twitter 1640408084093779989
Load More

Categories

  • Alberta
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Australia
  • British Columbia
  • Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • Childcare
  • Class Action
  • Climate and Just Transition
  • Collective Bargaining
  • Common Law of Employment
  • Comparative Work Law
  • competition law
  • construction
  • COVID-19
  • Diversity
  • Employee Classification
  • Employment Insurance
  • Employment Regulation
  • Europe
  • Financial Industry
  • Fissured Work
  • Freedom of Association
  • frustration of contract
  • Gig Work
  • Health and Safety
  • Health Care
  • Human Rights
  • Immigration
  • Interest Arbitration
  • International Law
  • Labour Arbitration
  • Labour Economics
  • Law of Work Archive
  • Legal Profession
  • Manitoba
  • Migrant Workers
  • Minimum Wage
  • Newfoundland
  • Nova Scotia
  • OLRB
  • Ontario
  • Pension Bankruptcy
  • Privacy
  • Public Sector
  • Quebec
  • Real Life Pleadings
  • Saskatchewan
  • Scholarship
  • Sports Labour
  • Strikes and Lockouts
  • Student Post
  • Supreme Court of Canada
  • technology
  • Transnational Law
  • Uncategorized
  • Unions and Collective Bargaining
  • United States
  • Videos
  • Women and Work
  • Wrongful Dismissal
  • Home
  • About
  • Guest Contributors
Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Guest Contributors
  • Legal Scholarship
  • Useful Links
  • Archive
Menu
  • Legal Scholarship
  • Useful Links
  • Archive

2020. Canadian Law of Work Forum. All Rights Reserved.