Former Manitoba law school dean can't be trusted as lawyer and should be disbarred, law society lawyer says

A lawyer representing the Law Society of Manitoba argues the former head of the University of Manitoba's law school can't be trusted as a lawyer and should be disbarred based on numerous allegations he misspent or misused hundreds of thousands of dollars from the university.

In his closing arguments to a law society disciplinary panel on Thursday, Rocky Kravetsky, a lawyer representing the society, broke down the list of accusations against the former dean, Jonathan Black-Branch — including nearly $500,000 he allegedly misspent on professional development from a U of M endowment meant for students.

"These are serious, serious breaches," Kravetsky told the panel of the law society at Black-Branch's professional misconduct hearing in Winnipeg.

"The likelihood is we would be seeking disbarment.… Jonathan Black-Branch is simply not a person that can be trusted to be a lawyer.… He does not demonstrate the integrity that lawyers are required to."

The professional misconduct hearing has focused on alleged integrity breaches in Black-Branch's expense claims, ranging from meals at a pricey private Winnipeg club, to accommodation, travel, education expenses and more.

The hearing hit several delays over his repeated requests to postpone on the basis of a medical issue. The law society rejected a final request this week.

"There have been a bunch of opportunities he's had to participate in some meaningful manner to respond to the allegations against him that … are obviously serious in nature," Grant Mitchell, the law society panel chairperson, said Thursday.

Black-Branch, first hired as law dean of Manitoba's largest post-secondary institution in 2016, went on leave suddenly and with no public explanation in spring 2020.

A whistleblower complaint led to an internal investigation by the U of M around the same time.

In August 2020, the U of M said that investigation found a senior university employee misused or misspent university money.

The university didn't publicly name Black-Branch at the time, but later filed a complaint with the law society. Several U of M law professors also shared concerns with the law society.

That same summer, the University of Southampton announced Black-Branch as the new head of its law school, only to reverse course days later, citing a change in circumstances.

Witnesses testify

In the past three days of hearings, Kravetsky called witnesses that included three Winnipeg lawyers and past U of M law faculty financial staff.

One of those staff members said she grew increasingly suspicious of Black-Branch in late 2019, after finding issues while processing various expense reports.

The names of three lawyers turned up on dozens of meal receipts, or chits, from the private members-only Manitoba Club that Black-Branch allegedly charged to the university from 2017 to 2019.

In the majority of over 40 such cases, the lawyers testified they did not dine with Black-Branch on dates associated with the expense claims.

Black-Branch spent about $50,000 in total, including membership fees, at the Manitoba Club, about $11,000 of which came out of a U of M research and training centre fund, Kravetsky said.

Fund meant for students: lawyer

That was one of over half a dozen categories of alleged misspending Kravetsky laid out as the hearing wrapped up on Thursday.

The largest sum — $472,000 — was associated with spending from that same research and training endowment fund.

As director and chair of the fund, Black-Branch was responsible for authorizing expenses from the endowment, Kravetsky said.

The fund was primarily meant for students pursuing professional development in the areas of private enterprise and small business. Black-Branch misspent the fund on his own professional development coursework, at schools like Harvard and Yale, some of which "had nothing to do with being a better lawyer," Kravetsky said.

"The only person who benefited from this half a million dollars worth of expenditure was Jonathan Black-Branch. He has several new lines on his resumé," he said.

"He had a duty to apply those funds for their intended purposes.… He spent them for other purposes."

The hearing was told about a $75,000 university payment to the ISLAND Foundation of International Society of Law and Nuclear Disarmament, which Black-Branch was president of at the time, associated with it becoming incorporated in Canada.

Kravetsky said that constituted a conflict of interest and there was a "manipulation of the process in order to find a way to pay this."

Black-Branch also charged nearly $3,800 in meals and expenses from Across the Board game café to the university, Kravetsky said. 

Expense reports suggested on 62 occasions, he was there for business meetings with one of the owners, but the owner testified that never happened and Black-Branch often ate by himself.

Also at issue was $14,000 in accommodation charges for a U.K.-based fellowship opportunity.

The law society panel is mulling next steps. Black-Branch faces the possibility of a reprimand, suspension or disbarment.

"This is a case of persistent and pervasive failure of integrity," Kravetsky said.