Apr 18, 2018
To celebrate National Volunteer Week, CBA National, the regular publication of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA), is profiling outstanding CBA volunteers, including Mahmud Jamal, a partner in Osler’s Litigation Group in Toronto and an elected member of the firm’s Partnership Board. He has served as pro bono counsel for the CBA, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, including acting on numerous appeals before the Supreme Court of Canada. In an interview on the magazine’s website, Mahmud shares his outlook on volunteering and the important role the CBA plays in the industry.
“The CBA is the national voice of the legal profession in Canada, so it’s important for all of us to contribute to it if we want a strong legal profession that plays its proper role in Canadian society,” Mahmud explains. “I’ve always considered myself very lucky to be a lawyer in one of the freest and most tolerant countries in the world. Volunteer work for the CBA is one small way of thanking a profession that has provided so many opportunities for me.”
He goes on to discuss solicitor-client privilege. “The issue that has been most important to me as a CBA volunteer is the protection of solicitor-client privilege. The CBA has been a very strong voice in seeking to protect the privilege for Canadians, by explaining its importance to the rule of law and in securing access to justice,” Mahmud says. “By working to protect the privilege, the CBA has allowed me and other lawyers to serve their clients under the protection of confidentiality. That means better legal advice and better access to justice for everyone concerned.”
Read the full interview from April 17, 2018, “Outstanding CBA volunteer: Mahmud Jamal,” on the CBA National website.