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'Dogged' defence lawyer barks and bites ; Style stands out at MFP inquiry Todd White known as legal JYD
Peter Small. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: |
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His cross-examination style recently earned him the nickname Junkyard Dog.
He's the only criminal lawyer among civil lawyers at the Toronto computer leasing inquiry, where his rough-and-ready style has clashed with their more subdued approach.
And at 40, he's a full partner with top criminal lawyer Eddie Greenspan, a position he achieved in 1998, only six years after being called to the bar.
Todd White's grilling of witnesses in the interests of his client, city hall lobbyist Jeff Lyons, has raised objections from city lawyer Linda Rothstein and lead inquiry counsel Ron Manes, as well as occasional interventions by commissioner Madam Justice Denise Bellamy.
But he makes no apologies.
"It was not me nor Mr. Lyons that chose to call these witnesses who make allegations against our client. But if commission counsel calls them, for reasons that I will never understand, I must defend our client in the highest traditions of the bar," White said in a written statement yesterday.
While cleared of any bribery allegations by the Ontario Provincial Police last year, Lyons is to appear today to be questioned about an incident in which he allegedly made an improper request for $150,000 from a sales manager in return for securing a computer leasing deal with the city.
The inquiry is examining how a computer leasing deal with MFP Financial Services Ltd. that many believed was worth $43 million in computer equipment came to cost the city $85 million without council's explicit approval.
As far as being called a junkyard dog by a newspaper columnist last weekend, "I don't think my mother would like the expression, but I think I'll take it in the highest spirit of the tradition of being a defence lawyer, that I'm dogged in my determination to prove that a client is innocent of bribery allegations," White said in an interview.
Born and raised in Toronto, White went to Etobicoke's Michael Power High School.
During that time he was a member of a rock band called Lizzie Borden- the name of a notorious alleged axe murderess- playing drums, percussion and singing lead vocals.
At the University of Toronto, where he majored in history and political science, he played with other bands.
Law school at the University of Ottawa followed, where he helped pay the bills by disc jockeying at dance clubs, one of many part- time jobs he's had since a boy, including delivering the Star.
At law school, he was a research assistant for two professors, toiled with student legal services and even performed stand-up comedy for colleagues. "I love stand-up comedy," he said. And he sometimes sees court work as a kind of performance, where he modulates his tone depending on the witness. "If a witness is sarcastic and talks back you have to control the witness and talk back as well," he said, referring to lobbyist Frank Carnevale, whom he recently questioned for 21/2 days at the inquiry.
At one point Bellamy interrupted his cross-examination of Carnevale. "Mr. White ... the tone of the way you're asking the question is very strong," she remarked.
"I'll re-ask it ... without looking at the witness sarcastically," White offered.
At one point last week, in arguing about his approach to questioning Carnevale, White told Bellamy, "If I have the opportunity to destroy a witness' credibility, I think I'm entitled to do it."
Greenspan strongly defends his partner's tactics at the inquiry.
"Mr. White has been successful in getting the witnesses to back down from their positions," Greenspan said.
In one case, White got former Dell Financial Services sales manager Robert Simone to withdraw the word "shakedown" to describe Lyons' request for $150,000 and agree that "success fee" would be more appropriate.
White is not "a member of this inquiry club," Greenspan said. "He's not going to simply sit there and allow Mr. Lyons to be besmirched. I not only agree with him, I instructed him to do this because I'm very involved in it."
Greenspan says he's a huge Toronto Raptors fan and his favourite player is Jerome Williams, nicknamed Junk Yard Dog. "So we now call Todd 'Junkyard Dog.' And what upsets me the most about it is I that I didn't get that label, he did."
White was one of the firm's best articling students, Greenspan said, and is in court about 200 days a year.
"I consider him to be an effective advocate, a very hard-working guy, works well into the night, every night," he said.
White's brother is a senior Toronto police officer and his sister married a senior police officer, but he always wanted to be a defence counsel, Greenspan said. Among the cases White has worked on were the successful defence of Private David Brocklebank in the mid- 1990s court martial in the Somalia affair, and the 1999 case of Clive Thomas, whose cocaine charges were stayed after White successfully moved a motion to have police reveal the name of their confidential informant.
John Rosen, a senior criminal lawyer, calls White "very hard- working, very thorough and quite talented."
Rosen, who has read media accounts critical of White's aggressive cross-examination style, asks "What's wrong with that? ... I would do the same thing."
No criminal or civil liability can be found at the inquiry, but they often turn into mudslinging campaigns in which reputations can be damaged, he said.
Lawyers have the right to test the credibility of anyone who puts their client in a bad light, he said.
As for being a junkyard dog, for a criminal lawyer "that's a compliment," Rosen said.
Criminal lawyer and Law Society of Upper Canada bencher Todd Ducharme, who knew White when he worked with Greenspan's law firm in the early 1990s, praised his legal skills. "He's intelligent. He works very, very hard."
Marie Henein, a former partner of White and Greenspan, called him "a great guy."
"We're very good friends. He's very personable. He's extremely funny," Henein said.
Melanie Dunn, a junior lawyer at Greenspan, White, says both partners take the time to guide younger advocates like herself.
[Illustration]
Caption: : RICHARD LAUTENS/toronto star At age 40, Todd White is a full partner with top criminal lawyer Eddie Greenspan. At the city hall computer leasing inquiry White is representing lobbyist Jeff Lyons, who is to begin testimony today.
Credit: Toronto Star
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| LAWYER PROFILES |
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Edward L. Greenspan, Q.C., LL.D., D.C.L. |
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Todd B. White, B.A., LL.B. |
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Julianna A. Greenspan, B.A., J.D |
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Vanessa V. Christie, B.A., LL.B. |
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John J. Navarrete, B.A., LL.B |
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David N. Tice, B.A., LL.B. |
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