OK for Law Firm to Fire Lawyer for Insolence

Nothing gets the juices flowing like 2 lawyers caught in a nasty personal fight. Six months into the job, the associate of a one-woman law firm wrote a nasty letter to the boss criticizing her competence, professionalism and integrity. The trial court ruled the boss had just cause to fire her for insolence. But the appeals court disagreed and said the letter wasn’t insolent. So, after nearly 10 years of litigation, the case went to the Court of  Appeal for the third round. Result: The boss won. The question of whether the associate was insolent was the trial court’s call, said the Court, and the appeals court had no business second guessing it [Bennett v. Cunningham, [2012] O.J. No. 3839, Aug. 17, 2012].