U of M ex-dean ‘not a person who can be trusted to be a lawyer’

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This article was published 23/11/2023 (705 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An attorney for the Law Society of Manitoba has hinted the watchdog plans to request the disbarment of a former dean of law who is accused of filing more than $500,000 in phony work expenses.

The society’s disciplinary committee — a panel of two lawyers and a public representative — heard final submissions in the case against Jonathan Black-Branch on Thursday.

“Black-Branch is simply not a person who can be trusted to be a lawyer. He does not demonstrate the integrity that lawyers are required to demonstrate,” lawyer Rocky Kravetsky told a hearing room in downtown Winnipeg.

Kravetsky spoke at length about the evidence, both in the form of witnesses and affidavits, as he concluded the former academic administrator engaged in “conduct that was dishonourable and dishonest” during his tenure at the University of Manitoba.

The official charge is framed as both “professional misconduct” and “conduct unbecoming,” he said, noting the panel needs to determine one of the two is relevant in each of the seven specific concerns associated with it.

The most egregious claim is Black-Branch spent roughly $500,000 in public funds, including $150,000 to complete a program at Harvard Business School and $80,000 on a certificate at an adjunct school of Yale University, to update his personal resumé.

The defendant is accused of misspending operating dollars and endowment income on himself.

In addition to faculty funds, Black-Branch had access to a legacy fund set up to operate the Marcel A. Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law — a hub dedicated to researching small businesses — because he appointed himself as its chairman shortly after starting at the U of M.

Black-Branch, who specializes in international nuclear law, was appointed dean of Robson Hall in 2016. His five-year term was cut short in 2020, following an internal investigation into his spending habits at Manitoba’s largest university.

On Thursday, Kravetsky revealed the ex-dean used endowment funds to cover expenses — including incorporation fees — related to the International Society of Law and Nuclear Disarmament (ISLAND) when he was president of its board of trustees.

Black-Branch arranged for the university to categorize ISLAND as a charity — a complex process the law society alleges involved manipulation of financial staff and administrators — and donate an initial $75,000 to it, he said.

“There would’ve been two more (identical) installments, if the whistle hadn’t been blown,” Kravetsky told the hearing.

Following the 2019-20 school year, U of M released a whistleblower report that outlined a single disclosure of alleged financial mismanagement by an unnamed senior employee.

An audit concluded wrongdoing occurred. It is among the evidence in the law society’s case against Black-Branch.

About 200 receipts between the Manitoba Club and Across the Board Game Café, all of which indicate a single person was served, were entered as evidence Black-Branch lied about meeting people at those establishments for business or research purposes.

Kravetsky has also called into question a $14,476 accommodation bill from the University of Cambridge, where Black-Branch accepted a visiting fellow position that required him to spend two-thirds of his time in the U.K.

The remaining particulars of his case include allegations Black-Branch often charged his employer per diems and lodging fees when both were provided as part of educational events he attended.

Initially, nine specific concerns were filed, but Kravetsky told the panel the society did not want to move forward with two smaller claims — purchases of allergy medication and personal books, respectively — on Thursday.

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Throughout the proceedings, the law society’s representative has repeatedly argued Black-Branch manipulated employees and leveraged a U of M expense-reporting system that did not require approval from a superior.

Panel chairman Grant Mitchell and his colleagues are deliberating whether Black-Branch is guilty.

The defendant, who lives in the U.K. and is representing himself, did not attend any of the public proceedings, which were held in September and November.

Citing mental health concerns, Black-Branch has repeatedly sought to delay the case — and he was initially successful in doing so, but the panel dismissed his two latest attempts to adjourn due to limited documentation to support his claims.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter

Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.

Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.

Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.