Personal injury law firm Diamond & Diamond has lashed out at organizers of a recent webinar on legal ethics who referenced the firm in promotional materials.

Sandra Zisckind, managing lawyer of Diamond & Diamond and wife of the public face of the firm, Jeremy Diamond, sent an email to the Ontario Trial Lawyers’ Association (OTLA) accusing it of being “defamatory” and showing “bias.”

“You are suggesting my firm did something wrong,” Zisckind wrote to the organizers, whose group represents about 1,200 personal injury lawyers. “We were unfairly targeted by the media, shouldn’t that be the story? I am disgusted by the bias you have shown here. I will decide what actions my firm will take.”

An ad for the webinar distributed to OTLA’s members contained the headline, “Media hits hard on personal injury lawyers — you read the D + D story.”

Organizers say the event was held to teach lawyers best practices when it comes to advertising their services.

OTLA members must market in a “fair, honest and forthright manner,” according to the webinar, and should not “mislead or deceive, demean the profession or engage in any practice which may bring the profession as a whole . . . into disrepute.”

A couple of frames from the webinar referenced the Star’s Dec. 3 “front page news” story about Diamond & Diamond, including how it was trending on Twitter, the high readership of a story in the Toronto Star Saturday edition, and how, according to the webinar, “more articles may follow.”

The webinar, which had been planned for several months, was held Monday, about a week after the Star published the first of two investigative stories dealing with Diamond & Diamond, and Jeremy Diamond.

The Star found that the firm has for many years been attracting thousands of would-be clients through a U.S.-style advertising campaign and then referring their cases to other lawyers in return for sometimes hefty referral fees. The investigation also revealed that Jeremy Diamond, who is described as an “award-winning personal injury lawyer,” has never tried a case himself.

Julian Porter, a libel lawyer hired by Diamond & Diamond, has told the Star the firm hired lawyers to handle cases in-house and currently has “thousands” of clients on retainer. Porter said the firm does refer out “some individuals,” but would not say how many.

The 75-minute webinar, which had about 60 participants, was part of a series of educational seminars lawyers can use to earn credits toward their continuing legal education.

The ad for the webinar, emailed to prospective participants a week before the event, included the following blurb: “Make sure you are on the right side of these high-profile issues as personal injury lawyers face increased scrutiny. Tune in for tips on how to avoid seeing your name in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.”

The issues of legal advertising and referral fees are being probed by a Law Society of Upper Canada working group with recommendations expected next year. The law society is also probing 90 cases of advertising and referral fee complaints involving lawyers from various firms across Ontario. The society has not publicly identified the lawyers involved, but said some lawyers face multiple complaints.

The OTLA webinar discussed the importance of following the Rules of Professional Conduct, which state lawyers should avoid making “qualitative comparisons” to other lawyers, and the webinar slides provided examples, saying lawyers should not call themselves the “best,” or the “top” in their field. People watching the webinar were also reminded that the rules prevent lawyers from implying in advertising that they are “aggressive.” Also included in the webinar was a warning that lawyers should not allude to past successes by advertising an amount of money recovered in a settlement unless “accompanied by a further statement that past results are not necessarily indicative of future results.”

Shortly after sending out the promo, organizers received an angry email from Zisckind.

“Please tell me how this does not violate law society rules? How is this also not defamatory?” she wrote. Zisckind’s email does not elaborate on what Law Society rule may be in violation by the webinar’s promotional material.

The Star emailed questions about the webinar complaint (including a question about which rule Zisckind was referencing) to Zisckind, Diamond and their lawyer, Julian Porter, but did not receive a response.

Ron Bohm, vice-president of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association and a presenter of the webinar, said organizers decided to reference the Star’s investigation due to the expectation that participants might have questions regarding some of the issues raised in the story.

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“The webinar provided a convenient forum to address any such questions,” Bohm told the Star.

He said his association “did not agree” with the issues raised by Zisckind and did not respond to her email, but shared it with participants “in an effort to be transparent about, and address, the concerns she raised.”

Neither Zisckind nor Diamond is a member of the association, Bohm noted.