Law Society ends legal dispute with former CEO Diana Miles

The Law Society of Ontario has decided not to pursue legal action against its ousted chief executive officer, Diana Miles, marking the end of a chapter that has rocked the province’s legal regulator for the past year and a half.

In March, 2025, the law society’s board – which is called Convocation – voted to fire Ms. Miles after an external investigation determined she had been improperly given a pay increase of more than 50 per cent without the board’s knowledge.

After her termination, the board created a special committee to determine whether they should pursue legal action against Ms. Miles to recoup the funds she had been paid under the unauthorized contract.

According to multiple law society benchers – the title for the directors on the society’s board – in June, the then head of the board, Treasurer Peter Wardle, announced during an in-camera meeting that they had entered into a mutual release agreement with Ms. Miles, waiving all current and future claims. The Globe and Mail is not naming these benchers as they are not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The result is that Ms. Miles will not have to repay the additional compensation she received.

Ms. Miles did not respond to a request for comment.

In an e-mail to The Globe, Lisa Hall, director of communications at the Law Society of Ontario, said that the organization “does not comment on legal, confidential or personnel-related matters.”

According to interviews with several benchers who have knowledge of the events, the timing of the agreement was motivated by a number of concerns, including that the law society’s statute of limitation period was expiring. In Ontario, you generally must start a civil lawsuit within two years from the day you discover your claim.

The benchers added that going to court would have been costly and meant a public re-examination of the controversy – something that the law society wanted to avoid.

Inside the Law Society of Ontario’s decision to release report on ousted CEO’s pay rise

The compensation controversy at the Ontario Law Society – the institution responsible for regulating, licensing and disciplining the more than 60,000 lawyers and 11,000 licensed paralegals in the province – began in November, 2024, when benchers learned Ms. Miles had received the substantial raise.

The board then retained former associate chief justice of Ontario Dennis O’Connor to investigate the circumstances. It appeared the raise had been pushed through by former treasurer Jacqueline Horvat, who is now a judge. At the November meeting, benchers learned that Ms. Horvat had commissioned a consultant to analyze Ms. Miles’s compensation. After that review found Ms. Miles was being paid below market rate, Ms. Horvat was alleged to have approved the raise.

Mr. O’Connor’s findings raised concerns about Ms. Horvat’s conduct and revealed governance failures within the Law Society.

In his report, Mr. O’Connor concluded that Ms. Horvat “did not have the authority to amend the CEO’s contract without Convocation approval.” He noted that his mandate was not to assign blame to individuals, but he found that there were “ample red flags” that should have also alerted Ms. Miles to the fact that her raise needed to go to the board.

Ms. Miles’s departure shocked the legal community and groups immediately called for more information about what had transpired. The law society eventually agreed to release Mr. O’Connor’s report, with the names of current law society staff redacted, after The Globe and Mail obtained a detailed account of its contents.

Ms. Hall said the Law Society of Ontario has since “responded decisively” to the findings and recommendations in Mr. O’Connor’s investigation and has “fundamentally strengthened its approach to governance, accountability and oversight,” in the e-mail to The Globe.

The Law Society established a new permanent committee with a clearly defined mandate regarding CEO compensation and performance management and broader human resources matters, Ms. Hall said. Additionally, the law society established a “dedicated governance committee.”

Several benchers told The Globe and Mail that they don’t believe the events that resulted in Ms. Miles’s pay raise were a consequence of systemic governance issues, but one of misconduct and malfeasance.