Is a principal in a fiduciary relationship with the articled student in relation to the articles?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from Gichuru v. Smith, 2014 BCCA 414 (CanLII):
Neither side has been able to locate any cases where a principal has been found to be in a fiduciary relationship with the principal’s articled student in relation to the student’s articles. I do not find that at all surprising. This is because a lawyer’s primary duty is to the lawyer’s clients, to whom, and without any doubt, the lawyer owes fiduciary obligations. The idea that, by taking on an articled student, a lawyer gives an undertaking (either express or implied) to act in the articled student’s best interests, is incompatible with the lawyer’s existing fiduciary obligations to the lawyer’s clients. To paraphrase McLachlin C.J. at para. 44 in Alberta v. Elder Advocates, imposing such a burden on a lawyer is inherently at odds with the lawyer’s duty to act in the best interests of the lawyer’s clients. [Emphasis in original.]
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