THE ADVOCATE 135
VOL. 79 PART 1 JANUARY 2021
FROM OUR
BACK PAGES
By D. Michael Bain
A SHORT SUMMARY OF
THE LIFE OF s.m.a.l.l.*
By Gerald J. Lecovin, Q.C.
F rom time to time a lawyer stops me on the street and asks why
we never hear about s.m.a.l.l. The other day I bumped into the
editor of the Advocate, who mentioned that the editorial board
was wondering what was happening with s.m.a.l.l. and why they
received no more letters about it. It struck me that there is a whole decade
of lawyers who know nothing of these letters and that, as was the case with
Arthur Conan Doyle, the time had come to put my creation to rest. What
follows is the last (and for some the first) that you will hear of s.m.a.l.l.
One day in 1963, Bob Guile got the idea that it would be fun to get some
of the short lawyers in town together for lunch. He was practising in the
firm of Russell & DuMoulin. As I recall it, Len DuMoulin had the Bayshore
Hotel as a client. Through Len, Bob arranged to rent the ballroom at a very
minimal price. About a dozen of us were invited. In addition to myself, I
recall Tony Pantages, one or two other short members of Bob’s firm, Patricia
Byrne and, of course, Bob himself. I believe Len also attended.
There we were, a dozen people having lunch at a table in the middle of
the huge ballroom that was otherwise empty. Bob was friends with Alan
Fotheringham the columnist, who did a tongue-and-cheek article in The
* Reprinted from (2011) 69 Advocate 199. For more about the author, please see page 93 of this issue.