Edward Greenspan

Location: Ontario | Profession: Laywers/Judges

Click to show/hide links to other profiles

Edward Greenspan

Eddie Greenspan was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, long before the town was synonymous with casinos and gaudy tourist attractions. His dream of becoming a criminal defence lawyer began when he read the biography of Clarence Darrow at age thirteen. From that day on, he had a one-track mind. After finishing law school at Osgoode Hall in Toronto, he went on to practice in a large firm, where he slowly made a reputation for himself by representing defendants who seemed guilty to everyone involved in the case. He is now one of the best known defence counsel in the country.

Edward Greenspan

What They Said

On His First Case:
I learned many lessons from my first case. I was representing a young man who’d acted for himself at his first trial. He had been charged with the possession of housebreaking tools and got convicted. My case was in the court of appeal. A legal aid case. The court wouldn’t stop yelling at me, telling me that if I was finished to sit down. I wasn’t prepared to sit down until I had made all my points. The judge called me “Greenspoon”, “Greenburg” and “Greenstein”. At one point I got really annoyed and I said, “My lord, my name is Greenspan!” He looked at me and said, “I don’t care what your name is. Sit down.”

That trial was a tremendous experience in terms of understanding people and recognising what and what not to do. In my jury address, for example, I used the word “surreptitiously”. I looked at the jury and I saw the look of the walleyed pike. I realised then that never again would I use a word that was not commonly appreciated by all people. And it had to be all people because there are twelve of them on that jury. I would never try and sound like a lawyer and use legal expressions. I consider using the word “purport” to be a criminal offence. It’s language I don’t want to know. Lawyers like to talk like lawyers. They have this notion of respectability. They pretend to be something they’re not and they project something they’re not because of this desire for respect. But I believe you earn respect by being yourself. I remember that trial very well because I couldn’t be somebody else. I could only be me.

I came to respect every single client who had been charged. I, as a lawyer, may have many cases but each of my clients has only one. And it’s the most important case of their lives. If they’re a truck driver and they’re charged with impaired driving, it’s their job on the line. Sometimes, it may also be murder and it may be very serious - they may be going to jail for a long time. That first case wasn’t that important in the grand scheme of things, but for me it was the biggest eye-opener of my life. I treated it like it was capital murder. I learned to treat every case like that one.

I was practicing with another young lawyer who came out of law school with me. He had just finished his first case. He got an acquittal. I got an acquittal. His case, which had been given to him by the principal partner at our firm was money paying. So they were having champagne when I came in. Mine was a legal aid which meant it wasn’t a money paying case. They said, “Come on in. Bob just won his first jury trial.” I said, “So did I.” My boss said, “Have you billed him?” And I said, “No. I just won it.” And he said, “Well, you go into your office and you bill it before you come into this room.”

So I went into my office, closed the door and called my wife. I said, “I just won my first jury trial.” Then I billed it because I was compelled to bill it. I made maybe $800 compared to the $20,000 that the other lawyer had won. But I know that I had a much better time winning my case. He ended up leaving criminal law three years later. I never left.