Realtysellers president and CEO Lawrence Dale has hired new lawyers to represent the company in matters relating to the Competition Bureau’s case against the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB).

Realtysellers has applied for leave to intervene in the case.

TREB filed a motion to have the legal firm Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP removed as solicitors of record for Realtysellers Real Estate, stating that Gowlings was its general counsel from 2001 to mid-2007 and “during the period of the retainer, TREB disclosed confidential information to Gowlings relevant to subject matters in issue in the application.”

In a statement to REM, Dale says, “The facts are my competition counsel recently moved to Gowlings to head up that firm’s competition group. Gowlings set up an ethical wall as is customary in these situations. My lawyer was not at Gowlings when they acted for TREB.”

Dale says, “In our view and based on the law, if these types of ethical walls are set up, there is no issue…There was no reason to further delay these proceedings with procedural issues that have nothing to do with the merits of the proceedings. My lawyer switched firms to a firm that TREB used years ago and TREB wanted to allege this was somehow improper, which is ridiculous as lawyers move to other firms all the time. I made it easy and got new lawyers so we can get on with the case.”