Jordan Peterson speaks to a crowd during a stop in Sherwood Park, Alta. in February, 2018.JASON FRANSON/THE CANADIAN PRESS
Jordan Peterson spent more than half a million dollars in legal fees in his highly publicized battle with the College of Psychologists of Ontario, a recently filed court application for a fee assessment shows.
The popular right-wing provocateur – through his new lawyer, Howard Levitt – submitted the assessment request to Superior Court last week, challenging an allegedly “exorbitant” $506,000 bill from Mr. Peterson’s former lawyer, Peter Henein.
However, in a twist, when The Globe and Mail contacted Mr. Peterson for comment about why he is seeking a refund, a representative for the bestselling author said that Mr. Peterson had no issues with Mr. Henein’s fees.
“We asked the Henein firm for a review of our bill. We have been informed of the rationale to our satisfaction. We have instructed our counsel to withdraw our filing,” Jordan Spencer wrote in an e-mail. The Globe reached out to Mr. Levitt for clarification on the chain of events, but did not receive a response.
This fee assessment application is the second time that Mr. Levitt has gone to court over Mr. Peterson’s legal bill. The first was initiated in September, 2023. It was left unresolved, but provides a fascinating window into Mr. Peterson’s fight with the college, because materials filed by Mr. Levitt’s firm as part of that case – which are now on the public record – include dozens of pages of unredacted legal invoices from Mr. Henein’s team.
In November, 2022, the complaints committee of the college determined that some comments made by Mr. Peterson on social media may be considered “degrading, demeaning and unprofessional” and potentially harmful to public trust in the profession. The review came in response to numerous complaints received by the college about Mr. Peterson’s activity on Twitter, now called X, including a post in which he called Gerald Butts – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s former principal secretary – a “prik” and another about a Sports Illustrated cover that featured a plus-sized model, in which Mr. Peterson wrote: “Sorry. Not Beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that.”
The committee ordered Mr. Peterson to attend training on professionalism in public statements or risk losing his licence to practise psychology. While Mr. Peterson no longer has an active psychology practice, for him, this has been a matter of principle. Free speech is central to the YouTube personality’s brand. He has regularly commented about his fight with the college in the media and on X.
This was the nature of work that Mr. Henein – a veteran commercial litigator with Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP – performed for Mr. Peterson. His colleagues Ewa Krajewska, a constitutional law expert, and Matthew Gourlay, who specializes in evidence law, were the other two partners on the case.
According to the court filings, Mr. Henein represented Mr. Peterson between October, 2022, and August, 2023, handling eight complaints made to the college about Mr. Peterson, as well as a judicial review of the committee’s order for remedial training. (For part of that period, Mr. Henein was with another firm, Waddell Phillips PC.)
The legal issues in the judicial review were complicated, as they dealt with whether the regulatory college could sanction a member for what they say in their private life. The Henein invoices, which include work done by multiple lawyers assigned to the file, include an analysis of the committee’s decision, an academic literature review, legal research on professional organizations attempting to limit free speech for professionals, constitutional challenge research, dozens of strategy meetings, drafting of documents such as a case summary and factum, submission review, sealing order preparation and media inquiries. At least nine lawyers and law clerks from Henein Hutchison Robitaille were involved on the file at various points.
On Jan. 7, 2023, there was an item: “E-mail correspondence re: settlement terms with Butts.” (Mr. Butts sued the YouTube personality for defamation after Mr. Peterson called him “stunningly corrupt” on social media and then refused to take the post down. Mr. Peterson’s spokesperson said that the case was settled “with mutual satisfaction” and they will not comment further. Mr. Peterson deleted the tweet.)
The $506,000 amount cited in the fee assessment application appears to include HST as well as disbursements, rather than just the lawyers’ billable hours. Henein Hutchison Robitaille declined to comment.
In August, 2023, Mr. Peterson lost his case at the divisional court. The panel of three judges rejected his request for a judicial review finding that the college’s conduct committee “proportionately balanced the impact” of requiring Mr. Peterson to undergo remedial training with his right to freedom of expression. “The order is not disciplinary and does not prevent Dr. Peterson from expressing himself on controversial topics,” the court found.
Shortly afterward, Mr. Peterson switched counsel to Mr. Levitt, who in the past two years has written numerous articles praising Mr. Peterson and his efforts against the college. Mr. Levitt, a polarizing Toronto employment lawyer, handled the next two appeal attempts, both of which also failed including last month’s decision by the Supreme Court of Canada to not hear the case.