A Thirst for Knowledge 

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A Thirst for Knowledge

Vern Krishna, FCGA, adds the John Leslie Award to an unparalleled list of credentials and achievements.

FROM: JUL-AUG 2006 ISSUE | BY ALISON ARNOT

To any professional accountant or lawyer who stays abreast of developments in tax law and international taxation, the name Vern Krishna is certainly familiar. Professor Krishna, C.M., Q.C., LL.D., FCGA, has contributed greatly to both the accounting and law professions with the publication of several books on taxation and his regular columns in the National Post and The Bottom Line; through his teaching and research at the University of Ottawa; in his law practice at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP; and through his leadership role at the Law Society of Upper Canada, CGA Ontario, and CGA-Canada.

"Like most professional people, I work hard. The only difference is I think I work hard at different things rather than one thing," says Prof. Krishna. "I lead an eclectic and varied life, which I enjoy...I'm in the fortunate position where I can pick and choose what I want to do."

In recognition of Prof. Krishna's outstanding efforts to advance two professions, CGA-Canada has awarded him the John Leslie Award for 2006. The Association established this award in 1988 in honour of its founding president and Chair John Leslie, who was vice-president, finance, of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The John Leslie Award is given once a year, but not necessarily every year, to a member who has achieved national recognition for exceptional service. Prof. Krishna was presented with the award at a special dinner held in conjunction with the July 2006 Board meeting in Montreal.

"[The John Leslie Award] came right out of the blue. I had no idea at all," says Prof. Krishna. "I didn't know I had been nominated. I just opened a letter from CGA-Canada and obviously, I was pleased."

Rodney Goetz, CGA, who has worked with Prof. Krishna on several CGA Ontario committees, nominated him for the John Leslie Award. "Does he need another award? Probably not. But it's well-deserved," Goetz says, noting Prof. Krishna's contributions to the profession and the profile he has brought to the designation, not only in Ontario, but across Canada.

In addition to the John Leslie Award, Prof. Krishna received his Fellowship designation from CGA-Canada and was appointed Queen's Council, both in 1989; became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1992; was awarded the Ivy Thomas Award by CGA Ontario in 2005; received an honorary doctorate from the Law Society of Upper Canada in 2004, and also in 2004, was named a Member of the Order of Canada. "Those are really the types of things that the word 'surprise' accurately describes," Prof. Krishna says of his learning about the Order of Canada.

He has squeezed some time out of his busy day to meet in a conference room at the tony Borden Ladner Gervais offices in Ottawa. The room has a spectacular view of Parliament Hill, which he opts to turn his back to so the bright sunshine pouring through the window is out of his eyes. He speaks slowly and clearly, with the eloquence of someone accustomed to having his words and thoughts taken seriously.

As a dual designate in accounting and law, Prof. Krishna is essentially a lawyer who practices tax litigation, although he started out as an accountant. At just 16, he moved from India to England, where he studied accounting and economics at the University of Manchester. With a bachelor of commerce in hand, he worked as an accountant at Ford Motor Company in England. Then a fateful meeting changed the course of his life.

"I met a person in a pub in London who spoke very highly of [Canada]... It captured my interest," he explains. At 20, Prof. Krishna was single and had no responsibilities, so he came to Canada "as an immigrant in search of adventure." He ended up in Edmonton, where he obtained an MBA from the University of Alberta in 1969 and met his wife of 30 years, Linda. He and Linda now live in Ottawa with their 20-year-old son Sacha. Daughter Nicola, 25, is studying in Toronto.

Prof. Krishna received his CGA designation in 1971 and taught accounting at the University of Alberta for five years, then switched gears again. At age 28, he decided to study law, again at the University of Alberta, "for a number of reasons," he says. "One, I had always loved the law. And two, I was very interested in tax law. And tax law is of course the combination of law and finance and accounting."

His insatiable thirst for knowledge then led to Harvard, where he pursued a Masters in Law in 1975, and back to England in 1986, for a Diploma in Comparative Corporate Law at Cambridge University.

Today, his schedule is, to say the least, varied, although he essentially spends half his time at the University of Ottawa and half at Borden Ladner Gervais. "If I'm in the middle of a trial, then all my time is here," he points out. "During the academic year, I teach at the university so I'm there regularly."

Prof. Krishna teaches tax law, international tax law, corporate finance, and understanding financial statements for lawyers in the University of Ottawa's law program. He has also taught in the business and executive MBA programs, but not on a regular basis. "I find now increasingly I'm short on time," he admits. "I can't do all the things that I like doing, but I can do them sporadically."

Much of his time is also spent writing. Prof. Krishna is contracted to write several books for the legal publishing firm LexisNexis Canada, based mainly on his extensive research in the areas of taxation and international tax. He is also managing editor of Canadian Current Tax, Canada's Tax Treaties, and Ontario Law Reporters, all published by Butterworths, a division of LexisNexis.

Then there are his regular columns for the National Post and The Bottom Line. "Those are fun pieces," he says, "not to say they don't require a lot of labour. They do, but in a different sense. Writing simply and clearly is very time consuming. Writing complicated stuff is very easy. It is enormously difficult to capture everything in roughly 800 words and to make sure you have the essence of what you want to say. That's what I find stimulating." He enjoys the challenge of making very technical information accessible for a larger audience.

And this carries over to his teaching. "You're taking a complicated subject and you're trying to explain it and reduce it to its fundamental principles," he says.

He views litigation in the same way. "What you're trying to do is educate and persuade a judge to your point of view. You're doing very much what you're doing in a classroom but in a different forum."

Prof. Krishna's role as university professor took him back to Harvard in 1998, where he was a visiting scholar in international tax law. He researched and taught on this subject and returned for a series of lectures for several years following.

He also contributes research to the CGA Tax Research Centre at the University of Ottawa. As executive director of the Centre, Prof. Krishna not only writes and publishes under the Centre's name, he also coordinates the work of others, evaluates research proposals, and manages the budget and administration. "I basically try to keep the place afloat," he says.

In addition to his role at the Research Centre, Prof. Krishna has volunteered many hours for the CGA Association. He was president of CGA Ontario in 1995-96, and has served as Chair of the Professional Discipline Committee, Vice-Chair of the Ethics Committee, a member of the Education and Legislation Review committees, and Ontario delegate on the National Education Committee.

He has also contributed greatly to the legal profession. During his tenure as treasurer, which is the traditional term for what is essentially president, of the Law Society of Upper Canada from 2001 to 2003, Prof. Krishna was instrumental in implementing significant changes in two areas.

He initiated the reform to Ontario's bar admission process, abbreviating it and changing its format and style. The new program, which saw its first entrants in 2006, has three large components — a barrister's examination, a solicitor's examination, and five weeks of professional responsibility. "Instead of examining a person in six different subjects it is much more integrative because tax law, for example, doesn't operate in a vacuum. It arises in family transactions, real estate transactions, commercial transactions, and so on, so it makes more sense to integrate it."

Prof. Krishna's second achievement as head of the Law Society — what he describes as his "pièce de résistance"— is the negotiation of national mobility for lawyers. "There were these barriers between the boundaries [of each province], which did not make a lot of sense in the 21st century as the rest of the world is breaking down its barriers," he says. "We are traveling increasingly and doing business internationally, yet in the country, we had all these barriers between law societies." Since December 2002, lawyers can move across the country and practise in most provinces.

"We see it in so many other areas," Prof. Krishna adds, pointing to securities administration and the accounting profession, in which some professionally designated accountants are not at liberty to practise public accounting in other provinces.

At 62, Vern Krishna has no plans to retire. "I enjoy what I'm doing," he says. "I'm not working against my will. That makes a great deal of difference."

His next project is to study Italian. "I'm very fond of Italy and try to get there every year," he says. This is in addition to his regular trips back to India. He also enjoys cooking, a passion he hopes to cultivate in the coming years, along with a newly discovered enthusiasm for opera.

And, once his obligation to write textbooks is complete, he'd like to write books focusing on fundamental principles, rather than technical detail. "Thin books...Try writing a book on international tax treaties in 150 pages! The small books are the ones that count," he says. "That's the type of work I want to do now."

One gets the impression Prof. Krishna will never have trouble finding something to do.

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Alison Arnot is a freelance writer and editor based in Ottawa.