“Every breakdown in the lawyer-client relationship occasions – to one degree or other – stress and anxiety for both the client and the lawyer. The client is faced with, among other things, having to retain new counsel or be self-represented. The lawyer is faced with, among other things, possibly unrecoverable accounts. On the lawyer’s end of things, there is an inherent conflict between its interests and its obligation as fiduciary. Despite that conflict, however, counsel are subject to continuing obligations to their clients both during and after their retainers (see: TSX Trust Company v Fiorentino, 2023 ONSC 2560, at para. 5).”
Smoljan et al. v. Branion et al., 2023 ONSC 4246 (CanLII) at 10