In January of 2018 Patrick Brown was the Leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.
As the province was heading towards an election in the spring of 2018, Mr. Brown was leading in the polls and the young PC Leader was broadly regarded as the next Premier of Ontario in waiting.
On January 24, 2018 CTV news released an exclusive story citing graphic details of prior sexual misconduct allegations involving the young PC Leader and two female complainants.
One of the alleged victims was a former political staffer in Brown’s office and the other claimed that she was under age at the time of the sexual impropriety.
Brown’s political staff at the time CTV news released the story resigned on masse, and the PC Leader faced the public in a rare late night press conference denying the allegations.
After his press conference there was insurmountable pressure from the PC Party caucus for him to resign as Leader (and he reluctantly did so in the early morning hours of January 25, 2018).
Even more troubling was that Brown was vulnerable to criminal charges of Sexual Assault based on the historic allegations.
Staring January 25, 2018 Charitsis Law became a key strategic and legal advisor to Brown with respect to the sexual misconduct allegations that were looming. Mr. Charitsis immediately set up and chaired an emergency committee (Project Lazarus) of lawyers and political advisors to help navigate Brown through the crisis that ended his opportunity in becoming the Premier of Ontario.
The committee was available and worked 24/7 over the following 2 weeks to defend Brown from potential criminal charges and to help sway public opinion of the young politician who was Canada’s first high profile individual that became the target of the #metoo movement.
Through strategic planning, crisis management, legal advisory services (including consultations with the Ontario Provincial Police Service) and the effective use of social media, the committee successfully responded to the allegations ultimately putting Brown in the position where he was cleared by the Ontario PC Party to enter the Leadership Race allowing him to run for his old job as Leader of the Party.
The issue of sexual assault was put to rest. This was a remarkable comeback story as Brown was the first public figure who successfully responded to the #metoo movement by changing the dialogue to #who’snext.