Everything you wanted to know about lawyers’ gowns but were afraid to ask | Joseph Groia

By Joseph Groia (May 16, 2024, 2:43 PM EDT) -- Among the many subjects that new lawyers are not taught in law school or tested on during the bar exams is the history of and proper etiquette for lawyers’ gowns. In her autobiography Truth Be Told: My Journey Through Life and the Law, former chief justice Beverly McLachlin shares an anecdote about how when she travelled to Vancouver to be called to the B.C. bar, then bencher Mary Southin scolded another new call for wearing his tabs and waistcoat in the Hotel Georgia. “Young man, take your tabs off,” Miss Southin said. “You should know better. Tabs are not to be worn outside the courthouse.”...