By Julius Melnitzer | July 24, 2024
TREAT JUNIOR COLLEAGUES WITH RESPECT – OR ELSE!
Domenic Pisano, a lawyer with 23 years’ experience and a director of Domenic Levent Solicitors in London, has been disbarred by the UK’s Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal for “offensive, intimidating and insulting” behaviour towards junior colleagues. His sins included shouting at a junior solicitor while ‘inappropriately close’ to her face; using inappropriate and homphobic language when talking to juniors and paralegals; showing a paralegal an explicit photograph on his phone and making inappropriate comments about her attire; kicking at a trainee; slamming a chair into a storage unit while working with a parlegal; and characterizing a paralegal’s remarks as akin to following the teachings of the Qur’an. According to The Law Society Gazette, the SDT, in imposing punishment, noted that those subjected to Pisano’s conduct were young, vulnerable members of staff, many of hwom came to believe that this was “what the profession was and what they were expected to tolerate”.
Related Article: UK regulator: lawyers who swear betray the public trust
TOP VANCOUVER LAWYER DIES BEFORE HEARING ON LAUNDERING CHARGES
Michael Bolton, whom Practice Source calls “one of the country’s most prominent and experienced criminal defence lawyers”, a reputation earned over 50 years of practice in Vancouer, died on June 24. He had been scheduled to appear at a hearing before a British Columbia Law Society tribunal in early June on charges of moving more than $20 million in suspicious funds through his firm’s trust accounts on behalf of clients under criminal investigation in the US – charges that he denied. The June hearing, however, was adjourned as Bolton had been in hospital for months battling pneumonia-related illness. On the day after his death, the Law Society rescinded his citation but refused to explain why or even confirm that he had died.
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REMOTE WORK INCREASINGLY REMOTE FOR LAWYERS
The head of US law firm Perkins Coie’s London office, Ian Bagshaw, said he expects the firm’s lawyers to be in the office “almost every day”. adding that he doesn’t see the benefits of remote working. It’s the latest sign, proclaimed The Law Society Gazette, that “The pendulum has swung against working from home . . . “
Related Article: In-house views of remote work diverge significantly
Trained artificial neural network applications are not patentable because they are no more than “computer programs”, the UK Court of Appeal has ruled. The decision examined the patentability of an Emotional Perception AI Ltd application that used ANN to provide music recommendations by integrating semantic and emotional elements with objective properties of a song. According to Nathaniel Lipkus and Bradley White, writing in an Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP bulletin. the court explained that “not all ANN-implemented investions are unpatentable”; rather, they are “in no better and no worse position than other computer implemented inventions”. In this case, the EPL application did not have “sufficient technical effect” to be patentable.
“This U.K. decision is notable for Canadian companies in the ANN field,” Lipkus and White write, “as it provides guidance from an appellate court in a jurisdiction that is persuasive to our own courts, regarding how patent offices should approach ANN-based inventions, conceptually treating ANNs like other software for patent-eligibility purposes.”
Related Article: Non-humans can be patent ‘inventors’
COMPANY CAN’T DISCIPLINE UNION STEWARD FOR TAKING DIVING COURSE ON COMPANY TIME
An arbitrator has overturned the 20-day suspension of a union steward for taking a diving course during working hous. The arbitrator concluded that the steward’s activities amounted to “union business” because he represented members of the employer’s dive team. Writing in an L&E Global bulletin, Filion Wakely Thorup Angeletti LLP’s Jeremy Cooney says the decision “affirms that many types of activities may be ‘union business’ if there is a sufficient nexus to the steward’s union duties”.
Julius Melnitzer is a Toronto-based legal affairs writer, ghostwriter, writing coach and media trainer. Readers can reach him at [email protected] or https://legalwriter.net/contact.