By Julius Melnitzer | October 27, 2024
LST: PAROLED APPLICANT STILL SERVING 27-YEAR SENTENCE CAN PRACTISE LAW
The Law Society Tribunal Hearing Division has granted a license to practise law in Ontario to Dr. Serdar Kalaycioglu, a parolee convicted of a multi-million wire fraud in the US who still has about 3 years left in his 27-year sentence. Kalaycioglu served 16.5 years of that sentence in the US before being transferred to Canada and paroled in 2019. Once in prison, the LST noted, Kalaycioglu “immediately committed to his rehabilitation”. He tutored “hundreds of inmates” and “improved himself” by obtaining an MBA from Edinburgh Business School and an LL.B and LL.M. from the University of London. He also made US$7.2 million in restitution by having his lawyers recover loans he had advanced legitimately before his imprisonment. After being paroled, Kalaycioglu had his license reinstated by Professional Engineers Ontario and resumed his career as a robotics engineer. Still intent on practising law because he wanted to make “a meaningful impact on the lives around him”, he completed a second LL.M. at Osgoode Hall Law School, went through the NCA process, passed the bar exams and articled. Still, the LSO opposed Kalaycioglu’s application because he was on parole. But the tribunal rejected that reasoning, finding that “rehabilitation may be achieved before a sentence is served”.
Related Article: Law Society Tribunal: child pornographer can practise
FINALLY: A RELIABLE AI CASELAW SEARCH TOOL FOR CANADIAN LAWYERS
In less than two months since its launch in September, Caseway AI, a specialized Canadian legal research chatbot, has garnered more than 225 sign-ups among Canada’s legal establishment. And so it should: unlike ChatGPT, whose law-related results are perhaps best known for its “hallucinations”, the legal research tool relies solely on Canadian court decisions, can find relevant court decisions in just three seconds, and is totally transparent in the sense that it lists its sources, allowing users to check its reliability – because, like all AI, it does make mistakes. Caseway’s founder is Alistair Vigier, CEO of counsel-rating software Clearway Law, which boasts around 200,000 unique visitors monthly.
Related Article: BLG appoints Canadian law firms’ first chief AI officer
BLG CALGARY ADDS DISPUTES GROUP DEPTH
Cecilia Hoover, a 20-year veteran of disputes practice with a particular expertise in insurance defence and coverage, has joined Borden Ladner Gervais LLP’s Calgary office. Her practice in Alberta and Ontario also embraces complex construction disputes and health care issues, including the defence of medical negligence claims. Hoover is a successful mediator and arbitrator as well, and was the first Canadian lawyer to successfully argue a summary dismissal of a negligence claims on the basis that an “e-waiver” was enforceable.
Related Article: Alberta CA justice joins BLG
STRIGBERGER’S NEW BOOK: FIRST, LET’S KILL THE LAWYER JOKES
Marcel Strigberger, the Canadian civil litigaiton lawyer and humourist who now devotes his time to the latter after practising in Toronto for 40 years, has launched his latest tome, First, Let’s Kill the Lawyer Jokes: An Attorney’s Irreverent Serious Look at the Legal Universe. As the title implies, Strigberger says, this is “Not another lawyer jokes book. Just offbeat observations” such as Why everbody loves lawyers – sort of; Do lawyers unnecessarily complicate simple matters? Yes and no – maybe?; and, Are lawyers sometimes chicken? What scares them the most?
Related Article: A terrific book: Harrison & Swan’s “Skillful Witness Examination”
RETHINKING PUBLIC INQUIRIES
Barry Leon, a member arbitrator and mediator at Toronto’s Arbitration Place, a former litigator at Torys LLP and previously a judge of the commercial division of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, who previously told LegalWriter.net that it might be time for Canada to follow the UK’s lead and consider an investigation into the effectiveness of public inquiries, says the recently-released Lords Statutory Inquiries Committee recommendations would provide a “huge headstart” on such an endeavour.
From Confederation in 1867 to 2013, Canada held almost 450 federal commissions of inquiry, taking up considerable time and expense.
“Canada does not need to reinvent the wheel to examine how our public inquiries can be
improved,” Leon says. “We can begin with the huge head-start provided to us by the two types of
recommendations of the Lords Statutory Inquiries Committee – first, how inquiries can be
conducted better, and second, how the implementation of inquiry recommendations can be
monitored.”
But cooperation between federal and provincial governments, as well as political parties, would be essential to such an undertaking.
“Why could not the federal and provincial governments consider carefully together, in a nonpartisan
process, whether the UK recommendations are applicable here, and to the extent they
may be, whether they should be implemented to improve our large number of public
inquiries?” Leon asks.
Related Article: Is it time for an inquiry into public inquiries?
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.