By Julius Melnitzer | April 13, 2025
AI MAKES LAWYERS MORE EXPENSIVE
Sean Fitzpatrick, Lexis Nexis’s CEO, told Business Insider that AI could facilitate lawyers charging $10K per hour because it gives them “that extra set of eyes” that allows them to deliver better service. To some, including myself, this could imply that lawyers charging the measly $2,100 that is the top going rate in the US these days could do better than they’re doing now. Clients have known this all along, I suspect, and still rates keep going up. Price, it seems, has a permanent leg up on value. And whatever happened to the demise of the hourly rate?
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A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN
Why are lawyers so popular with criminals? Because they are the “worst-performing” industry for data breaches, says an analysis of information from the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office. According to City A.M., the “sheer amount of sensitive information they hold on clients makes them a goldmine for scammers” (who, ironically, have only the profession to turn to if they’re apprehended). The analysis reveals that nearly 86% of cybersecurity incidents in the profession involved “breaches of basic personal identifiable information”, with some events affecting “sensitive eonomic and financial data”.
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THE BIBLE: CANADIAN TAX FACTS 2025
Toronto tax lawyer and accountant David Rotfleisch of Rotfleisch & Samulovitch Professional Corporation has released the 50-page fourth edition of Canadian Tax Facts, a free download on the firm’s website. The content will appeal to anyone interested in business or personal tax rates, tax audits and reassessments, cryptocurrency tax, and information on trust, tax evasion, unreported income and black money.
Related Article: Must-read: Rotfleisch on crypto tax
IS LETHAL INJECTION UNFIT FOR THE OBESE?
Counsel for convicted murderer Michael Tanzi struck a novel but unsuccessful note when they argued that Tanzi, who had been in jail since 2003, should not die by lethal injection because it amounted to cruel and unusual punishment for fat people. The existing protocols, they maintained, were not meant for individuals with Tanzi’s host of medical problems arising from his obesity and were likely to cause “serious illness”. As it turns out, the injection did no such thing: instead, the injection spared Tanzi the consequences his lawyers imagined by killing him on April 8 at Florida State Prison.
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“FUCKING” IS STILL OFFENSIVE
The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand has so far refused to trademark journalist Paddy Gowers’ news entity This is the Fucking News because the Trade Marks Act 2002 doesn’t allow registration for trademarks “likely to offend a significant section of the community”. The authority has also refused to register Bullshit, but it has registered Shit You Should Care About. Oh, and F#$%ING has made the grade too.
RELATED ARTICLE: Ukraine wants to trademark “go fuck yourself” war slogan
Julius Melnitzer is a Toronto-based legal affairs writer, ghostwriter, writing coach and media trainer. Readers can reach him at [email protected] or on his website.