Sunday, September 6, 2020 | Julius Melnitzer On Thursday, September 10, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) will issue its decisions in two Anti-Slapp legislation cases from Ontario. One of the judgments involves Maia Bent, a partner with Lerners LLP in Toronto. She allegedly defamed an expert witness in an email she issued in her […]
Friday, September 4, 2020 | Julius Melnitzer The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed the Attorney General of Canada’s attempt to block the court’s practice directions governing the gradual phase-out of COVID-19 suspension periods so far as the directions apply to cases involving the federal government and numerous federal boards, commissions and other tribunals. Characterizing […]
Tuesday, September 1, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer A monumental, pressure-packed collaboration has headed off the threat that COVID-19 presented to the 2020 law firm recruiting season. In a concentrated endeavour that began in March, law firms, public sector employers, legal departments, law students, law schools and law societies have come up with a solution […]
The technological necessities wrought by the pandemic have prompted Russell Alexander Collaborative Family Lawyers to expand its annual $2,000 scholarship program. The program is aimed at Canadian high school students interested in joining or studying the legal profession. Scholarship winners will now also receive a $500 technological stipend towards the purchase of a personal computer […]
York University has awarded the title of Distinguished Research Professor to Osgoode Hall Law School faculty member Janet Walker. The award, for active faculty members, recognizes their scholarly achievements in research. The award is for life and evolves into a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus on retirement. The major criterion for the honour is sustained and […]
Lawyers are known for their resistance to change. But COVID-19 has forced a great deal of change, technological and otherwise, on the profession. The key question is whether the evolution will continue. And that’s where reluctance to change becomes an asset: after all, reluctance to change and reluctance to change back are, if you ask […]
Arbitration Place Virtual will be hosting the inaugural Canadian Arbitration Week from September 21-25. CanArbWeek 2020 will feature most Canadian and some international arbitration and ADR organizations, who will be showcasing their annual conferences and events.
This is the second in LegalWriter.net’s continuing series Bucking the Trends: Lawyers who make a difference – – – their own way Growth – – – organic, sustained and profitable – – – has hardly been the order of the day for Canadian law firms in the last decade or so. So forgive me for […]
August 19, 2020 This is the first in legalwriter.net’s continuing series called Bucking the Trends: Lawyers who make a difference – – – their own way “Gentleman”, “lady”, or “stand-up comic” is rarely found in the lexicon describing the virtues of great counsel. That’s especially true in an era when regulators keep reminding lawyers that […]
August 19, 2020 In an era where law is a business, constrained only by the ethical boundaries of the profession, ranking and league tables have become big businesses in themselves, marketing tools par excellence, touted and shouted to all who will listen in the hope that they will be seduced onto the fee-payer rosters of […]