September 11, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer There’s a shroud hanging over the $9 million fine that the Competition Bureau imposed on Facebook in May. Facebook consented to the administrative monetary penalty, the largest privacy noncompliance fine imposed in Canada. Some observers tout it as a landmark conclusion to the Bureau’s two-year long investigation into […]
Wednesday, September 9, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer Twelve litigation and arbitration funders with $10 billion to spend have launched a global association, the International Legal Finance Association (ILFA). The ILFA was incorporated in Washington, D.C. and has a significant presence in London. It bills itself as “the global voice” of the industry, which it […]
Thursday, September 10, 2020 | By Julius Melnitzer CanArbWeek 2020, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and the Young Canadian Arbitration Practitioners are hosting Tour d ‘Horizon, a global virtual tour of legal developments on international arbitration. The event will take place on Thursday, September 17. 2020 at 3:30 PM EST. It will feature a panel […]
Wednesday, September 9, 2020 | Julius Melnitzer Trump, Twitter & The Law is something of an oddity: a book about The Donald by a Canadian. Sheldon Burshtein, partner emeritus with Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP in Toronto, tells the story of Trump’s profound impact on the U.S. He does it through the eyes of a […]
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 […]