Thursday, July 27, 2017 The current debate about paralegal representation in Ontario’s family courts, and the degree of opposition to it in the bar and judiciary, exemplify just how far the profession is removed from reality. The lawyers and judges opposing the change rest their case on the belief that “quality of service” will erode […]
Friday, July 21, 2017 Some five days after Canada celebrated its 150th birthday, and after almost a decade of litigation, unsecured creditors in the Nortel bankruptcy were scheduled to receive their first distribution of funds from the settlement reached in January. It’s a shame that the distribution of what was left of Nortel, still an […]
Monday, August 14, 2017 A hint of what awaits Joe Groia could very well be gleaned from the Supreme Court of Canada’s treatment of Quebec criminal lawyer Robert Jodoin, against whom the court upheld a personal costs award for bringing “unfounded and frivolous” motions alleging bias against a Quebec Superior Court judge. It’s worth a […]
Friday, September 01, 2017 Kiss the trusted adviser goodbye: that, it appears, is the message for the profession from Daimler AG’s recent US$115 million bond issue, all of which was done digitally using blockchain technology. We’re talking everything: from the organization, distribution, allocation and execution of the loan agreement to the confirmation of repayments and […]
Tuesday, September 12, 2017 Even as Canada’s Competition Bureau heralds a focus on the digital economy as its number one priority for 2017-18, experts in the United States have questioned whether antitrust laws, such as the Sherman Act of 1890 and the Clayton Act of 1914, can really do the job that’s required in the modern economy. The irony […]
Monday, September 25, 2017 “Bold” describes the legal profession to about the same extent that “discreet” describes The Donald. But there are exceptions. And there’s a lot to be learned from them. For those eager to escape lawyers’ unique brand of quicksand, from which they innately view opportunity as risk, Arbitration Place (AP) in Toronto […]
Thursday, October 19, 2017 The Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) will be changing its name. Let’s hope it doesn’t use the occasion to toss its sticky if not seamy underside into the compost bin. What remains unexplained in the rush to judgment that culminated in LSUC’s new advertising and referral fees — a stampede […]
Friday, October 27, 2017 It’s a rare occasion when a company points to its legal team as its most forward-thinking department. But don’t tell that to the people in Sun Life Financial’s new offices at One York in Toronto. Take a millennial on a tour of the 17 floors that Sun Life’s 2,000 employees occupy […]
NOV 7, 2017 Law firms are adapting to the growing number of millennials who are filling their associate ranks and moving toward partnership status by keeping up with their penchant for technology. “Millennials have grown up in the digital age and they want to cut out the mindless, tedious tasks that often characterize associates’ and […]
Monday, November 13, 2017 Sometimes, litigants get so caught up in zealotry that they lose sight of basic underlying factors. That, perhaps, is part of the cost of the adversarial system. But when the zealot is the Crown in a country that faces vexing issues of delays in the court system and access to justice […]