BARE BONES BRIEFS: Mandatory mediation undermines experts’ reports | DEI malaise infects UK | Susskind wrong: AI not lawyers’ demise | Law firm bet on the Leafs | Rap sheet for rapping lawyer
By Julius Melnitzer | May 27, 2025 GETTING EXPERT WITNESSES BACK ON TRACK There’s little doubt that courts have manifested an increasingly critical look at expert testimony lately. Gerald Genge, a claims adjudicator and expert witness with 25 years’ experience, is not surprised: he says the quality of experts’ reports has dipped with the introduction […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Law firm branding mania: Are Leafs Next? | Five years: Harshest sentence ever for OHS criminal negligence | Div. Ct.: LST has power to order compensation for pending claims | Taliban: Chess not compatible with Islamic law | Lexis+ AI fuels revenue growth – says Lexis Nexis
By Julius Melnitzer | May 22, 2025 LAW FIRM PAYS $11.4M FOR STADIUM NAMING RIGHTS CITY AM reports that Liverpool’s Hill Dickinson, a top-50 UK law firm whose profits exceed C$95M, has paid $11.4 million for the naming rights to soccer team Everton’s new stadium. The move is apparently part of law firms’ realization of […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: “Woman means woman” as UK Supreme Court refuses to recognize gender identity | Alberta lawyer challenges “woke” Law Society rules | World’s first AI law firm says system can do “anything” | AI video of murdered man gives his impact statement | Training AI on someone else’s headnotes is copyright infringement: USCA |
By Julius Melnitzer | May 12, 2025 “GENDER RECOGNITION CERTIFICATE” DOES NOT A “WOMAN” MAKE The United Kingdom Supreme Court has ruled that “woman” in the Equality Act (EA) means a biological woman. The ruling strikes down guidance from the Scottish government stating that a gender recognition certificate issued to an individual brings that person […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Lawyers’ fees approach $1/second | Cheap AI outperforms costly LexisNexis | Death sentence looms as counsel solicits sex in court | “Bimbo” is not a valid TM | Perry Dellelce receives Coronation Medal
By Julius Melnitzer | April 27, 2025 LEGAL FEES: A LICENSE TO PRINT MONEY? American law firms with more than 750 lawyers will be charging $1 per second within a decade, according to the latest annual trends report from LexisNexis CounselLink. An overview of the report in The Law Society Gazette notes that the median […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: LexisNexis: AI will allow lawyers to charge $10K hourly | Why criminals love law firms | Everything you’ll want to know about taxes | Novel grounds of appeal: Too Fat to Die | Not a valid TM: “This is the Fucking News”
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 […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Facebook withdraws targeted ads that revealed woman’s pregnancy | Lawyer fined for AI misuse | Massive penalties for tax advisors who facilitate non-compliance | Tax crackdown on lawyers follows AML crackdown | China hit with $24B judgment for unleashing COVID-19 | Arbitration Place opens in Miami
By Julius Melnitzer | March 27, 2025 FACEBOOK CAVES ON TARGETED ADS Faced with a landmark lawsuit alleging that its targeted ads offended privacy laws, Facebook has agreed to stop personalized ads aimed at a UK woman. Tanya O’Carroll, an expert in tech policy and human rights, first took offence in 2017 when she became […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Law firm risked becoming a terrorist agent | Fearful lawyers refusing cases against Trump | FBI criminalizes environmental groups | Legal Aid can’t refuse to pay for 90% of firm’s document review | Avatars are the new court spokepersons
By Julius Melnitzer | March 26, 2025 CENTRAL LONDON FIRM HIT WITH C$47,000 ALM FINE The UK’s Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has imposed a maximum fine of C$47,000 on PCB Lawyers LLP, a central London property law specialist, for breaches of anti-money laundering regulation that exposed the firm to being used as a conduit for […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Paul Weiss caving to Trump isn’t the problem: the profession is | ALM crackdown on lawyers continues | Law firm penalized $883,000 for breaching Russia sanctions | OCA: Courts can’t compel contempt defendants to testify | Alexi survey confirms AI threatens lawyers
By Julius Melnitzer | March 25, 2025 AMERICAN LAWYERS’ INACTION ON TRUMP REMINISCENT OF NAZI ERA Most of the criticism surrounding Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP’s capitulation to Donald Trump’s retribution campaign has focused on the firm. But firm chair Brad Karp’s widely disseminated email accusing the profession of not being supportive and […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Dentons faces AML charges | Is private equity taking over the profession? | Historic Shell emissions judgment overturned – but landmines remain | Hogan Lovells mistakenly discloses 4,321 privileged documents | Sun Life report: Canadian pension risk transfers exceed $3 billion in 2024
By Julius Melnitzer | March 23, 2025 DENTONS MUST FACE AML CHARGES The Law Society Gazette reports that the UK’s High Court has overturned the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal’s (SDT) dismissal of anti-money laundering charges against Dentons. The SDT ruled that Dentons’ breach was “inadvertent” and did not amount to professional misconduct. But on appeal by […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: LST says 5-year “inordinate delay” causes “no prejudice” to investigated lawyer; “Ashamed” of “greedy” Big Law, lawyer leaves profession; Critics pile on UK PM for his “lawyer brain”; Study: PEI first, Quebec 10th, Ontario 5th in use of PI lawyers; Alexi launches large-firm AI workflow solution
By Julius Melnitzer | February 22, 2024 CHAOS RULES IN LAW SOCIETY DISCIPLINE INVESTIGATIONS A recent Law Society Tribunal (LST) decision leads to the vexing conclusion that a five-year delay in investigating complaints against lawyers causes no prejudice to them. And combined with the ongoing brouhaha about a $400,000 pay raise for a senior executive, […]