BARE BONES BRIEFS: OCA upholds $2.5 million award to human rights lawyer | Jeremy Diamond appeals from de facto suspension and $100,000 fine for professional misconduct | Are law firms paying ransomware? | Report: Lawyers are high on AI extinction list | Unaware council passes ChatGPT-drafted law |
By Julius Melnitzer | December 17, 2023 LAWYER’S CAREER-ENDING INJURY JUSTIFIES $2.5 MILLION AWARD: OCA The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a $2.5 million award to Geraldine Sanson, a “highly respected human rights lawyer” whose career ended when a car struck her as she was cycling home from work in 2012. The trial judge […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: LSO alleges misconduct against “most positively reviewed” lawyer | Judge cites lawyers’ conduct in concluding international arbitration susceptible to fraud | Associates seek to refuse work for ethical reasons | $817 million settlement in veterans’ disability class action | Litigation funder’s losses up fivefold
By Julius Melnitzer | November 20, 2023 LSO alleges misconduct against high-profile employment lawyer Lior Samfiru, the Toronto-based national co-managing partner of employment law boutique Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, a firm that claims to be the “most positively reviewed employment law firm in Canada”, is facing professional misconduct allegations stemming from litigation that he threatened or […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Anti-Israel stance costs law students their jobs | Pornhub sues for TM infringement | Counsel suspended for naming sexual assault complainants | Not Mother’s Day: son sues mother’s law firm for “cold and callous” conduct | Fake lawyer wins 26 consecutive cases |
By Julius Melnitzer | October 19, 2023 DAVIS POLK RESCINDS JOB OFFERS TO PRO-HAMAS HARVARD STUDENTS Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, a top UK law firm that employs about 1,000 lawyers, has withdrawn job offers to three Harvard and Columbia students who signed statements blaming Israel for the Hamas attacks and expressing support for Palestinians. […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Lawyer earning $126,000 gets $1.8 million in wrongful dismissal damages | Litigation funder scores $4.5 billion in proceeds from judgment | LST sanctions counsel for uncivil conduct | NBKB imposes 3-year prison term for workplace fatality | IBA outlines challenges for profession
By Julius Melnitzer | October 15, 2023 FIRED IN-HOUSE COUNSEL AT BANK AWARDED $1.8 MILLION A UK employment tribunal has ordered digital bank Starling to pay $1.8 million in damages to Guinaz Raja, whom the bank had employed as a solicitor in its legal department at a salary of $126,000. The employer terminated Raja, an […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Gowling director disbarred for sexual misconduct | BC lawyer fined for locker room gossip | Do employment lawyers need to report general damages to CRA? | “Unfounded attacks” on lawyer merit substantial indemnity costs against client: Div. Ct. | Alberta cabinet minister joins BLG
By Julius Melnitzer | September 26, 2023 EX-GOWLING DIRECTOR DISBARRED FOR FANTASY RELATIONSHIP WITH JUNIOR EMPLOYEE The UK’s Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has struck Oliver Bretherton, a former senior solicitor at Gowling WLG, off the roll for his part in a sexual fantasy relationship with an 18-year-old female colleague. The 70 allegations proved against the married […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Cyberattack costs law firm $11 million | OCA: testamentary revocations ineffective against RRIF and RFSA beneficiaries | Companies ignoring law requiring disclosure of Indigenous payments | Dubai’s DEC’s first case | Dellelce gets third honourary doctorate
By Julius Melnitzer | September 18, 2023 CYBERATTACK HITS CONVEYANCING GIANT Simplify, the UK’s largest independent conveyancing and property services group, which embraces six of the largest conveyancing law firms in the UK and handles 250,000 transactions annually, suffered almost $12 million in losses from a cyberattack in 2021 that created a major IT systems […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: More lawyers Down Under, especially women, than koalas | 1.46 ABA members suffer data breach in strange hack | Bennett Jones opens Montreal office | SCC Justice Moldaver joins Arbitration Place | Lawyer turned Yale psychologist publishes The Thriving Lawyer
By Julius Melnitzer | September 5, 2023 Australian lawyers faring better than koalas Koalas are now officially an endangered species in Australia. Some reports list the remaining population in the wild to be as low as 43,000. Lawyers, by contrast, are thriving, with the 2022 National Profile of Solicitors reporting 90,329 practising lawyers in the […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Celebrities abound for BLG’s Guy Pratte’s new podcast | BJ’s Will Osler chairs Calgary Stampede | SCC has opportunity to resolve test for appealing domestic arbitral awards | SCC launches new electronic filing portal | Wildeboer’s 30th anniversary
By Julius Melnitzer | March 30, 2023 BLG’s Pratte launches Art of Persuasion podcast Borden Ladner Gervais LLP’s Guy Pratte, one of Canada’s top litigators will launch The Art of Persuasion, his new podcast, on April 21. The podcast will feature conversations with notable Canadians including former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, defence counsel Marie Henein, […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: LSO panel splits on whether Black Lives Matter criticism is professional misconduct | Firm sues ‘underbilling’ associates | Remote lawyering: longer hours: CLIO survey | LSO suspends paralegal who cost clients $500,000 | CTA: compensation for passenger applies to all others on same flight
By Julius Melnitzer | March 8, 2023 IS AGGRESSIVE CRITICISM OF BLACK LIVES MATTER PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT? A Law Society Tribunal has split on whether social media posts criticizing Black Lives Matter, Pride Day and public health mask mandates amounted to professional misconduct. Lisa Simone, who was applying for a paralegal license, admitted the posts were […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Family lawyers make these professional misconduct mistakes | Clio offers escape from restrictive legaltech contracts | Wikipedia influences judges’ decisions: MIT study | Former CJO Strathy joins Arbitration Place | Medical device mass torts proliferating
By Julius Melnitzer | January 30, 2023 PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT MISTAKES FAMILY LAWYERS SHOULD AVOID In a Six Minute Family Lawyer Program, Bill Trudell, who defends lawyers before the Law Society of Ontario, outlined five Rules of Professional Conduct “that frequently are not followed and ones that may be of particular relevance to the family law […]