Odour in the Court
By Marcel Strigberger | February 24, 2025 Can farting constitute an assault? Gone with the wind? Not exactly, but how do I start a commentary on a case about farting? In Wales. Rhionan Evans had some issues with Deborah Prytherch, her current beau’s ex-girlfriend. Rhionan decided to clear the air. She recorded eight videos of […]
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, […]
A Sucker’s Game
By Murray Gottheil | February 13, 2024 Imagine the following scenario: Jordan is a third year associate with Big Law targets. He typically achieves that target and receives a bonus of $18,000. He is also paid 10% of the billed and collected business that he brings in. Despite the “reasonableness” of the target, Jordan is […]
Elephants, cats, and cows, oh my
By Marcel Strigberger | Feb 9, 2025 Are animals being viewed more like humans? What happens when you cross an elephant, a cow, and a cat? Now how would I know that? Am I Noah? But I do have a trilogy of stories regarding these animals. Or are they just animals? An animal protection group, […]
What Newfoundland and Labrador-based employers need to know about changes to employee leave legislation
By: Julius Melnitzer | February 6, 2025 While Newfoundland and Labrador employees who take three or more consecutive days of sick leave are no longer required to provide their employer with a doctor’s note, it doesn’t mean employers can’t demand evidence of illness or injury, says Tim Young, a St. John’s-based partner at Curtis Dawe Lawyers. […]
Titles are the Opium of the Masses
By Murray Gottheil | February 3, 2024 Unsuccessful people are the ones who are impressed by celebrity, by people’s names and titles – Robin S. Sharma In the old days, there were associates and partners. Every lawyer planned to work ridiculously hard as an associate for about seven years, after which the firm would invite them […]
Top 10 business decisions for 2024 – – and the law firm players, Part II
By Julius Melnitzer | January 29, 2025 Here is the second part of Law360 Canada’s annual list of the Top 10 business decisions in Canada for the year just ended. This is a two-part series, which began in Part I with our honourable mentions and the cases ranked 6-10. What follows are the Top 5 […]
Taxing Tavares
By Marcel Strigberger | January 27, 2025 He shoots he scores! Or at least he’s giving it a shot. I am talking not hockey, but income tax. Leafs star John Tavares is appealing a CRA tax assessment of $6.8 million on his $15.4 million bonus, part of his seven-year, $77 million contract signed when he […]
Twenty-Four Hundred Hours
By Murray Gottheil | January 25, 2024 I spoke to two law firm partners this week: both told me that they were expected to put in 2,400 hours, consisting of 2,000 billable hours and 400 non-billable hours (administration, firm events, continuing education, business promotion, and mentoring) annually. I did some math to determine how many hours […]
Zero is the Loneliest Number
By Murray Gottheil | January 23, 2025 In law firms, more zeros are better than fewer zeros. For example, announcing, “Look at me! I just closed a $100,000,000 acquisition” impresses your colleagues more than saying, “I just did a deal worth $10,000,000.” A deal that was only worth $965,000 is not even worth mentioning. Frankly, it is almost […]