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 […]
Big Law Does It Better
By Murray Gottheil | January 22, 2024 I am willing to bet that you did not expect this headline from me! And to be fair, I do not intend it as a general statement. What I am going to talk about is legal research, and it is a fact that Big Law does that better than the […]
Called to the bar and grill
By Marcel Strigberger | January 21, 2025 Can a judge make peace between hostile lawyers by ordering them to have lunch together? In the Alabama case of McCullers v Koch Foods of Alabama, the two lawyers involved were not getting along too well. Defense counsel moved to amend his pleading and plaintiff’s counsel opposed the request unless defendant agreed not […]
Top 10 business decisions for 2024 – – and the law firms involved, Part I
By Julius Melnitzer | January 20, 2025 Here is 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 begins below with our honourable mentions, followed by the cases ranked 6-10, in ascending order. Part II will deal with cases ranked 1-5. Honourable mention […]
Let’s Talk About Recruiters
By Murray Gottheil | January 15, 2025 Lawyers struggle to attract talent who are both capable and a good fit for a firm’s culture. If only there were consultants whom firms could retain and candidates could work with who understand the market, the culture in different firms and practice groups, the current salaries being paid by […]
Corporate Transparency Act Enforcement Injunction Reinstated by Fifth Circuit
By Matthew Scherer | January 13, 2025 On December 26, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (the “Fifth Circuit”) reinstated the preliminary injunction previously granted by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (the “District Court”) in Texas Top Cop Shop, Inc. v. Garland, which temporarily enjoined […]
Lawsuit alleges feds prevented part-time RCMP officers from buying back into pension plan
By Julius Melnitzer | January 8, 2025 The National Police Federation, which represents 20,000 Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers, has launched a class action claiming the federal government has wrongfully prevented part-time officers from buying back into their pension plan. In a press release, Brian Sauvé, president and chief executive officer at the NPF, said virtually […]
City of Pisa v The Tower Experts
By Marcel Strigberger | January 7, 2025 Mistakes, also known as errors, blunders or, in legalese, boo-boos. I am especially interested in historical iconic mistakes. What comes to my mind quickly is the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Surely it would not take legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright to notice that it was not rising according […]