BARE BONES BRIEFS: ‘From the river to the sea’: a trademark? | More lawyer hubris: 27 cent lawsuit | DWPV study examines 2023 insolvency highs | AI not ‘inventor’ for patent purposes: court | Ecocide now a crime in EU
By Julius Melnitzer | March 12, 2024 JEWISH AMERICANS SEEK TRADEMARK FOR PALESTINIAN CHANT Joel Ackerman and Oron Rosenkrantz, who are Jewish US citizens, have filed separate applications to trademark the phrase ‘From the river to the sea’, used by the Palestinian nationalist movement since the 1960s to express its desire for a Palestinian state […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: CIRO to crack down on texting with clients? | Federal Court excoriates Pearson Airport’s disregard for language rights | Blakes Board Report: difficult for women to leverage not-for-profit board experience to paid boards | Global M&A at 10-year low | Cyberbreach counsel hacked
By Julius Melnitzer | March 6, 2024 WILL CIRO STEP UP ENFORCING BAN AGAINST TEXT MESSAGING WITH CLIENTS? Zach Pringle, writing in Babin Bessner Spry LLP’s Financial Services & Securities Blog, notes that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has in the last three years commenced over 35 enforcement actions citing record-keeping violations related to […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Single mother sacked for sandwich “theft” from law firm| Re-admitted drug-dealing lawyer faces new LSO allegations | Study IDs ‘Burning Issues’ for law firm leaders | Is it time for an inquiry into public inquiries? | Creditors allege Sullivan & Cromwell enabled FTX crypto fraud |
By Julius Melnitzer | February 29, 2024 FOOD FOR THOUGHT: WILL LAWYERS EARNING MILLIONS MISS LEFTOVER GRUB? Gabriela Rodriguez, a 39-year-old single mother, lost her cleaning job after eating a leftover sandwich valued at $2.50 and found on a discarded platter in the kitchen of London, UK law firm Devonshires, where lawyers earn up to […]
Top 10 business decisions of 2023, Part II – and the Law Firm Players
By Julius Melnitzer | January 23, 2024 What follows is Part II of Law360 Canada’s annual list of the country’s Top 10 business decisions ranking cases 1-5 in ascending order. Part I, which ranked cases 6-10, was published earlier. 5. Markowich v. Lundin Mining Corporation; Peters v. SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. (ONCA) These sister cases represent the Ontario Court of […]
Top 10 business decisions of 2023, Part I – and the law firm players
By Julius Melnitzer | January 15, 2024 What follows is Law360 Canada’s annual list of the Top 10 business decisions in Canada for the just-ended year. This is a two-part series, which begins below with numbers 6-10, in ascending order. 10. Benjamin Moore & Co v. Canada (Attorney General) In this case, the first time […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: No kidding: $50 million counsel fee ruled “excessive” in $23 billion class action | CEO mismanagement is grounds for tax relief: FC | M&A activity lowest in decade | PE activity slows to pre-pandemic levels: Blakes | COVID inventory losses not insured: OCA
By Julius Melnitzer | January 7, 2024 FEDERAL COURT SLASHES $50 MILLION COUNSEL FEE Justice Mandy Aylen of the Federal Court of Canada has denied approval of a $50 million fee sought by Sotos LLP; Kugler Kandestin LLP; Miller Titerle+ Co.; Nahwegahbow, Corbiere; and Fasken Martineau Dumoulin LLP, class counsel in the $23 billion settlement […]
Law Firm Primer For Articling Students and New Associates – Part Eight: The Chief Marketing Officer
By Murray Gottheil | December 27, 2023 Photo by Helena Lopes at Pixels Those of you who have been following this series know said that Part Seven was the final article in the series. It turns out that I lied. The purpose of the series is to set out the questions which articling students and new […]
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 […]
New SEC clawback compensation rules impact Canadian issuers
Lynne Lacoursière, Benjamin Iscoe By Julius Melnitzer | July 11, 2023 Canadian companies listed on US stock exchanges are among those affected by new Securities and Exchange Commission listing requirements impacting compensation clawbacks and expected to take effect on October 2, 2023, with compliance mandated within 60 days. The rules require all issuers on US exchanges […]
FCA rejects privilege for end product where claimant fails to show how document reveals legal advice
The danger is that CRA can use end products to reverse engineer legal advice By Julius Melnitzer | April 19, 2023 A recent Federal Court of Appeal decision has done little to assuage the uncertainty as to whether and when legal advice “end product” is subject to solicitor-client privilege. In BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. v. Canada (National […]