Named in the Pandora Papers? Now what?
By Julius Melnitzer | November 17, 2021 If you’re one of the Canadians named in the Pandora papers, the latest massive leak of information related to tax havens, how much sleep do you really need to lose? That depends. “Is there smoke or is there fire?” asks David Rotfleisch, the founding partner at Toronto tax […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: BLG to manage Ivanhoé Cambridge leasing legal services | Study: junior counsel beat senior counsel as often as seniors beat them | Litigation funding fees capped | Judges need safety too | Top law firm bulletins
By Julius Melnitzer | November 11, 2021 IVANHOé CAMBRIDGE IN-HOUSE LAWYERS MOVE TO BLG “In-house” gets new meaning as part of Ivanhoé Cambridge’s (IC) law department moves to Borden Ladner Gervais LLP offices in Montreal and Toronto. All this pursuant to an agreement for BLG to manage legal services for shopping centres owned by IC, […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Pandemic spurs unprecedented satisfaction with lawyers | Non-humans can be patent ‘inventors’ | SCC revisits statutory interpretation? | EU declares open season for environmental challenges | Best of: law firm webinars & bulletins
By Julius Melnitzer | October 29, 2021 CLIENT SATISFACTION WITH LAWYERS PEAKS DURING PANDEMIC A UK survey suggests the inability to meet lawyers in person has, at the very least, not diminished clients’ satisfaction with their services. Indeed, according to the Law Society Gazette, satisfaction levels reached an all-time high during the pandemic. The Legal […]
Violating property maintenance, safety and sanitation laws in Quebec: beware the consequences
September 17, 2021 By Aubie J. Herscovitch and Alexander Rigante, guest contributors This article examines the rules and regulations regarding the maintenance, safety and sanitation of buildings in Quebec, with emphasis on the penalties and powers of which municipal authorities can avail themselves should a property owner fail to maintain these standards. According to the Loi […]
Rising municipality charges stalling efforts to develop green buildings in Canada
The Hastings-Quinte Social Services committee announced Wednesday that five retirement complex buildings in Belleville will have solar panels installed on their rooftops, like here at The Prince William building. PHOTO BY POSTMEDIA FILES By Julius Melnitzer | September 8, 2021 Rising development charges and insufficient incentives are stifling some major municipalities’ efforts to encourage developers […]
Recommended Reading: Timely Law Firm Bulletins
By Julius Melnitzer | July 19, 2021 CHARITIES & NON-PROFIT Miller Thomson: Why it matters that the Supreme Court decision reinforced the existence of hidden contracts in charity/nonprofit governance COMPETITION McMillan: Emerging Competition & Data Privacy Issues for Real Estate Organizations DATA PRIVACY Gowlings: New Standard Contractual Clauses for International Transfers Under The GDPR McCarthy […]
Should companies fear the Clean Fuel Standard?
The Clean Fuel Standard will affect a host of industries — many of them unwitting Canadian industries fear the federal government’s Clean Fuel Standard will translate into an increase in the cost of doing business. “At the end of the day, this is just another tax that Canadian business has to deal with,” said Bob […]
Family businesses are built to be passed on. That just got easier and less costly
PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO The potential savings on wealth transfer taxes with Bill C-208 could amount to as much as $400,000 “Keeping the business in the family” will get a whole lot easier — and a whole lot less costly — when Bill C-208, which received Royal Assent this week, comes into force on January […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: FC dismisses murdered Indigenous women’s class action, certifies class for feds’ negligence to Indigenous in custody | Divisional Court dismisses ‘intrusion upon seclusion’ class action against Equifax | Lawyers fined $33,500 for missing fraud at firm | ICC touts arbitration as part of international minimum tax framework | Best of: law firm bulletins
By Julius Melnitzer | June 25, 2021 MIXED RESULTS IN INDIGENOUS CLASS ACTIONS Indigenous class actions seeking to impose liability for mistreatment on governments and police have achieved mixed results. On June 23, the Federal Court certified a class consisting of Aboriginal persons assaulted by the RCMP while in custody in the Northwest Territories. The […]
Cryptocurrency: the Wild West no more?
By Julius Melnitzer | June 22, 2021 There’s a serious irony in the notion that the cryptocurrency landscape still resembles the Wild West. “I would argue that it never did,” says David Rotfleisch of Toronto-based tax boutique Rotfleisch & Samulovitch P.C. “After all, it’s based on blockchain, which records every single transaction on a ledger […]