Stupid, Stupid, Stupid
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | September 27, 2023 I once proposed raising our hourly rates and was met with furious resistance by the head of our litigation department who assured me that no assessment officer would ever permit lawyers to charge the amounts that I had proposed. He was a brilliant […]
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 […]
Artificially Human?
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | September 25, 2023 I have a theory about life which I espouse in my less optimistic moments. My theory is that for many people, things become less and less familiar as they age. What is socially acceptable changes, people dress and act differently, friends and family […]
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 […]
Would You Rather Die or Give a Speech?
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | September 11, 2023 According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing […]
They Care… in Their Spare Time
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko By Murray Gottheil | September 6, 2023 The other day my wife, Maureen, told me about a friend who was complaining that his busy adult children do not call him very often. Her friend asked Maureen, “Don’t they care about their dad?” To which Maureen replied, “They care… in their spare time.” Maureen […]
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 […]
There is More to Life than Hard Work
Photo by Rdne Stock Project at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | August 30, 2023 I was a socialist at age twenty. I went to law school because I wanted to help the poor and the oppressed. By the time that I was thirty I was a business lawyer. Stuff like that happens to people. Over the […]
Men Talking About Moms at the Partnership Table
By Murray Gottheil | August 9, 2023 Those of you who do not attend partners meetings may not know that why associates are not working hard enough is a common agenda item. And those of you who follow the statistics are aware that only 25% of partners in Canadian law firms are female. This means that […]
Will generative AI sink the billable hour pricing model?
David Cohen, senior director, client services delivery at McCarthy Tétrault LLP By Julius Melnitzer | August 2, 2023 Generative artificial intelligence could be the catalyst that portends the long-predicted death of the billable hour. “Clients have been clamouring for new pricing models for some time, and generative AI – which can produce answers in seconds instead […]