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 […]
I Give this Post a Five Star Review
Photo by Nicola Barts at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | August 1, 2023 I was a super-fantastic lawyer. Really, almost everyone says so. And yet, there were a few clients who did not appreciate what I did for them or what it cost to have me do it. Luckily for me, during most of my career […]
There Seems to be Some Confusion – I Loved Practicing Law!
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | July 30, 2023 This morning someone remarked that much of my writing about the legal profession is a tad negative. She said, “You practiced law for a long time; you were good at what you did; you made enough money to retire and travel the world. […]