BARE BONES BRIEFS: LSO accredits mindfulness meditation training for lawyers; New CEO at Arbitration Place; Calling a man “a bald c***” is sexual harassment; Bennett Jones provides scholarships for Indigenous, Black and first-generation law students; Top 5 law firm bulletins
By Julius Melnitzer | June 6, 2022 LSO ACCREDITS MINDFULNESS MEDITATION COURSE In a nod to the growing recognition of well-being’s importance to the profession, The Law Society of Ontario has accredited a mindfulness training course, Toronto Method Mindfulness, developed and led by Ari Kaplan of Kaplan Law. Kaplan, one of Canada’s leading pension law […]
Tips for Lawyers: Moving to a New City for Work
By Vanessa Holwell | April 27, 2022 Moving to a new location for work can be an exciting time. The fresh start is often a chance to find the house of your dreams and set it up in the way you desire. However, moving comes with challenges and stresses, from picking out a home to […]
Virtual proceedings: Here to stay but the devil in the details
By Julius Melnitzer | April 2, 2022 With the announcement that Ontario’s family lawyers will return in person to the Superior Court of Justice in April for parts of the divorce process, there’s a growing sense that things are returning to normal — or at least the “new normal.” The problem is, as recent statistics […]
LegalWriter.net’s Top 10 business decisions of 2021, Part II – – – and the law firm players
Welcome to our third annual list of the Top 10 business decisions in Canada. This is the second of a two-part series, and features the top five cases in ascending order. Cases ranked 6-10 can be found here. By Julius Melnitzer | March10, 2022 5. 6362222 CANADA INC. v. PRELCO INC. (SCC) Law Firms: Borden […]
Jurisage launch marks new era in bulk access to Canadian law
By Julius Melnitzer | February 7, 2022 With the recent launch of Jurisage AI, bulk access to a national case law collection is now a commercial reality in Canada. Jurisage is a joint venture between independent legal publisher Compass Law, and AltaML, a Canadian applied AI studio. “There’s a whole lot of insight and opportunity […]
FP Dealmakers: Law firms on overdrive amid ‘hunger and urgency to get deals done’
By: Julius Melnitzer | February 1, 2022 It’s rare for lawyers to be unequivocal. But then, when it comes to capital markets activity, 2021 was a rare year for law firms. “We certainly had not planned for what occurred this past year, which produced one of the best capital markets ever, and we’re talking all […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Judges: counsel still wasting courts’ time | Post-Pandora crackdowns target lawyers | Survey: Lawyers profit most from class actions | Top 5 law firm bulletins & webinars
By Julius Melnitzer | January 10, 2022 JUDGES: LAWYERS STILL SCREWING UP COURTROOM PROCEEDINGS “The file is in a state of near total disarray”: these are nothing less than the opening words in a recent Federal Court judgment. That’s perhaps not surprising in a case where the applicant was unrepresented. But what is surprising is […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: OCA reverses heroin trafficker’s conviction after judge delays reasons for 4 years | Women lawyers working 100 more hours than men | 90% of UK lawyers resisting return to office | EU pushes gig workers’ rights | Top 5 law firm bulletins & webinars
By Julius Melnitzer | December 6, 2021 JUDGE TAKES FOUR YEARS TO DELIVER REASONS AFTER THREE-DAY TRIAL The trial involved only three days of evidence. But Judge Kofi Barnes of the Ontario Superior Court took four years to deliver reasons. And that was some 31 months after Shane Artis appealed his conviction and 10-year sentence […]
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, […]
Fossil fuels may be in doldrums but energy lawyers are adapting to the new environment
By Julius Melnitzer | October 25, 2021 Fossil fuels may be in the doldrums with a precipitous future ahead, but energy law and the demand for energy lawyers is alive and well. “Generally speaking, recruitment activity in the overall energy sector has increased,” said Carrie Heller, president of The Heller Group Legal and Executive Search, […]