Paralegal debate: let’s settle for ‘better’ not ‘perfect’ access to justice
Thursday, July 27, 2017 The current debate about paralegal representation in Ontario’s family courts, and the degree of opposition to it in the bar and judiciary, exemplify just how far the profession is removed from reality. The lawyers and judges opposing the change rest their case on the belief that “quality of service” will erode […]
Daimler’s innovative blockchain bond issue good and bad news for lawyers
Friday, September 01, 2017 Kiss the trusted adviser goodbye: that, it appears, is the message for the profession from Daimler AG’s recent US$115 million bond issue, all of which was done digitally using blockchain technology. We’re talking everything: from the organization, distribution, allocation and execution of the loan agreement to the confirmation of repayments and […]
Along with the name change, law society should also look at title insurance
Thursday, October 19, 2017 The Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) will be changing its name. Let’s hope it doesn’t use the occasion to toss its sticky if not seamy underside into the compost bin. What remains unexplained in the rush to judgment that culminated in LSUC’s new advertising and referral fees — a stampede […]
Legal teams spearheading the movement toward open office design
Friday, October 27, 2017 It’s a rare occasion when a company points to its legal team as its most forward-thinking department. But don’t tell that to the people in Sun Life Financial’s new offices at One York in Toronto. Take a millennial on a tour of the 17 floors that Sun Life’s 2,000 employees occupy […]
Machine learning is helping to lighten legal grunts’ minutiae-laden jobs
NOV 7, 2017 Law firms are adapting to the growing number of millennials who are filling their associate ranks and moving toward partnership status by keeping up with their penchant for technology. “Millennials have grown up in the digital age and they want to cut out the mindless, tedious tasks that often characterize associates’ and […]
Pensioners of insolvent companies left out of contingency fee debate
Friday, January 05, 2018 Something’s been lost so far in the debate about contingency fees that the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) calls “[protecting] access to justice for the public, while ensuring protection from unscrupulous practices and unreasonable fees.” Unfortunately, what’s been lost are a lot of people. They’re called “pensioners,” a group that […]
CBC doc on forced resignation of Justice Le Dain a scathing look at legal profession
Friday, January 12, 2018 One Judge Down, CBC Radio’s revealing documentary about the shocking circumstances surrounding former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Gerald Le Dain’s abrupt resignation from the court in 1988, is both a sorrowful reflection about how even the most enlightened among us treat mental illness and an eye-opener about misplaced values that still […]
The devil is in the details of the #MeToo Movement
Friday, February 02, 2018 The #MeToo Movement, a cause so noble in its aim of correcting the historical abuse heaped on women, should never have become mired in the controversy that now threatens it. But it did, the day that some of the movement’s proponents and publicists overstepped the boundary between “MeToo” and “YouToo.” It’s […]
Lack of law profession transparency preventing necessary culture change
Tuesday, February 27, 2018 If you’re Law Society of Ontario (LSO) treasurer Paul Schabas, you’ve got to be frustrated by the results of the recent LSO survey that prompted 20 per cent of responding articling students to reveal that they had received “unwelcome attention.” The results evidence the culture of a profession lagging precariously behind […]
Lawyers’ class action over unpaid employment benefits masks regulatory inaction over unauthorized legal services
Deloitte argues its use of such lawyers does not constitute unauthorized provision of legal services March 7, 2018 The strategy driving an employment class action between Deloitte and more than 400 lawyers is masking an issue fundamental to the future of the legal profession. On its face, the case is about whether Deloitte misclassified the […]