Justice and the pandemic: pushing for modernization
June 24, 2020 As Ontario Superior Court Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz sees it, Canada’s poor ranking in the Enforcing Contracts indicator found in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 study is but one measure by which the effectiveness of our courts should be gauged. The study, which tracks the time and cost for resolving a commercial dispute through […]
Justice and the pandemic: How Canada ranks
Friday, June 19, 2020 This article is the second of a three-part series examining our courts’ response to the pandemic and what it means for the future of the civil justice system. What’s we’ve learned from the pandemic, in the justice system and elsewhere, is that we’re going to have to make do with less […]
Justice and the pandemic: The new gold standard
Tuesday, June 02, 2020 This article is the first of a three-part series examining our courts’ response to the pandemic and what it means for the future of the civil justice system. When COVID-19 set the world askew, Canada’s justice system seemed ill equipped to confront the warnings and restrictions that emanated from public health […]
Canadian law firms hold their own when it comes to making money, U.S. legal publication says
Canada’s homegrown law firms are holding their own in Legal Week’s international law firm rankings October 17, 2016 Canada’s homegrown law firms, the ones who have not been absorbed by the global behemoths and who still have most of their lawyers in Canada, are holding their own in international law firm rankings. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt […]
Generation Lex: Law schools seek balance between theory and practice
The battle for the modern law school: academic study in one corner of the ring, practical knowledge in the other April 25, 2017 Traditional bastions of legal learning are moving with the times by incorporating a more practical approach to legal education, yet critics say that they have not moved far enough or quickly enough […]
Ontario rent controls an opportunity lost for legal profession
Friday, May 12, 2017 Rent controls and funeral homes have a commonality. Both represent opportunity in the legal market; rent controls, an opportunity lost, and funeral homes an opportunity seized. They also represent the great divide that exists between the headspace of lawyers on this side of the Atlantic and that of the profession in […]
Branding, skillful mergers the keys to Big Law success
Friday, June 02, 2017 It used to be that beyond name recognition — logos and the like — branding served only a limited purpose for law firms who sold services based for the most part on the individual expertise of their lawyers or their practice groups. But as personal contact declined in a globalized, connected […]
Change in values needed as firms shift away from billable hour targets
Friday, June 09, 2017 The news that global giant Linklaters, the archetypal bastion of lockstep compensation and individual billing targets, is moving away from these cornerstones, is both welcome and depressing news for the profession. It’s welcome because it signifies that even the most intransigent of traditionalists are recognizing the reality of an evolving profession. […]
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 […]