BARE BONES BRIEFS: Anti-Israel stance costs law students their jobs | Pornhub sues for TM infringement | Counsel suspended for naming sexual assault complainants | Not Mother’s Day: son sues mother’s law firm for “cold and callous” conduct | Fake lawyer wins 26 consecutive cases |
By Julius Melnitzer | October 19, 2023 DAVIS POLK RESCINDS JOB OFFERS TO PRO-HAMAS HARVARD STUDENTS Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, a top UK law firm that employs about 1,000 lawyers, has withdrawn job offers to three Harvard and Columbia students who signed statements blaming Israel for the Hamas attacks and expressing support for Palestinians. […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Lawyer earning $126,000 gets $1.8 million in wrongful dismissal damages | Litigation funder scores $4.5 billion in proceeds from judgment | LST sanctions counsel for uncivil conduct | NBKB imposes 3-year prison term for workplace fatality | IBA outlines challenges for profession
By Julius Melnitzer | October 15, 2023 FIRED IN-HOUSE COUNSEL AT BANK AWARDED $1.8 MILLION A UK employment tribunal has ordered digital bank Starling to pay $1.8 million in damages to Guinaz Raja, whom the bank had employed as a solicitor in its legal department at a salary of $126,000. The employer terminated Raja, an […]
Ashley Butts’ career shows that success in-house and private practice are not always intertwined
Ashley Butts’ career focus revolves around skill sets learned in criminology and sociology studies By Julius Melnitzer | August 8, 2023 The career of Ashley Butts, senior legal counsel in BASF Canada Inc.’s Toronto office, provides strong support for the emerging proposition that success in-house and private law firm experience are not necessarily intertwined. “Law was […]
For more than most, COVID was a maelstrom for Kath Hammond, GC at Greater Toronto Airports Authority
Kath Hammond says her team’s tightly-knit, non-hierarchical structure lent itself well to the challenges COVID presented By Julius Melnitzer | July 31, 2023 It’s unlikely that COVID proved more of a maelstrom for a legal department leader than it did for Kath Hammond, Vice-President and General Counsel, Corporate Safety and Security at the Greater Toronto Airports […]
The squeeze on general counsel and legal departments has reached new heights: report
TD’s Kashif Zaman says it will be a while before AI makes a workload impact for legal departments By Julius Melnitzer | July 26, 2023 The squeeze on general counsel and legal departments has reached new heights, according to The General Counsel Report 2023, a joint white paper from global consultancies FTI Consulting, Inc. and Relativity. “For […]
Working for one client attracted TC Energy’s Lesley Lee in-house
Her 13-member litigation and employment department is responsible for both Canada and the US By Julius Melnitzer | July 25, 2023 When Lesley Lee, director of litigation and employment law at TC Energy, decided to move in-house from her private firm practice, focus is what attracted her. “I enjoyed private practice, but liked the idea of […]
Cybersecurity attacks in Canada hold steady, but things are getting worse
Sunny Handa says cybersecurity is an enterprise risk, not just an IT risk By Julius Melnitzer | July 24, 2023 At first blush, readers of Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP’s Canadian Cybersecurity Trends Study 2023 might take heart in discovering that 2022 did not see steady growth in the number of cyberattacks. “The number of attacks […]
Reporting to the Lawyer From Hell
Photo by Maureen T. McKay By Murray Gottheil | July 19, 2023 So imagine that you are a newbie lawyer working for a firm. When your were looking for your first job, nobody told you that the most important consideration was to work for a competent person of good character, so you chose your job […]
In-house views of remote work diverge significantly
By Julius Melnitzer | July 18, 2023 The “working from home” controversy, it appears, is no less intense among legal departments than it is elsewhere. The degree of the divide is evident from the breadth of the opinion spectrum: at one extreme are traditionalists on this issue like Fernando Garcia, who has over 15 years […]
Laura Salvatori, Anson Funds’ GC, has found satisfaction in straddling the cross-border world
Salvatori says GC roles attract people who like being jacks of all trades and rolling their sleeves up By Julius Melnitzer | July 8, 2023 Based in Toronto but with her “heart in New York,” Laura Salvatori, Anson Funds’ general counsel, has found satisfaction by straddling both worlds. Anson is a privately held alternative asset management […]