BARE BONES BRIEFS: Law firm risked becoming a terrorist agent | Fearful lawyers refusing cases against Trump | FBI criminalizes environmental groups | Legal Aid can’t refuse to pay for 90% of firm’s document review | Avatars are the new court spokepersons
By Julius Melnitzer | March 26, 2025 CENTRAL LONDON FIRM HIT WITH C$47,000 ALM FINE The UK’s Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has imposed a maximum fine of C$47,000 on PCB Lawyers LLP, a central London property law specialist, for breaches of anti-money laundering regulation that exposed the firm to being used as a conduit for […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Paul Weiss caving to Trump isn’t the problem: the profession is | ALM crackdown on lawyers continues | Law firm penalized $883,000 for breaching Russia sanctions | OCA: Courts can’t compel contempt defendants to testify | Alexi survey confirms AI threatens lawyers
By Julius Melnitzer | March 25, 2025 AMERICAN LAWYERS’ INACTION ON TRUMP REMINISCENT OF NAZI ERA Most of the criticism surrounding Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP’s capitulation to Donald Trump’s retribution campaign has focused on the firm. But firm chair Brad Karp’s widely disseminated email accusing the profession of not being supportive and […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Dentons faces AML charges | Is private equity taking over the profession? | Historic Shell emissions judgment overturned – but landmines remain | Hogan Lovells mistakenly discloses 4,321 privileged documents | Sun Life report: Canadian pension risk transfers exceed $3 billion in 2024
By Julius Melnitzer | March 23, 2025 DENTONS MUST FACE AML CHARGES The Law Society Gazette reports that the UK’s High Court has overturned the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal’s (SDT) dismissal of anti-money laundering charges against Dentons. The SDT ruled that Dentons’ breach was “inadvertent” and did not amount to professional misconduct. But on appeal by […]
Jewish Lawyers Unite in Fight against Anti-Semitism – Finally!
By Julius Melnitzer | March 20, 2025 It’s been years since Jewish lawyers and legal professionals in Canada had a united voice, and about 18 months since the horror of Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023. But the recent formation of the Canadian Jewish Law Association (CJLA) has at last given a voice to a group that […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: LST says 5-year “inordinate delay” causes “no prejudice” to investigated lawyer; “Ashamed” of “greedy” Big Law, lawyer leaves profession; Critics pile on UK PM for his “lawyer brain”; Study: PEI first, Quebec 10th, Ontario 5th in use of PI lawyers; Alexi launches large-firm AI workflow solution
By Julius Melnitzer | February 22, 2024 CHAOS RULES IN LAW SOCIETY DISCIPLINE INVESTIGATIONS A recent Law Society Tribunal (LST) decision leads to the vexing conclusion that a five-year delay in investigating complaints against lawyers causes no prejudice to them. And combined with the ongoing brouhaha about a $400,000 pay raise for a senior executive, […]
Called to the bar and grill
By Marcel Strigberger | January 21, 2025 Can a judge make peace between hostile lawyers by ordering them to have lunch together? In the Alabama case of McCullers v Koch Foods of Alabama, the two lawyers involved were not getting along too well. Defense counsel moved to amend his pleading and plaintiff’s counsel opposed the request unless defendant agreed not […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: No charging order for fees though client refuses to direct settlement to firm; Judge orders duelling counsel to lunch together; Lenczner Slaght obtains $259 million judgment in Manitoba’s first electronic trial; BLG hires Hélène Deschamps Marquis to co-head privacy and cybersecurity group
By Julius Melnitzer | January 5, 2005 BAD WAY FOR LAW FIRM TO START NEW YEAR On New Year’s Eve, Ontario Superior Court Justice Todd Robinson denied Woodrbridge, ON law firm Capo Sgro LLP‘s application for a charging order over settlement fees, brought after the client sought an assessment (still pending) of the firm’s total […]
LST Squirms Its Way to Accepting Reprimand for Jeremy Diamond’s Misconduct
By Julius Melnitzer | December 16, 2024 Far be it from me to judge whether a reprimand was an appropriate sanction for Jeremy Diamond’s misconduct, though I’m a firm believer that the initial Law Society Tribunal that heard his case had no business refusing to let him withdraw his admissions of guilt after rejecting a […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: ECJ: Accountants’ communications not privileged | Alexi AI cuts routine litigation task time by 80% | Legal Risk Assessments: tackling risk proactively | OCA: No appeals of court-ordered arbitrator appointments | Singapore to establish international appeals body for commercial cases
By Julius Melnitzer | October 30, 2024 ECJ RULES THAT PRIVILEGE DOES NOT EXTEND TO TAX ADVISORS WHO ARE NOT LAWYERS The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that privilege in tax matters extends only to lawyers and not to other professionals, even if they perform similar advisory tasks. The court concluded […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: LSO licenses parolee serving 27-year sentence| Caseway AI legal research tool eliminates “hallucinations” | Cecilia Hoover joins BLG | Marcel Strigberger’s hilarious new book | Should Canada adopt UK public inquiry recommendations?
By Julius Melnitzer | October 27, 2024 LST: PAROLED APPLICANT STILL SERVING 27-YEAR SENTENCE CAN PRACTISE LAW The Law Society Tribunal Hearing Division has granted a license to practise law in Ontario to Dr. Serdar Kalaycioglu, a parolee convicted of a multi-million wire fraud in the US who still has about 3 years left in […]