Should we prosecute fraud against the mega-wealthy?
Things are seldom as they seem. Skim milk masquerades as cream. — Buttercup, in Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore Which gets me to Bill Pallot. I’m sure you’ve all heard of this guy. Vanity Fair called him “the world’s leading expert on the works of 18th-century France”. However, Paris Match recently branded him “the Bernie Madoff of art.” You see, Pallot and […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: McCarthy partners’ earnings top $1.4M | Canadian lawyers flunk Rule of Law pledge test | Quebec class counsel seek $900M in fees in tobacco litigation | Dentons partners with AXL in AI venture | Alexi launches Alexi Private Cloud
By Julius Melnitzer | July 10, 2025 MCCARTHY TOPS CANADIAN PROFIT-PER-EQUITY-PARTNER RANKINGS McCarthy Tétrault LLP’s equity partners lead Canadian law firms’ profit pool – and by a stretch. The US$1.42M PPEQ haul in 2023 topped the $986K earned at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP by over $400K and more than doubled the Gowling WLG figure […]
The importance of a well-drafted confidentiality clause, and the dangers of AI
By Julius Melnitzer | July 8, 2025 A recent US$3.1-million award by a Florida jury in favour of Pliteq, Inc. (Pliteq, Inc. v. Mostafa, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 60316), a Canadian international engineering services and manufacturing enterprise, against a high-ranking Dubai-based employee who stole trade secrets demonstrates that — despite cross-border tensions — Donald Trump’s America may […]
The Real Estate Correction’s Domino Effect: Perspectives from an Expert Witness
By Andy MacDonald | July 3, 2025 I was recently hired to write an expert witness report for a case that perfectly illustrates the domino effects of the real estate correction that started in 2022. As you may recall, the Bank of Canada began to raise interest rates in the spring of 2022, signalling the […]
Capitalism Run Amok in the Legal Profession
By Murray Gottheil | June 26, 2025 There were good things about the old days when law was primarily a profession, and lawyers joined law firms with a view to learning, working hard, and becoming partners. One of them was that law firms cared about their associates progressing, developing clients, and becoming self-sufficient. When we decided […]
Kramer v. Kramer?
By Marcel Strigberger | June 25, 2025 As spooky as AI is, at least it comes up with information. However, AI is known to do what it wants to do, and the information can get a bit off base. We are all familiar, for example, with Donoghue v. Stevenson. In this iconic 1932 case, the House of […]
Does “AI” stand for “Abandoned Intelligence”?
By Murray Gottheil | June 24, 2025 There is no shortage of talk about the importance of lawyers delegating legal work to other lawyers and paralegals. Despite that, I have always believed that lawyers should not delegate work that they do not know how to do themselves. I questioned how anyone can check the quality of […]
The Curse of Originating Client Credits: Let the Games Begin
Photo by Pixabay at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | June 22, 2025 An important element of a law firm’s culture is how it designates ‘client lawyer’ status, or ‘client origination credits’ (“OCs”). By way of background, there are three ways to earn money in a law firm: For the uninitiated, when a client retains a law […]
Is lawyer advertising a good thing? Or over the Bottom?
By Marcel Strigberger | June 19, 2025 The road not taken? Actually, I would not mind taking it if it had fewer lawyers’ billboard ads. To wit, while snowbirding in Florida recently, I could not escape the tsunami of lawyers’ ads inundating the highways. Given how aggressive so many drivers are, I feel spooked by these […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: The Canadian law firms that generate the most revenue per lawyer | How and why a great Canadian law firm folded | OK to compare Israel with Nazis: court | Lawyers can be jailed for misusing AI | Privacy Commissioner frustrated with pace of reforms
By Julius Melnitzer | June 18, 2025 IF RICHES ARE YOUR PROFESSIONAL GOAL Here, in Canadian dollars and according to Law.com, are Canadian Big Law firms that produce the most revenue per lawyer: Related Article: Advice from Law Schools: Follow the Money to Big Law HEENAN BLAIKIE’S DEMISE: UNVEILED If you want to discover how […]