News & Analysis

Reciprocal insurance exchange raises ethical, access to justice questions

Friday, May 05, 2017 Whether lawyers have class is open to question. But a select group does have CLLAS. CLLAS is not a typo. It is the acronym used by an elite group of about 15 law firms comprising some 5,000 lawyers who have banded together to incorporate a reciprocal insurance exchange, known as the […]

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 […]

Judicial independence and the media

Thursday, May 18, 2017 Is there an “unstated compact” between the judiciary and the media? Should there be? And if so, what should it be? The notion of an “unstated compact” found its way to me from a bit of a distance, emanating from a speech given by Justice Barry Leon, who sits on the […]

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. […]

Efforts to cool hot housing markets target ‘foreigners’ instead of speculators

Thursday, June 22, 2017 In an era where anti-immigration policies are picking up steam, “foreign” is a dangerous word. And therein lies the problems with the Ontario and British Columbia measures that impose additional taxes on non-residents buying residential property in the Toronto and Vancouver regions. Notice that, on a quick reading, it appears that […]

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 […]

Along with injustices, Nortel saga shows strengths of Canada’s legal system

Friday, July 21, 2017 Some five days after Canada celebrated its 150th birthday, and after almost a decade of litigation, unsecured creditors in the Nortel bankruptcy were scheduled to receive their first distribution of funds from the settlement reached in January. It’s a shame that the distribution of what was left of Nortel, still an […]

Groia case highlights tension between lawyers’ duties to client and court

Monday, August 14, 2017  A hint of what awaits Joe Groia could very well be gleaned from the Supreme Court of Canada’s treatment of Quebec criminal lawyer Robert Jodoin, against whom the court upheld a personal costs award for bringing “unfounded and frivolous” motions alleging bias against a Quebec Superior Court judge. It’s worth a […]

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 […]

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