Competition Bureau’s approach to antitrust law needs to catch up with the times
Tuesday, September 12, 2017 Even as Canada’s Competition Bureau heralds a focus on the digital economy as its number one priority for 2017-18, experts in the United States have questioned whether antitrust laws, such as the Sherman Act of 1890 and the Clayton Act of 1914, can really do the job that’s required in the modern economy. The irony […]
Toronto’s Arbitration Place offers alternative to Trump’s America
Monday, September 25, 2017 “Bold” describes the legal profession to about the same extent that “discreet” describes The Donald. But there are exceptions. And there’s a lot to be learned from them. For those eager to escape lawyers’ unique brand of quicksand, from which they innately view opportunity as risk, Arbitration Place (AP) in Toronto […]
Along with the name change, law society should also look at title insurance
Thursday, October 19, 2017 The Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) will be changing its name. Let’s hope it doesn’t use the occasion to toss its sticky if not seamy underside into the compost bin. What remains unexplained in the rush to judgment that culminated in LSUC’s new advertising and referral fees — a stampede […]
Legal teams spearheading the movement toward open office design
Friday, October 27, 2017 It’s a rare occasion when a company points to its legal team as its most forward-thinking department. But don’t tell that to the people in Sun Life Financial’s new offices at One York in Toronto. Take a millennial on a tour of the 17 floors that Sun Life’s 2,000 employees occupy […]
Machine learning is helping to lighten legal grunts’ minutiae-laden jobs
NOV 7, 2017 Law firms are adapting to the growing number of millennials who are filling their associate ranks and moving toward partnership status by keeping up with their penchant for technology. “Millennials have grown up in the digital age and they want to cut out the mindless, tedious tasks that often characterize associates’ and […]
Decision highlights CRA’s overzealous tax litigation policy
Monday, November 13, 2017 Sometimes, litigants get so caught up in zealotry that they lose sight of basic underlying factors. That, perhaps, is part of the cost of the adversarial system. But when the zealot is the Crown in a country that faces vexing issues of delays in the court system and access to justice […]
Government should be honest about its support for UN Indigenous rights resolution
Monday, December 04, 2017 Why is it that after 150 years of persecuting our Aboriginal neighbours, we still insist on misleading them? Why do we keep shrouding their hopes in mist? Justin Trudeau pleased many when Canada announced that it was a “full supporter” of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples […]
2018 to be a busy year for pension reforms
January 3, 2018 If there’s one thing that’s clear about pension reform in 2018, it’s that sponsors will have their hands full, particularly in Ontario. “There’s no question in my mind that impending changes to Ontario’s pension laws will motivate administrators and service providers to up their game,” says Mary Picard, a partner at Dentons […]
Pensioners of insolvent companies left out of contingency fee debate
Friday, January 05, 2018 Something’s been lost so far in the debate about contingency fees that the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) calls “[protecting] access to justice for the public, while ensuring protection from unscrupulous practices and unreasonable fees.” Unfortunately, what’s been lost are a lot of people. They’re called “pensioners,” a group that […]
CBC doc on forced resignation of Justice Le Dain a scathing look at legal profession
Friday, January 12, 2018 One Judge Down, CBC Radio’s revealing documentary about the shocking circumstances surrounding former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Gerald Le Dain’s abrupt resignation from the court in 1988, is both a sorrowful reflection about how even the most enlightened among us treat mental illness and an eye-opener about misplaced values that still […]