Women GCs on boards double up on men: Blakes study
By Julius Melnitzer | March 18. 2021 Women constituted 66 percent of the general counsel who sat on the boards of Canadian public companies in 2020, outnumbering their male counterparts by 2:1, according to a study by Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP. The surge has been remarkable: since 2016, women GCs represent 75 percent of […]
Mandatory coronavirus testing for unionized employees allowed: arbitrator
By Julius Melnitzer | March 17, 2021 Arbitrator Dana Randall has ruled that unilaterally-imposed, bi-weekly testing for the novel coronavirus at a Woodstock, Ont., unionized retirement home is reasonable when weighed against the need to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. “The decision tells us that, in this particular environment, mandatory COVID-19 testing is a […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: U.K. leaves GDPR; Mortgage broker licensing requirements exemptions; Arbitration & the pandemic; EAPO launches pharmaceutical register
By Julius Melnitzer | March 16, 2021 U.K. abandons GDPR U.K. culture secretary Oliver Dowden says the country will strike its own data adequacy agreements with other countries. Although the U.K. has already secured such an agreement, still in draft, with the EU, it does not intend to “copy and paste” the EU’s rulebook, known […]
Top 10 business decisions of 2020 part two: From termination and tax to good-faith contracts
By Julius Melnitzer | March 12, 2020 This is the second of a two-part series listing the Top 10 Business Decisions in Canada for 2020. The first part dealt with cases ranked 6-10. This article ranks the top five in ascending order. 5. Waksdale v. Swegon North America Inc. 2020 ONCA 391 Ultimately, Waksdale stands for the proposition that […]
Bare Bones Briefs: UN, OECD say lawyers are “professional enablers” of crime; Consumers love lawyers’ online reviews; SCC to decide whether Jordan applies to disciplinary cases; OCA & SCJ public outreach is pathetic; ABA supports commercial arbitration
By Julius Melnitzer | March 3, 2021 UN, OECD: lawyers are “professional enablers” of crime Law Society Gazette reports that both the U.N. High Panel on International Financial Accountability and an OECD report on Ending the Shell Game describe lawyers as “professional enablers” of illicit financial flows. Needless to say, the International Bar Association protested, […]
Anticompetitive regulatory risk on the rise: COVID’s role
By Julius Melnitzer | March 2, 2021 COVID-19 and its economic aftermath have cast a dark shadow of regulatory risk on businesses coping with Canada’s competition laws. There are two reasons: the first is that regulatory enforcement of corporate laws tends to be at its highest in bad times; the second is that that our […]
Top 10 business decisions of 2020 part one: From pipelines to anti-SLAPP
Thursday, February 25, 2021 @ 8:29 AM | By Julius Melnitzer What follows is our second annual list of the Top 10 business decisions in Canada for the just-ended year. This is a two-part series, which begins below with numbers 6-10, in ascending order. 10. British Columbia (Attorney General) v. Canada (Attorney General) 2020 SCC 1 It’s […]
No accident benefits for Uber-driving lawyer attacked on the job
Licence Appeal Tribunal finds lawyer’s altercation and escape from disgruntled riders not an ‘accident’ By Court Report Canada | Feb. 18, 2021 An insurer was entitled to deny the accident benefit claim of a Toronto lawyer attacked by his Uber passengers, according to a decision by Ontario’s Licence Appeal Tribunal. The lawyer – who was still in […]
Bare Bones Briefs: No FLA claims in bankruptcy; Drabinsky loses house; Codina stays in jail; Mediation reports key to class action approvals
By Julius Melnitzer | February 24, 2021 Bankruptcy trustee can’t initiate FLA equalization claims The Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that a trustee in bankruptcy cannot initiate a claim for recovery of a Family Law Act equalization entitlement. The court focused on the exclusion of property that is “personal as between the parties” from […]
The interplay of profit & relevance: post-COVID opportunities for law firms
By Julius Melnitzer | February 23, 2021 The economic and social upheaval wrought by the pandemic has driven home the notion that good corporate citizenship and profitability go hand in hand. “There’s a gathering consensus that the economy should be ‘better’ than before,” says Tony Williams, who leads Jomati Consultants LLP, a U.K.-based international management consultancy […]