York U. honours Janet Walker
York University has awarded the title of Distinguished Research Professor to Osgoode Hall Law School faculty member Janet Walker. The award, for active faculty members, recognizes their scholarly achievements in research. The award is for life and evolves into a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus on retirement. The major criterion for the honour is sustained and […]
Will COVID turn lawyers from Luddites to leaders?
Lawyers are known for their resistance to change. But COVID-19 has forced a great deal of change, technological and otherwise, on the profession. The key question is whether the evolution will continue. And that’s where reluctance to change becomes an asset: after all, reluctance to change and reluctance to change back are, if you ask […]
Arbitration Place to host Canada Arbitration Week
Arbitration Place Virtual will be hosting the inaugural Canadian Arbitration Week from September 21-25. CanArbWeek 2020 will feature most Canadian and some international arbitration and ADR organizations, who will be showcasing their annual conferences and events.
Bucking the trends: BCF’s model for sustainability breeds profitability
This is the second in LegalWriter.net’s continuing series Bucking the Trends: Lawyers who make a difference – – – their own way Growth – – – organic, sustained and profitable – – – has hardly been the order of the day for Canadian law firms in the last decade or so. So forgive me for […]
Bucking the trends: the gentle way to fierce advocacy
August 19, 2020 This is the first in legalwriter.net’s continuing series called Bucking the Trends: Lawyers who make a difference – – – their own way “Gentleman”, “lady”, or “stand-up comic” is rarely found in the lexicon describing the virtues of great counsel. That’s especially true in an era when regulators keep reminding lawyers that […]
Bucking the trends: Lawyers making a difference their own way
August 19, 2020 In an era where law is a business, constrained only by the ethical boundaries of the profession, ranking and league tables have become big businesses in themselves, marketing tools par excellence, touted and shouted to all who will listen in the hope that they will be seduced onto the fee-payer rosters of […]
Justice and the pandemic: what needs to change
July 30, 2020 This article is the last of a five-part series examining our courts’ response to the pandemic and what it means for the future of the civil justice system. There’s no doubt that COVID-19 gave us “an excuse to do things differently,” in the words of Chantelle Cseh, a partner in the dispute […]
Justice and the pandemic: stakeholders in the system
July 16, 2020 This article is the fourth of a five-part series examining our courts’ response to the pandemic and what it means for the future of the civil justice system. Endemic problems of delay aside, a significant new challenge faces our civil justice system as the country’s courts tiptoe their way to reopening. In […]
Justice and the pandemic: pushing for modernization
June 24, 2020 As Ontario Superior Court Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz sees it, Canada’s poor ranking in the Enforcing Contracts indicator found in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 study is but one measure by which the effectiveness of our courts should be gauged. The study, which tracks the time and cost for resolving a commercial dispute through […]
SCC to rule on production of confidential provincial Cabinet records
July 27, 2020 The Supreme Court of Canada will rule Friday on whether public interest immunity, previously known as Crown privilege, permits provincial governments to withhold confidential cabinet documents in the context of judicial review applications. The judgments in Attorney General of British Columbia v. Provincial Court Judges’ Association of British Columbia and Attorney General […]