Unsuccessful political candidate can pursue civil action against Alberta’s Chief Electoral Officer, SCC rules
By Scott Lemke | July 15, 2026 Election officials, including a Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), are not categorically immune from civil claims merely because they are exercising authority under their governing legislation. In Resler v. Anglin, 2026 SCC 23, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) permitted a civil claim that was brought by an unsuccessful […]
The Implications of My Ice Cream Diet on Law Firm Management
By Murray Gottheil | July 14, 2026 I have been over-weight for a good long while. My wife, Maureen, is not shallow. She loves me exactly as I am. But she is smart, beautiful and talented, and her marketability far exceeds mine, so why take chances? For about 15 years, I stopped eating chocolate, cake, pie, […]
Capital punishment without the Capital
By Marcel Strigberger | July 13, 2026 While in practice, a frequent question laypeople asked me was, “Do you support capital punishment?” My answer is that I am a staunch advocate of capital punishment — as long as nobody actually gets executed. In fact, I believe this is doable. I recently watched a performance of Gilbert […]
More Sinister than Just Hatred
Photo by Cottonbro at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | July 11, 2026 I recently wrote an article titled, Hate Everything or Risk the Consequences, in which I lamented that law firms restrict their lawyers’ social medial activity. But then I spoke to Tony Albrecht, who knows a lot about this stuff and I now realize that […]
Dissecting Intangible Assets’ Market Dominance
By Julius Melnitzer | July 9, 2026 A vast spectrum of industries now counts intangible property as a major part of their value — Matthew Zischka Ocean Tomo’s Intangible Asset Market Study for 2025 revealed that intangible assets constituted approximately 92 percent of S&P 500 market capitalization by year’s end. That represents a 75 percentage point shift from […]
‘We are experiencing more calls than usual’ – Why am I always stuck on hold?
Illustration by Drew Shannon By Marcel Strigberger | July 5, 2026 There are three certainties in life: death, taxes and the impossibility of getting a telephone call through to a bank in a reasonable time. Since there is not much more we can do about death or taxes, let me complain about those banks. Actually, […]
Should lawyers be buying their AI lunch?
By Murray Gottheil | July 2, 2026 Frank Ramos, a Miami litigation lawyer, writes intelligently on LinkedIn. Recently, he posted that potential legal clients are moving away from using Google searches, and toward AI, to find lawyers. His conclusion is that lawyers should stop worrying about SEO and start writing intelligent commentary so that AI will […]
Patent Pruning: Aligning Portfolios with Commercial Value
By Julius Melnitzer | June 30, 2026 “Patent pruning aligns a portfolio with its commercial value, ensuring that patents, individually and as a set, still have enough value to justify their ongoing cost.” — Bhupinder Randhawa Patent pruning is the exercise of examining and reviewing a company’s patent portfolio and cutting out patents that no longer […]
Career tip: What to do when the Sunday evening blues start on Friday afternoon
By Marcel Strigberger | June 27, 2026 On my first day of practice, I bought a leather armchair that I fully intended to use forever. Retirement was something that happened to senior partners, disgruntled lawyers, or cranky old judges. Years later, I realized Shakespeare had already mapped it out. As he observed in As You Like It, […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Norton Rose bigwig leaves for Torys | LSO liable for costs of “unarguable” prosecution | Complaints against lawyers at record high | Study: Legal Aid is essential poverty relief | Rotfleisch releases new edition of Canadian Tax Facts
By Julius Melnitzer | June 23, 2026 NORTON ROSE ENERGY CHIEF JOINS TORYS Robert Froehlich, who led Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP’s energy practice and was chair of the firm’s business law group from 2019 to 2025, has joined Torys LLP’s Calgary office as a partner. His experience embraces some of Canada’s most significant and […]