Technology is the game-changer in the legal field, and yet most lawyers are not very technologically inclined. LawTechCamp seeks to change that, bringing together non-lawyers from the tech sector and the lawyers who are eager to identify the opportunities of the future.

Now in it's third year, LawTechCamp is scheduled for June 8, 2013 in Toronto. The panels this year will again focus on some of the cutting-edge developments in the intersection of law and tech, and brings in several speakers from outside of Canada. Here's a sampling of what you can expect:

Due diligence is one of those things . . . [more]

A tweet this morning from Heather Colman alerted me to the Building Smarter Organizations event happening today in Toronto.

If you are like me, and you are not in Toronto attending this event, you can still participate through the web.

There is a Linked In Group and a #smartorg twitter stream. There are plenty of concepts being shared through tweets that will make you think. Examples:

Mark Federman ‏@MarkFederman
Great Drucker quote: Mgmt mostly consists of making it difficult for people to do their work. #smartorg

Heather Colman‏ @HeatherColman
More bureaucratic mgmt= less engaged staff #smartorg

It is worth your . . . [more]

Dr. Sonia Lupien, a neuroscientist, shared 60 minutes on understanding the beast of stress. Her premise is that if you understand someone, you can deal with it.

I understand stress from the user perspective. Like using a computer, I didn't know what the silicon in the chips was for. Dr. Lupien gave CALL Conference attendees useful information in a humorous way.

First: Stress is not time pressure.

If stress was time pressure, it would not exist when you have to go to the dentist or if we have someone close to us dealing with an illness.

Second: Stress has nothing . . . [more]

The practical skills gained through legal education help young lawyers service the public more effectively. However, the burden of legal tuition may prevent lawyers from entering these areas of practice until they're already in mid-career, if at all.

Many undergraduate students evaluate their options after graduation, and consider doing graduate work or professional education like law school. At this point most students are already burdened with debt but are still interested in increasing their employability in the long-term.

New studies by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) explore the opportunities for graduate students in the province:

Doctoral enrolments

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Last week I had the good fortune to have attended the Canadian Bar Association's Envisioning Equal Justice Summit: Building Justice for Everyone in Vancouver. Many participants live-tweeted sessions and otherwise engaged in #equaljustice discussions. The summit culminated in a compilation, by the participants, of ideas and concrete strategies for legal and justice system reform. These will be presented in a report to the full conference of the CBA with a plan for implementation. I'll write about highlights in subsequent posts over the coming weeks. Others have written, here and elsewhere, for example, about the stimulating event as well.

The summit . . . [more]

Yes. Most definitely, yes. The harder question is who to take on as your mentee or protégé.

Managing a Mentoring Relationship published by LawPro offers the following summary of mentoring.

Mentoring relationships can be informal and unstructured, more complex and procedure-based, or somewhere in between. But no matter what form they take, the structure of the relationship is not as important as the learning that occurs. We all thrive when we learn in the presence and with the help of others who have gone before us.

Mentors do more than simply pass on knowledge and information. They impart lessons on

. . . [more]

Another year of classes and exams has come to an end, which puts me in a reflective frame of mind; recently a topic that has been turning over in my mind is curriculum reform, which is a hot button topic on this Blog and at many law schools across this country and North America in general. As I survey the conjecture on the topic there is one thing that I do not see addressed that bothers me and that is the topic of preparatory reading or rather the lack thereof.

As anyone who has a law degree, or is pursuing . . . [more]

The Legal Education Society of Alberta is recognizing the more that 600 people in Alberta, mostly lawyers, who volunteer their time to support legal education in our province. How are they doing that? By sharing a full day seminar with volunteers about a topic that is potentially useful to anyone on the legal community: social media.

Today we are in Edmonton (April 25 the session will be repeated). We are starting the day with Marliss Weber and Randy Brososky giving an overview titled Social Media 101.

Tweets about this session are at #lesaonline. . . . [more]

As much as I enjoy discussing how technology can improve and enhance legal practice, I firmly believe this technological transition has to begin before – in the law schools. Despite, or perhaps in spite of generational differences, the vast majority of legal graduates are technologically illiterate. Changes to the way that legal education itself is delivered may make the difference.

Central to this change is the realization that lawyers are no long the gatekeepers to legal information. Access to justice demands that justice be accessible and comprehensible to the public. This may lead to further development of legal education programs . . . [more]

Today and tomorrow I am at the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association (CCCA) 2013 National Spring Conference in Toronto. This morning the CCCA announced they are partnering with the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto to launch a new certification program for Canadian in-house counsel, Business Leadership Program for In-house Counsel. The announcement was made by CCCA Chair Grant Borbridge, Q.C., of Calgary, and Roger Martin, Dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

The focus of the program is not substantive law, but rather helping lawyers make the leap from firm-focussed practice of law . . . [more]

The Law Practice Program (LPP) is about to change the way lawyers are licensed in Ontario.

The LPP is the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC)’s solution to “the articling crisis.” It’s meant to provide an alternative to law graduates unable to secure the 10-month lawyer-in-training jobs they need to become licensed in Ontario.

The gist of the LPP is that instead of 10 months of mandatory paid work at a law firm, the LPP requires only four months of paid or unpaid work experience and four months of coursework.

Starting in the 2014-2015 licensing year, the LPP . . . [more]

We began our respective legal practices within a year after finishing our articles; we both wanted to be able to express our personal ethics and practice law our way. We had to develop new skills, ranging from file organization to client management, grapple with unforeseen stressors, and learn to congratulate ourselves for victories big and small. Our biggest surprise was that neither law school nor former employers had ever taught us the things we needed most to run our business. So to that end, and in honour of Law Student Week at slaw, here are ten facts you may also . . . [more]