Work-life balance. We want it. There’s now a CBABC committee dedicated to it. Yet what does it mean and how exactly do we get it?

The word balance is misleading. It seems to indicate a quantity goal, with a focus on the amount of time being spent on either side of the work-life equation. I hold a different view, that it is not so much a question of quantity but rather the overall quality of our entire life that is important.

What is the quality of our work life? What is the quality of our personal life? When both activities . . . [more]

Law.com provides a description of an interesting development in a case of wrongful dismissal at a Catholic university in the US. Tom Monoghan, the founder and guiding light of the ABA-certified Ave Maria School of Law contends that its professors are “ministerial”, and therefore subject only to canon law. Further, this qualifies the school for an “ecclesiastical abstention” from scrutiny by the courts. There are some good quotes from Deborah Gorden, the lawyer representing the three professors who were fired:

Gordon is aghast at the theory that Catholic law school professors are ministers. “Are you people kidding or what,” Gordon

One of the many marvels of the marriage of electronics and music is the wide (almost wild) variety of instruments that have become possible. We all know the spooky sound of the old theremin and the tinny rattle of the Moog as harpsichord. But have you heard (or even heard of) the Chapman stick? If you haven’t, it’s the duty and the pleasure of this fillip to relieve you of your ignorance.

The thing itself — seen to the left (click on it to enlarge it) — looks essentially like an oversize guitar fretboard or perhaps a sitar in the . . . [more]

The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s confirmation hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to be associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court begin Monday morning. She will be on Capitol Hill undergoing questioning by the senators during the next week.

Of all the news outlets planning coverage, perhaps the most interesting is Associated Press. Their plan is to have live coverage via Twitter feed @AP_Courtside. They will be taking it a step further by taking questions and directions on coverage for their blog from their readers via Twitter, according to their blog post yesterday at Yahoo! . . . [more]

This message will hopefully reach you before you select your cottage and beach reading. A fun little site called Bookseer will help you find your next novel. Not recommended if you are seeking the next great legal text (and yes, I tried). . . . [more]

I am in the lovely City of Calgary today celebrating Stampede, well, working AND celebrating. My office mates are wearing hats and boots and western dress. I crossed a street in downtown cowtown behind a horse at lunch. There are parties, parties, and more parties. It is very cool! Even though I am an Albertan from birth, I didn’t realize what a big deal Stampede is.

Stampede often serves as an excellent analogy for our Alberta politicians. Evidence of this can be found in the Alberta Hansard from March 5, speaking about the budget and the economy:

This is

A working paper on the digitization of Canadian parliamentary publications was produced in the spring and posted recently to the Parliamentary Internet site:

The aim of the Working Paper (begun in September 2008) is to provide an overview of:

• which published papers relating to the operations of Parliament have been digitized;
• by which organization;
• where the digitized works are housed;
• who is permitted access &
• plans for future digitization.

(…) The goal is to help inform the development of a coherent strategy amongst the various stakeholders to digitize, make available and preserve over the long term, the corpus of Canadian

Yahoo Search has just launched a notepad that’s aimed at helping you do research on the web. It is, in effect, a replacement for the Notebook that Google killed a few weeks ago, and Yahoo hopes it will draw searchers into using their engine.

It’s a fairly simple but smart application: when Yahoo senses from your queries that you’re doing research, it will make Search Pad available in the upper right hand corner of your Yahoo Search window, along with some suggestions as to how your searches might be glossed. Search Pad will automatically capture the bones of your searches, . . . [more]

Frustrated consumers and lawyers alike often threaten to take complaints to the press in an attempt to get satisfaction for an alleged wrong. After all, the “headline risk” of being perceived in a bad light by the public can sometimes be a sobering reality check on whether the entity is not treating a consumer fairly, or whether the complianant is just off base.

Earlier this week, this video was placed on Youtube – was viewed over 150,000 times in its first 2 days – and resulted in United coming to the table to resolve it.

According to the story/song, the . . . [more]

The venture capital press have announced that

Thomson Reuters, the leading financial news and business information company, has acquired Indlaw Communications Pvt. Ltd., a Delhi-based legal information company, for an undisclosed amount. Indlaw runs a legal, tax and regulatory information database website called www.Indlaw.com.

We’re four years old today. Since July 8, 2005, there have been 4,457 posts on which you’ve made 5,869 comments. Over 100 writers have contributed to our enterprise. And we’ve garnered some praise and prizes that give us great pleasure.

Of course, it’s all because of you, our readers. You’re the reason we started and you’re the reason we’re still here. On behalf of all of those who have written for us, let me thank you for reading what we write. Please keep doing it. And tell your friends about us. We’ve got more years to go yet. . . . [more]

For a limited time, ABA Publishing is offering a special 20% discount on all ABA titles. Do your shopping before July 24, 2009 as this offer expires on that date. To get this special pricing order online and enter source code PEP9MJPM

The 20% discount applies to all ABA books and you can find a complete listing of them at www.ababooks.org. Non-ABA members get 20% off of list price. ABA Section members get 20% off the special reduced member price of any section they belong to, and 20% off the list price for books from sections they aren’t members . . . [more]