Risk management has been a hot topic in the corporate community for about 10 years, springing mostly from scandals such as Enron, Worldcom and more recently the financial crisis of 2008. The devastation that these events wrought forced boards of directors to devote significant resources to managing risk and to keep abreast of what is happening in the world at large.

When one looks at law firms, we see that attention is paid to risk management only in the micro-sense; controls are put in place to prevent lawyers and staff from stealing trust funds, there are some controls over who . . . [more]

An interesting human rights case is making its way to the European Court of Human Rights where the British government is set to defend the right of employers to ban employees from wearing the cross at work as it is not a ‘requirement’ of the Christian faith

Every once in a while, someone in one of my classes asks, Aren’t there any tools for Legal Project Management?

(“Every once in a while” means every other session or thereabouts. It’s a common question.)

I answer this in three ways that I’ll share here.

“Tools” Does Not Mean Technology

First, “technology” is not a synonym for “tools.” It is at best one set of tools among many. To be specific, it is a minor set.

You can manage legal projects perfectly well without technology, and certainly without purpose-built “project management” technology. Lawyers Abe Lincoln and Clarence Darrow, for example, . . . [more]

The Supreme Court today released its decisions in the van Breda, Banro and Black cases. It dismissed all three appeals.

I want to look in particular at van Breda, which deals at length with jurisdiction simpliciter and with forum non conveniens, with a discussion of real and substantial connection and a sideways glace at enforcement of foreign judgments (not yet at issue in this case, of course.) The Court, per Justice Lebel, sets out the principles of private international law.

In particular the Court upholds the Ontario Court of Appeal’s refinement of the factors that indicate a . . . [more]

The College of Law Practice Management has just launched the 2012 InnovAction Awards.

The COLPM is looking for lawyers, law firms, and other deliverers of legal services who are engaged in some extraordinary innovative efforts.

Would your firm qualify or do you know of another firm or person that would deserve this prestigious award and the recognition it brings? Here are the Judging Criteria:

• Disruption: does this entry change an important element of the legal services process for the better, and marketplace expectations along with it?
• Value: is the client and/or legal industry better off because of

. . . [more]

From Gov’t of Canada Publications: “… the decision has been made to completely transition all publications published by the Publishing Program and publications provided by departments to the Depository Services Program from traditional print to exclusively electronic publication in two years. “ My first question is, does this include primary materials such as bills, gazettes and acts?

While we may have been expecting this transition to occur in the future, the question was always when does that future become the present? For now, that time looks like it is 2014, the question being is this the right time to make . . . [more]

This is another in a series of columns about developing a law library collection development policy for the new, digital information environment. In my last column, I looked at journals – what they are, how they’re produced and their respective markets. In this second part, I’ll look at how journals are used in legal research today in both practice and in law schools, their place in a contemporary law library collection, and possible policies for collecting them.

Journals vs Books

Journals are used differently than books. A legal treatise examines the many aspects of a single, relatively broad topic . . . [more]

I spent a portion of last week viewing things through 3D glasses. Today, I saw an article from the Daily Commercial News titled Loughborough University researchers in England work on 3-D printing app.

It’s not really printing, of course. But it works somewhat like the inkjet printers used in many homes and offices. In an inkjet, the printhead, containing black and coloured inks, moves back and forth across a sheet of paper. As it moves, tiny nozzles spray droplets of ink, forming printed words and pictures.

But it turns out that the “ink” can be many things.

There have . . . [more]

Do the wills you are drafting for your clients deal with their digital assets? Does your will deal with your digital assets (personally and for your practice)? I’m guessing that your answers to both these questions is “No.”

My good friend Sharon Nelson did an excellent post on this hot topic on the Ride The Lightning blog. Until recently, lawyers just didn’t think about digital assets. This needs to change as lawyers and clients alike all have significant and growing online presences. It can be very difficult and time consuming for family members and estate trustees to deal with digital . . . [more]

The last time you purchased insurance or made a contribution to your RRSP, did you think about how long you might live? According to recent statistics, Canadian men live just over 78 years on average, while women live about 83 years. Men are expected to spend 88.8% (68.3 years) of their life in good health, compared to 86.3% (70.8 years) for women.

Most people know that how long we can expect to live depends heavily on genetics, weight, smoking status, lifestyle choices and luck, but you may be surprised to know that where you live can also be a contributing . . . [more]

Today is Observe National Stress Awareness Day. As lawyers, we know stress all too well. Ehow.com has a list of five things you can do to reduce stress in your day-to-day life.

1. Prioritize your life. Our lives are stressful because each day is jam-packed with things to do. The list of things to do never seems to end and only carries over to the next day. People tend to do the least important things on the list first and then feel as if they haven’t accomplished enough in their day.

2. Don’t worry if you don’t get through . . . [more]

Last week The Delimiter ran a story about the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) criticizing Australian organizations for their preference to host cloud data within Australia’s borders:

A number of US companies had expressed concerns that various departments in the Australian Government, namely, the Department of Defence, The National Archives of Australia, the Department of Finance and Deregulation, the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) and the State of Victoria’s Privacy Commissioner had been sending negative messages about cloud providers based outside the country, implying that “hosting data overseas, including in the United States, by definition entails

. . . [more]