Over the last four days there has been a massive spike in bad cheque frauds targeting lawyers in across Canada (BC, Ontario and Quebec), the U.S. (NC, NY) and several other countries around the world (including Australia, Fiji, Italy, Scotland, Sweden, Turkey and the U.K.).

Almost 300 lawyers notified us that they received an initial contact message on one of these frauds. As LAWPRO would receive reports on a fraction of the attempted frauds, it would appear that thousands of lawyers have been targeted over the last four days. Several thousand lawyers have visited the AvoidAClaim blog for more information . . . [more]

The EU privacy directive (1995 version – I gather that it is being revised, though I don’t know on what timetable) provides that member countries may not release personal information outside the EU unless the recipients are bound by equivalent safeguards for privacy.

While the US has a ‘safe harbor’ agreement with the EU about criteria for judging when the protections are equivalent, Canada does not. On the other hand, we have a generally applicable privacy law (PIPEDA) and some provincial equivalents, plus personal health information laws in most provinces. Are they enough to permit the personal information to come . . . [more]

It’s that time of year when we hear about new electronic products on the horizon and things we could/should be doing with them: the tech show season.

Tomorrow the big Consumer Electronics Show starts in Las Vegas and runs until January 13. I’m always surprised at how many people in my online social network travel to this show each year. I shouldn’t be, I suppose, since it is the premier event for consumer electronics. To follow the action from afar (as I will) the hashtag on Twitter is #CES. You can also do as many others do, and follow . . . [more]

We are pleased indeed to announce that a number of new columnists are joining Slaw.

Paula Black is a legal business development and branding consultant and coach based in Miami, Florida, and has recently been recognized by Managing Partner Magazine as a leading legal marketing expert. She is also the author of three “Little Black Books” on legal marketing and a blog, In Black and White.

Catherine Sanders Reach  has recently become the Director, Law Practice Management and Technology for the Chicago Bar Association. Before that she was the Director at the American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Resource Center . . . [more]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) offers a terrific suggestion for a New Year’s resolution that you might actually have a decent chance of keeping: enabling full disk encryption on all of your computers.

Full disk encryption means that if your computer’s hard drive falls into the wrong hands – because of theft, loss, or other causes – it remains unreadable until the correct “passphrase” is entered. If, for example, you lose your laptop full of sensitive client data while traveling, you can rest easy knowing that the data on your laptop is protected from prying eyes thanks to the . . . [more]

by Cheryl Canning*

I was recently engaged in a discussion about the importance of resiliency in the workplace. The topic intrigued me. I had never really thought of resiliency as something that would be a necessity in the workplace. In my mind it was more about the ability to cope with personal crises. Through a series of recent events however, I came to appreciate its importance in all aspects of life, and I have developed my own theory as to how to build up one’s resiliency. My theory has not been tested or proven through scientific study. It is . . . [more]

The conclusion of most of the occupy camps across North America this fall was largely peaceful, with some notable exceptions involving pepper spray and excess force. But the protesters for the most part were non-violent, and in my exposure in Toronto, largely respectful of the legal system.

Although skepticism abounded when police announcements were shared or news stories circulated, judicial decisions appeared to have much more impartiality and credibility to the protesters. If the courts can be used as an alternative to police excess and fiascoes like the G20, I interpret it as a small success for our judicial . . . [more]

and not help one’s expert witness consulting practice

One bit of advice young lawyers are given – much easier to follow in the brave new world of reasons for judgment online and so easily searched – is to look for cases in which judges have commented on the expert’s objectivity. The words in square brackets are my interpolations for clarity.

From a trial decision not too long ago, about a witness who testified for the side that ultimately won at trial but lost on appeal.

•  Dr. S. called by the Plaintiffs, was qualified as an expert to give opinion evidence

Trello, from Joel Spolsky‘s Fog Creek Software, is a really nice tool for organizing a project, collaboratively, and for free.

Launched back in September, I just found out about the software today reading and interesting note he wrote showing the difference between vertical and horizontal software products.

This looks like it might be a big help in law offices, and anywhere teams need to collaborate on multifaceted projects. . . . [more]

Recently, Slaw introduced Talklaw, a calendar of legal conferences and events. This reminded me of an annual legal conference that doesn’t get talked about much outside of Manitoba, the Isaac Pitblado Lectures.

Non-Manitobans are not likely to be familiar with Isaac Pitblado. As stated in the biography from the Pitblado Lectures published papers:

At the time of Isaac Pitblado’s death, the Hon. Richard S. Bowles, the President of the Law Society of Manitoba, said about him:

The Law Society has lost its most respected and beloved member. Canada has lost one of its most able and distinguished sons.

Now that Christmas and New Year’s are safely tucked away, we can move on to things less ritual, less structured. But before we do, I’m going to take one last kick at the cans—because that’s the nature of the ghosts of Christmas past and auld lang syne, is it not? to linger nostalgically for a bit.

I seem to recall that as an adolescent I used to get a lot of shirts from Santa. Imagine my delight. And then one year my parents (yes, I knew by then: I was always sharp as a tack) gave me an LP with . . . [more]

Teaching a seminar not long ago, I commented that texting while driving was a clear example of the failure of multitasking. A very bright senior lawyer said, “But sometimes you have to.” (Even her workaholic colleagues looked askance at that!)

No, you don’t have to. Ever.

You know it’s a bad idea, right?

It’s easy to recognize in this example that a texting driver is dividing her attention, paying attention sometimes to the cars around her and attention at other times to her smartphone. Perhaps the text message does require only part of her attention (though even that’s unclear, according . . . [more]