It’s easy and sometimes entertaining to note the negative or bizarre aspects of the major international law publishers but ultimately it is more interesting to identify areas of achievement. Far from the only one, but one such example is the work and evolution of what is now Bloomsbury Professional, based in the UK but increasingly recognisable around the world.

For me at least, it’s hard not to admire the business and the people involved in it, though I have to admit to a bias, though not an interest, in its favour. I consider a number of the people in . . . [more]

Victor Willis, lead singer of the Village People, that camp disco-era singing group, has won an important victory in a California court. Willis wrote YMCA and other hit tunes performed by the group, the copyright to all of which wound up in music companies, as is so often the case for musicians starting out. However, US copyright law was revised in 1978 to include “termination rights,” a provision enabling creators to resume ownership of the copyright after 35 years. Despite various arguments by the music companies, the court accorded Willis the rights to the songs at issue.

According to the . . . [more]

Since Sunday I’ve been at the Canadian Association of Law Libraries annual meeting, which wrapped up moments ago. I’m a new member of the organization and this was my first CALL conference. I’m pleased to have put so many faces to names, avatars, and handles. I also enjoyed reconnecting with many people I’ve worked with over the years in several domains all over the country.

The conference presented much enriching content, and also highlighted that many involved in different legal libraries, in different sectors, share many concerns and challenges. This knowledge came to light during networking times and in sessions. . . . [more]

It is becoming more common for businesses (and law firms) to have a corporate presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google plus. Some take advantage of promotional uses such as contests on Facebook. 

It is important to look at the terms of use if you do that. Facebook, for example, has terms that govern how contests can be run on Facebook. I suspect many Facebook contests run afoul of these terms, and get away with it only because Facebook didn’t happen to catch it. I also suspect that many people running the contests are not aware . . . [more]

Daniel Kahneman’s new book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, synthesizes his life’s work as a psychologist. The book is about the systematic errors that limit human judgment.

The six-chapter section on overconfidence is particularly instructive for lawyers in helping them to assist clients to make better decisions and to make better decisions themselves. It appears that excessive optimism and overconfidence are part of the human condition. In fact, an expert’s subjective degree of confidence in his or her predictions is irrelevant to the performance of the expert.

Research has shown that, while computers are better than humans at solving problems . . . [more]

An extraordinary warning today from the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority that fraudsters in Britain have set up phony law firm websites, sufficiently genuine looking that there’s a real risk of fraud.

Bogus firms: Are you at risk of being cloned? . . . [more]

Major Vendors of legal information in Canada sit in a hot seat every year

Carswell has a business problem with cancellation of loose leaf services. They want to go beyond anecdotal evidence to deal with their loose leaf services problems. Annual billing vs. per release pricing is being questioned. The number of December ‘extra releases’ was raised. Members of CALL/ACBD question the need for loose leaf to exist. It is contentious, difficult and the members of the association are frustrated.

The twitter stream is #CALL2012ACBD.
Follow along to see what Thomson Reuters – Carswell, LexisNexis Canada, CCH Canadian, and . . . [more]

Here are the three most-consulted English-language cases on CanLII for the week of May 1 – 7.

♨ 1. Bruni v. Bruni 2010 ONSC 6568 (Back again for a re-run, thanks to notes in a couple of UK blogs: The Motley Fool and Roll On Friday, such is the power of notoriety.)

[1] Paging Dr. Freud. Paging Dr. Freud.

[2] This is yet another case that reveals the ineffectiveness of Family Court in a bitter custody/access dispute, where the parties require therapeutic intervention rather than legal attention. Here, a husband and wife have been marinating in a mutual hatred

In an article this weekend, the Montreal French-language daily, La Presse, reported that the provincial Liberal government is looking to amend the Quebec Labour Code in response to labour turmoil at the Journal de Montreal (another Quebec daily). In that dispute, the striking union argued that the Journal de Montreal’s management got around the anti-scab legislation by contracting out work to journalists working from home. The law, as it is currently written, does not prohibit this kind of technological circumvention as it generally only bars the use of employees from an employer’s establishments (with many nuances) while a strike . . . [more]

For more than 17 years I’ve worked in legal marketing, I’ve been keenly listening to clients about how they choose their lawyer, what irritates them and why they leave. I read surveys, attend public and private panel sessions that profile clients and their preferences, and I interview clients at every opportunity.

If you’re in a business, such as law, which centres on attracting and keeping clients, your marketing — and all other business strategies — must be informed and guided by client preferences. If you’re not understanding, responding and anticipating their needs, you will never reach your full potential. Start . . . [more]

We all like self-improvement tips, even when it isn’t New Years. My good friends Merrilyn Tarlton and Joan Feldman over at Attorney@Work have posted an amazing collection of 101 tips for improving your law practice and being a better you. And as a bonus, many of the tips link to more detailed info.

This post is a must read. It is packed full of great bite-sized tips you can implement immediately. Read it today! . . . [more]

Finally, after a decade of exclusively print publication, a portion of the Supreme Court Law Review is available free and online. Each year for the past fifteen years, Osgoode Hall Law School has held a Constitutional Cases conference, the output of which is published in the SCLR. Now, thanks to the efforts of Jamie Cameron and others at York University, the broader community will have access to the more than 200 articles by constitutional scholars and litigation experts. As well, LexisNexis, publishers of the print SCLR, are to be congratulated for giving their permission and support to the project. . . . [more]