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Archive for July, 2013

Wednesday: What’s Hot on CanLII

Each Wednesday we tell you which three English-language cases and which French-language case have been the most viewed on CanLII and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about.

For this last week:

  1. Berg v. Loblaw Properties Limited 2013 ONSC 4803

    [1] The defendant seeks its costs following its successful defence of the plaintiffs’ personal injury action. The matter proceeded over the course of four weeks in Woodstock. The jury found the defendants not liable for the plaintiff, Wendy Berg’s orthopaedic injuries arising from a misstep and fall at the Zehrs store in Woodstock. They assessed

. . . [more]
Posted in: Wednesday: What's Hot on CanLII

Marketing Gets Technical

In one of my recent columns I discussed the idea of measuring marketing effectiveness. As an adjunct to that piece, I want to comment this time out on a trend I’ve noted in the marketing industry that I think is noteworthy for law firms – the rise of the digital marketer.

In-house marketing roles in law firms have historically focused largely on “the classics” of professional services marketing – business development (co-ordinating RFP responses and assisting with client pitches), event management (client seminars and firm receptions) and brand identity projects as well as oversight of firm print collateral (brochures, . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Marketing

People You Meet on Planes

While travelling home from Seattle last week after the AALL conference, which Connie, Kim and I blogged about here and here and here and here, I had an interesting seat mate. More than one interesting person actually. My philosophy is that if you are stuck on a plane and there is someone conversationally inclined, it is a good idea to put down your novel and learn. Every conversation is an opportunity to learn something, whether it is with a student travelling for the first time, someone on the way to visit a grandchild, or someone travelling on a business . . . [more]

Posted in: Education & Training: CLE/PD, Practice of Law: Marketing

Great Communicators

Lawyers tend to think of themselves as strong communicators, but they don’t always get their message across to clients.

It doesn’t help that clients aren’t always clear about what they want from lawyers.

This was evident at the mid-winter meeting of the CBA Council, when the Legal Futures Initiative took advantage of the gathering of lawyers from across the country, representing most sizes and types of practice, to find out what lawyers think clients want.

Presented with results from the Initiative’s own survey of client expectations, some lawyers present were a bit taken aback by the idea that clients wanted . . . [more]

Posted in: Practice of Law, Practice of Law: Future of Practice, Practice of Law: Marketing, Practice of Law: Practice Management, Technology, Technology: Internet, Technology: Office Technology

JustAccess Seeks Crowdfunding to Launch Venture to Crowdfund Legal Disputes

JustAccess is a Toronto startup that, as of today, is seeking donations via the Centre for Social Innovation‘s crowdfunding site, Catalyst. The notion is that with a $10,000 infusion JustAccess can launch its own venture, which will:

support plaintiffs and defendants who can’t afford proper access to the justice system[,] share their stories with like minded people and request financial support towards their legal fees.

JustAccess is the work of a team of three people, Sam Saad, Chris Barry, and Kay Dyson Tam, none of whom is a lawyer or has legal training. Saad, the Managing Director . . . [more]

Posted in: Announcements, Justice Issues, Practice of Law: Future of Practice

Tips Tuesday

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on technology, research and practice.

Technology

Get the Music You Want for Every Mood or Occasion From Songza
Dan Pinnington

There are loads of music streaming sites on the web. One of the best is Songza.com. It suggests different playlists for the mood you are in and it has playlists for every conceivable music type. There is a Music Concierge that will give you options like Brand New Music, Working to a Beat, Working (no . . . [more]

Posted in: Tips Tuesday

The European Regulation on Consumer Online Dispute Resolution – Where Are We Now?

As mentioned in a previous post, the Cyberjustice Laboratory was proud to host the 2013 ODR Forum, which took place on June 17th and 18th in Montreal, Quebec. Among the issues addressed by our panelists and esteemed guests during those two days was that of the European Regulation on consumer ODR, a document that is seen as both a step in the right direction and a source of great confusion. If most in the ODR community welcome the document, general consensus also seems to be that important details remain to be incorporated for it to be implementable . . . [more]

Posted in: Dispute Resolution

Practice Pitfalls: Franchise Law

In the September 2010 issue of LAWPRO Magazine, we asked our claims counsel about what they feel are the biggest malpractice hazards in each area of law based on the claims files they work on every day. Here is an excerpt from that article dealing with franchise law. Click here to read the full article “Practice Pitfalls”.

Acting for franchisors can be particularly risky for lawyers, warns LAWPRO Claims Counsel Anna Reggio. Although some franchisors are large multinationals, many are small and relatively unsophisticated businesses.

One area of risk involves the onerous disclosure requirements imposed upon a franchisor by the . . . [more]

Posted in: Reading: Recommended

Catching Up With the ALM Law Librarians Survey 2013

So far we’ve been quiet about the ALM Law Librarians Survey 2013, a survey done of AmLaw 200 law firms each year. The survey results were announced earlier this month, and were officially released at the American Association of Law Libraries conference last Tuesday. I attended the release with analysis by Kevin Iredell, VP of ALMLegal Intelligence. This was the 12th year for the survey, and is typically answered by the head librarian in each firm.

From the related The American Lawyer article by Alan Cohen:

By now, it’s a phrase that law firm library directors likely hear

. . . [more]
Posted in: Legal Information: Libraries & Research, Practice of Law: Practice Management

Competitive Plagiarism

Ask most firm leaders to identify those business CEOs that they most admire and they would probably list a small group of highly entrepreneurial names that would include Jack Welch, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson or Warren Buffet. Ask why they admired these particular individuals and you would probably hear about the individual’s self-confidence, decisive boldness, the originality of their strategic direction, and contrarian beliefs. However, if you now inquire into what strategies these leaders were themselves advocating in their own firms, the answers you would receive would be depressingly unlike those of the leaders they admire.

To make this point . . . [more]

Posted in: Practice of Law

Monday’s Mix

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada's award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from forty-one recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Wise Law Blog   2. Rule of Law   3. Michael Geist   4. Entertainment & Media Law Signal    5. Environmental Law and Litigation
Posted in: Monday’s Mix

Cyberbullying and Intimate Images Report Released

Following the tragic death of Rehtaeh Parsons, a special meeting by the Provincial and Federal Ministers of Justice decided to investigate the state of the law around the distribution of images of an intimate nature without consent. Many observers believed that the provisions under the Criminal Code are insufficient in dealing with this growing problem among young Canadians.

The subcommittee of the Cybercrime Working Group (CWG) responsible for this released their report this week. The report notes that the traditional response in Canada to cyberbullying relies heavily on education initiatives and promoting public awareness and support among families and communities. . . . [more]

Posted in: Substantive Law: Legislation, Technology: Internet