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 seventy 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. Legal Feeds  2. Double Aspect 3. Michael Geist  4. Henry J Chang’s Canada-US Immigration Blog  5. Avoid A Claim

Legal Feeds
Lakehead law grads hit hiring obstacle

As Lakehead University’s first round of law grads hit the job market this year, it seems they’re coming up against some barriers from the profession. “We have some firms telling graduates that articling is necessary to be in the hiring pool for that firm,” Angelique EagleWoman, dean of Lakehead’s Bora Laskin Faculty of Law, says, calling it an additional obstacle that’s discouraging for the new grads. …

Double Aspect
What’s Constitutional Law, Anyway?

Understandings of what is constitutional law depend on time and place. Law is beset with definitional problems. Quite apart from the law’s struggles to define terms external to it, and translation difficulties, 2400 years after Plato, we can even agree about what law is. And it is similarly difficult to define specific legal categories and fields. The process of developing my New Zealand constitutional law class is a good reminder that the boundaries of the field to which this blog is devoted are, at best, a matter of contingent convention. …

Micheal Geist
Pokémon Go Craze Brings New “Augmented Reality” Legal Issues Into Light

Unless you’ve been offline or focused on a distorted national anthem rendition for the past week, you know that Pokémon Go has taken the world by storm with millions of people wandering around searching for virtual Pokémon characters. The game was officially released in Canada on the weekend – it started first in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand – with millions of people already playing it. …

Henry J Chang’s Canada-US Immigration Blog
Canada to Lift Visa Requirements for Mexican Citizens

On June 28, 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally announced that the Temporary Resident Visa (“TRV”) requirement for citizens of Mexico travelling to Canada will be eliminated as of December 1, 2016. However, the existing TRV requirement will continue until November 30, 2016. Mexican citizens who wish to travel to Canada before December 1, 2016, will still need to obtain a TRV from a Canadian consular post. …

Avoid A Claim
Open a file for pro bono matters too

Pro bono work is something nearly every lawyer does occasionally. Here’s one practical tip for avoiding some pro bono pitfalls: open a file for every matter you handle. By “open a file”, we mean treat the work like you would any other work. Run a conflicts check; diarize deadlines; document the client’s instructions, your advice and the steps you take; and docket your time (even if you won’t bill it). …

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*Randomness here is created by Random.org and its list randomizing function.