2022 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing Shortlist

As Past-President of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries, I have the pleasure of Chairing the 2022 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing Committee. This award honours Hugh Lawford (1933-2009), Professor of Law at Queens’ University and founder of Quicklaw. It is awarded to a publisher (whether for-profit or not-for profit, corporate or non-corporate) that has demonstrated excellence by publishing a work, series, website, or electronic product that makes a significant contribution to legal research and scholarship.

After reviewing a number of excellent nominations, the Selection Committee is pleased to announce the short-list of nominees for this prestigious award! Drum roll, please!

They are:

CanLII for Civil Procedure and Practice in Ontario edited by Noel Semple. A comprehensive and free guide sophisticated enough for specialist litigators, but also straightforward and understandable for law office staff, self-represented litigants, and the general public.

Emond for Modern Criminal Evidence, Brian H. Greenspan and Vincenzo Rondinelli, General Editors. A truly practical and comprehensive guide to criminal evidence law in Canada that guides readers through evidentiary issues in all components of criminal law, providing insight from Crown, defence, and judicial perspectives.

LexisNexis for The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Canadian Law by Kevin P. McGuinness. The definitions provided in this text are taken predominantly from both Canadian jurisprudence and statutes and also include important terms from pertinent related fields such as economics, sociology, political science, forensic medicine, science and engineering, business and accounting, and many others.

LexisNexis was also shortlisted for:
Context – a language analytics tool for predicting decisions of courts and judges
Legal Voices/Paroles juridiques – a French language case summaries podcast
Market Standards – a deal analyzer for finance and mergers and acquisitions
Pleadings, Motions, Facta – Québec Court Documents – a collection of court documents from pivotal Québec cases

Tax Interpretations, contributing editor Neal H. Armstrong. “This legal publisher has been around for the past 9 years. It is based out of Toronto and provides updates on Canadian tax information, tax interpretations, transactional implications.” “Impeccable editing.”

Congratulations to all who have been short-listed! And thanks to everyone who submitted nominations.

This award will be presented at the CALL/ACBD’s Annual Conference, a virtual event from May 31, 2022 to June 4, 2022. Registration is open for the Conference and anyone is welcome to join for the low price of $250 for non-members. I hope you will join me to celebrate excellence in Canadian legal publishing.