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Archive for November, 2025

The Law Firm Pyramid Rollover

Artificial intelligence, pricing, and transience of the legal service sector’s workforce will cause the traditional law firm pyramid structure to rollover like an upending iceberg. The result? By 2030, global legal services will operate much differently than they do now.

Twin juggernauts – AI and Pricing – compounded by continuing transience of the legal service sector’s workforce will take a major toll on law firms unprepared for their impact. This reckoning will upend the traditional pyramid structure with the result being that by 2030, the global legal services sector will operate much differently than it does now.

The countdown clock . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Marketing, 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 more than 80 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. Family Health Law Blog 2. Condo Adviser 3. Double Aspect 4. Le Blogue du CRL 5. Blogue SOQUIJ

Family Health Law Blog
Did You Receive a Letter from Service Canada About the Canada Disability Benefit? Here’s What It Means

If you’ve recently received a letter from Service

. . . [more]
Posted in: Monday’s Mix

Summaries Sunday: Supreme Advocacy

One Sunday each month we bring you a summary from Supreme Advocacy LLP of recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers a weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, to which you may subscribe. It’s a summary of all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted from August 28 – November 12, 2025 inclusive.

Appeals

Criminal Law: Arrest
R. v. Wilson, 2023 SKCA 106; 2025 SCC 32 (40990)

The Crown says Parliament deliberately omitted an explicit immunity from arrest from the text of s. 4.1(2) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : La juge de première instance aurait dû, avant de conclure la lecture de son jugement sur la peine, s’abstenir de faire part de l’indignation personnelle qui l’habitait envers l’accusé et de souligner le courage et la force des victimes; toutefois, l’accusé n’a pas démontré une crainte raisonnable . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Cost Savings, AI and the Public Sector

AI Generated Government?

It’s interesting that both of these articles came through on my feed in the same day:

Ahmed Otmani Amaouim, “Canada’s new Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation: What it means for Canadian innovators” (MNP, last accessed September 12, 2025), online: https://www.mnp.ca/en/insights/directory/what-it-means-for-canadian-innovators.

and then

Patrick Butler, “N.L.’s 10-year education action plan cites sources that don’t exist” (CBC, September 12, 2025), online: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/education-accord-nl-sources-dont-exist-1.7631364.

Falsified Education Policy?

Let’s just call it – it was Newfoundland and Labrador’s **Education Accord** (10 year policy document) (that cost $755,000 dollars, no less) which contained falsified sources:

Yumna Iftikhar, “PCs ‘not . . . [more]

Posted in: Education & Training, Legal Information, Legal Information: Libraries & Research, Technology

Making Meaningful Participation Real in the BC Family Justice System

It was very encouraging to hear about the new Early Intervention Program launched by the Society for Children & Youth of BC (SCYBC). This is great news of support for the growing movement to ensure that children and youth are able to meaningfully participate in the BC family justice system. We need your help to get the word out to the legal profession, youth serving agencies, the judiciary and your personal networks.

For too long, many kids whose parents are separating have not been offered the opportunity to express their views on issues that significantly impact their lives – such . . . [more]

Posted in: Dispute Resolution

Experiment Continued: Opportunities to Enhance an Existing Project With Gen AI

In my previous post, Is it All About the Prompts? Experimenting with Gen AI to Develop Public Legal Information, I experimented with the free version of ChatGPT-5 to determine if the steps in my usual process for creating public legal information content could be streamlined or eliminated altogether. These steps include:

  1. Research: Research is conducted on the topic to create a draft framework. If a legal process is being described, the steps are outlined with any requirements to complete each step identified. I rely upon existing credible websites or resources that can include applicable legislation. Internal documents may
. . . [more]
Posted in: Legal Information

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 more than 80 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. Le Blogue du CRL 2. Barry Sookman 3. The Lean Law Firm 4. Legal Post Blog 5. OsgoodePD Blog

Le Blogue du CRL
Répit-Ressource de l’Est de Montréal c. Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail, 2025 QCCA 1306

TRAVAIL

. . . [more]
Posted in: Monday’s Mix

How Profs and Students Are Using AI in Law Schools Around the World

Law schools everywhere are confronting the same issue: how to use AI to help rather than hinder student learning.

In an earlier column, I speculated on ways we might help law students foster good over bad uses of AI. A paper published this summer by Dutch law professor Thibault Schrepel surveys the growing literature on experiments with AI in legal education. His overview provides a more concrete sense of what better uses of AI might entail.

These applications all have potential pitfalls, but these too can be harnessed as part of the learning process. To begin with the most . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Education, Legal Technology

Summaries Sunday: SOQUIJ

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : Une peine de 60 mois d’emprisonnement est imposée à un jeune qui s’est enfui des policiers et a jeté une arme à feu chargée dans la cour arrière d’une maison 1 an après avoir été filmé avec une autre arme à feu prohibée dans le vidéoclip d’une . . . [more]

Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Summaries Sunday: Supreme One-Liners

As a supplement to our Sunday Summary each month, Supreme Advocacy LLP in Ottawa presents Supreme One-Liners, a super-short descriptive guide to the most recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers its more comprehensive weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, summarizing all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted.

Leave to Appeal Granted

Constitutional Law: Names/Pronouns; Notwithstanding Clause
Government of Saskatchewan as represented by the Minister of Education v. UR Pride Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity, 2025 SKCA 74 (41979)

Constitutionality of legislation re names/pronouns; and use of notwithstanding clause.

Appeal

Criminal

. . . [more]
Posted in: Summaries Sunday

Added-Value Legal Information Publishing: What Seems Artificial and What Seems Intelligent

In pondering upon what interesting and timely topic about which to write, relating to legal information publishing, it occurred to me that what might be appreciated would be to write and repeat the word “artificial” approximately 333 times, followed by the word “intelligence”, the same number of times and finally the same again for the acronym “AI”. I wondered if readers might have found the approximately 1000-word totality of such efforts, or just the repetition of “blah”, to be as captivating as much of the other agenda-driven drivel produced on the topic, including that offered by the . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Publishing

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