Disappearing acts pertaining to people, skills and talents have always happened every few years in the global legal services market as the sector continually refreshes itself. But disappearing has never been more prevalent than it has been of late and will become even more common in months and years to come. Act now.

As mentioned in my previous column, I am well aware that my opinions and perspectives especially over the last few years and more so lately are becoming more fearless and urgent as factors impacting the global legal services market surge with a magnitude of force that demands . . . [more]

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 January 1 – February 28, 2026 inclusive.

Appeals

Charter: Mobility Rights
Taylor v. Newfoundland and Labrador, 2023 NLCA 22; 2026 SCC 5 (40952) Feb. 13, 2026

During the early days of the COVID‑19 pandemic, Newfoundland and Labrador declared a public health emergency. The province’s . . . [more]

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.

FAMILLE : La juge de première instance a commis une erreur lorsqu’elle a condamné le mari au paiement de l’intégralité d’une somme correspondant à la valeur du «mahr» — la dot islamique — qu’il avait consenti à l’épouse au moment du mariage.

Intitulé : Droit de la famille — 26172, . . . [more]

Courthouse libraries play a quiet but essential role in supporting the justice system. As legal research practices evolve and user needs change, the physical layout and design of these libraries matter more than ever. Across Ontario, courthouse libraries are embracing both long recognized design principles and practical, user driven improvements to create spaces that are welcoming, efficient, and adaptable.

The Theory of Library Design*

Library design theory has long emphasized the importance of aligning space with purpose. Approaches such as functional relationship analysis encourage planners to consider how users move through the environment, where different activities naturally occur, and how . . . [more]

Periodically on Thursdays, we present a significant excerpt, usually from a recently published book or journal article. In every case the proper permissions have been obtained. If you are a publisher who would like to participate in this feature, please let us know via the site’s contact form.

The Law of Occupiers’ Liability

Authors: Alan Preyra and Emily Unrau
General Editors: Barbara Legate and Deborah Berlach
Foreword: The Honourable Darla A. Wilson of the Ontario Court of Appeal
Publisher:Emond Publishing
Publication Date:December 2025
ISBN: 978-1-77462-745-7
Page Count: 500
Regular Price: $139 (print), $125 E-book

Excerpt: “Chapter 7, Common Occurrences

During the ten years I spent closely involved in teaching articled clerks lawyering skills, I often described the program—only half jokingly—as “How to Deal with Humans.”

This past October, I read an article by Jordan Furlong titled “Three core attributes of tomorrow’s lawyer,” and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. One of the attributes Furlong identifies is personal trustworthiness. He uses this category to capture what he calls “relational skills”: empathy, listening, collaboration, judgment, and discretion. In short, he is talking about relationship-building.

But why are we still talking about this?

Shouldn’t law students arrive in practice with . . . [more]

My perception, supported by a good deal of evidence, is that some people and businesses favour, and indeed boast of those assets and competences which they already have and from which they are trying to profit; they sometimes play down the worth of products, services and content which they do not have and through which they cannot trade for potential profit. Therefore, to take an example, they might trumpet the significance of blogging in legal markets, while referencing, to little or no extent, the infinitely more dynamic sources of added value legal authority, viz. the authoritative . . . [more]

What many of us in law, legal education, and other fields still want to know at this point is: what is AI really good for? What does it do reliably well and better than we could do on our own? And when we use it for those purposes, what risks do we take on?

In the early days of ChatGPT, those risks were clear. AI hallucinated authorities and generated biased output grounded in its training data. But as models have improved and we’ve learned to guard against these problems, those concerns have become more manageable.

A different and more subtle . . . [more]

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) : L’ensemble de la preuve ne peut conduire à une autre conclusion que la culpabilité de l’accusé, lequel a assassiné les locataires qui vivaient au sous-sol de sa maison; il y a donc lieu d’appliquer la disposition réparatrice à l’erreur concernant l’absence de directive restrictive sur les déclarations . . . [more]