I’ve finally got around to updating the Google Custom Search Engine that powers Slaw’s Canadian Law Blogs Search — found in the right sidebar very near the top. It now searches all 359 glorious Canadian law blogs listed in Stem Legal’s Lawblogs.ca. Many apologies to all the new (and not so new) bloggers who waited far too long to be included. I’ll try to develop a method for a more continual updating.

I’ve also removed the options that were initially available — date range, number of results — because Google no longer honours these requests for Custom Search Engines . . . [more]

Has everyone recovered from the CALL/ACBD 2012 conference yet? Toronto is gearing up now for another major law librarian conference — the International Association of Law Libraries. This will be the 31st annual conference which takes place in a different country each year (2011 was in Malaysia).

The theme of the conference is Canada: The Cultural Mosaic and International Law. Topics reflect Canada’s unique perspectives on international and domestic issues. Speakers at the sessions include top Canadian legal academics, scholars, legal practitioners and law librarians. A preliminary programme is available from the website – http://iall.org/iall2012/ .

The . . . [more]

The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) and Lancaster House announced this afternoon that they are cooperating in a project to provide open access legal commentary. The digitized text of Wrongful Dismissal and Employment Law (1st Ed.) by Peter Neumann and Jeffrey Sack “will be fully integrated and freely available to the public on the CanLII website” as of tomorrow, May 4, according to the joint press release. The press release also states that CanLII President, Colin Lachance, sees this a first step in improving access to law through the free provision of explanatory materials.

The Wrongful Dismissal e-text will be . . . [more]

The Royal Bank has advised us that several counterfeit Canadian dollar bank drafts have been negotiated by lawyers (4 in Ontario, 3 in Alberta and 1 in Quebec). These drafts are drawn on RBC transit 05142 003 and are payable to individual lawyers. The subject line on all 8 drafts indicates “Rowland Webster”. They are dated April 12 and 13, 2012, and are in the amount of $325,850. They indicate Royal Bank of Canada, Mississauga ON on the top left corner of the draft. RBC’s investigation indicated that these drafts were given to the lawyer as payment on a debt . . . [more]

The College of Law Practice Management has just launched the 2012 InnovAction Awards.

The COLPM is looking for lawyers, law firms, and other deliverers of legal services who are engaged in some extraordinary innovative efforts.

Would your firm qualify or do you know of another firm or person that would deserve this prestigious award and the recognition it brings? Here are the Judging Criteria:

• Disruption: does this entry change an important element of the legal services process for the better, and marketplace expectations along with it?
• Value: is the client and/or legal industry better off because of

From Gov’t of Canada Publications: “… the decision has been made to completely transition all publications published by the Publishing Program and publications provided by departments to the Depository Services Program from traditional print to exclusively electronic publication in two years. “ My first question is, does this include primary materials such as bills, gazettes and acts?

While we may have been expecting this transition to occur in the future, the question was always when does that future become the present? For now, that time looks like it is 2014, the question being is this the right time to make . . . [more]

The unique and indefatigable Tom Bruce is the Director of the Legal Information Institute at Cornell – no need for a geographical adjective when you were the first on the block.

Yes, LII was the first – and it’s coming up to its Twentieth Anniversary – or at least an excuse for a party in Finger Lakes.

Tom explains:

The LVI conference started out as a rather clubby event for a smallish group of open-access publishers largely based in the academic world. More recently, we’ve been joined by some academic researchers in legal informatics and by a few government

http://www.charterproject.ca/

WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CANADIAN CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS?

LOVE IT, HATE IT, OR JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, IT’S TIME TO JOIN THE DISCUSSION!

As millions today around the world are protesting for basic freedoms, on April 17, 2012, Canadians will mark 30 years with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a document which seeks to guarantee fundamental human rights, from speech, to religion, to association.

At the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law, the Class of 2012 knew that their graduation coincided with the Charter’s 30th anniversary and decided . . . [more]

Those of you on CALL-L will already know this, but the website for the annual conference was launched yesterday. It’s hard to imagine, but we’re already less than 90 days away from the start of the conference!

The Conference Planning Committee and the many volunteers for the subcommittees have been busy, but now the energy is really building! The program is set, social venues booked and we’ve submitted our request for decent weather.With the kind of weather we’ve been having in Toronto this winter, I have no idea what to expect in May.

Special thanks has to go out to . . . [more]

Who are these guys and why are they so happy? You’re looking at Clio co-founders Rian Gauvreau on the left and Jack Newton (Slaw blogger) on the right; and they’ll be smiling right now because they’ve just announced at Legal Tech that Clio has raised six million dollars in its Series B round of financing. From the Clio press release:

Clio will use this new funding to extend its product leadership position, aggressively developing new functionalities and supporting its growing customer base. In addition, the company aims to expand its footprint beyond the U.S. (which currently represents 95% of

We are pleased indeed to announce that a number of new columnists are joining Slaw.

Paula Black is a legal business development and branding consultant and coach based in Miami, Florida, and has recently been recognized by Managing Partner Magazine as a leading legal marketing expert. She is also the author of three “Little Black Books” on legal marketing and a blog, In Black and White.

Catherine Sanders Reach  has recently become the Director, Law Practice Management and Technology for the Chicago Bar Association. Before that she was the Director at the American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Resource Center . . . [more]

We’re very pleased indeed to announce that Colin Lachance and Joan Rataic-Lang have joined our roster of columnists.

Colin Lachance is the newly appointed President and CEO of CanLII. A lawyer by training, his career before CanLII was largely focused on communications law and policy. Following a few years in the marketing and government relations ends of the telecommunications industry, Colin started part-time studies towards an LL.M. at the University of Ottawa. As he puts it, to his “surprise and delight,” grad school opened him up to very different possibilities and ultimately a career change that brought him to CanLII. . . . [more]