The Legal Marketing Association (LMA) Toronto Chapter is holding its first full-day conference at the Four Seasons in Toronto on November 30, 2010. Called “The Changing Face of Legal Marketing,” it’s intended for lawyers as well as law firm marketing staff. The two keynote speakers are Mitch Joel and Adrian Dayton, both experts in online marketing. Another highlight is Nat Slavin, who will be speaking at the end of the day on Five Things Clients Want You to Know and Do in 2011.

Registration and program details are available online, of course. . . . . [more]

Peter Fogh Knudsen, the director of European Consumer Centre Denmark, will be one of the keynote speakers for the 2010 ODR and Consumers Conference scheduled for Vancouver, BC on Nov. 2-3, 2010.

The University of Manitoba is going to publish the new, peer-reviewed Canadian Journal of Human Rights. Launch is scheduled for the spring of 2011.

From the “about” page:

[The CJHR is] a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal of law and policy with a national and international scope… [T]he CJHR seeks to attract human rights research from around the world. From queer rights in Africa and Aboriginal rights in Australia to the European Court of Human Rights and Human Rights tribunals in Canada, we will explore varied areas of research from diverse perspectives.

The nascent journal is seeking submissions and has set . . . [more]

The esteemed Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, LEAF, has launched a website “to monitor developments in equality law.” Equality Rights Central is to be:

… a place to find cases, commentary, trends, news and facta about equality and discrimination issues, in law and policy.

This site is for advocates, academics and practitioners involved in equality rights, to monitor and advance the development of equality law in Canada.

Funded by LEAF and several provincial law foundations, ERC ( — Their acronym; not mine. Not particularly felicitous. — ) will offer updates on key issues as they move through the court . . . [more]

This is just a reminder that the early bird deadline is on September 28 for the upcoming IT-Can conference.

From the their brochure [PDF]:

The 14th Annual IT.CAN conference will be held at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal on October 28-29, 2010. The program is regarded as the premiere Information Technology Law Conference in Canada as it offers a wide array of up to the minute IT Law topics presented by some of the leading practitioners from across the country. The program is very reasonably priced and should be attended by anyone who practices significantly in the area of . . . [more]

“Come together ..right now..over me”

Words and music by Lennon & McCartney

The 2 day Canadian Forum on Court Technology is taking place today and tomorrow in Ottawa, Ontario.

This is a multi-track look at how to apply technology at all points of the judicial dispute resolution system.

Follow the Twitter tweets by following #CFCT.

Come together electronically and follow the discussion! . . . [more]

The Law Commission of Ontario has an ongoing project entitled “Best Practices at Family Justice System Entry Points: Needs of Users and Responses of Workers within the Justice System.” As Slaw readers may know from news reports today (see, e.g., the Gobe and Mail front page story), the LCO has just released a report on part of that study, “Voices from a Broken Family Justice System: Sharing Consultations Results,” setting out what they’ve learned from wide consultation with organizations, agencies, and people who are or staff the “entry points” into the family justice system in the province. . . . [more]

♫ Doin’ it right, doin’ it right, doin’ it right, doin’ it right..♫

Lyrics and Music by: Tom Lavin, recorded by The Powder Blues Band.

Donna Seale (Human Rights in the Workplace) human rights lawyer and educator, has launched her newly redone blog: http://donnaseale.ca/

Doug Jasinski of Skunkworks Creative Group Inc. shares the credit with Donna for the creative input and design.

Donna is a great example of how the power of web 2.0 combined with the Interjurisdictional Practice Protocol can lever a lawyer into a prominent and successful national practice – even from small town Manitoba!

Great . . . [more]

The wonderful folks at AustLII, that powerhouse in the legal information institute movement, have just launched their International Law Library on WorldLII. From the press release [PDF]:

The International Law Library contains over 80,000 searchable documents for free access. This includes over 25,000 decisions of International Courts and Tribunals, over 30,000 treaties and international agreements (including the League of Nations and UN Treaty Series), international law journals and law reform materials. These materials cannot be jointly searched elsewhere on the Internet. AustLII’s LawCite citator tracks where international cases, treaties and law journal articles have been cited.

(A cavil: . . . [more]

On many occasions we’ve posted on the need to communicate effectively about the law to a general public in non-technical prose. (e.g. Èducaloi, Public Legal Ed in New Brunswick via Twitter, Legal Problems in Ontario? You’re Not Alone, Your Rights – Your Language)

Lawyers — and those who work routinely with lawyers — often don’t recognise how much the concepts and vocabulary of the law constitute an effective barrier to communication. Bentham made the point long before us.

So we’re particularly pleased to support an excellent 2 day conference next month in Montréal organised by Educaloi . . . [more]

The organizing committee of the 2010 ODR and Consumers Conference to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia Nov. 2-3, 2010 is pleased to announce that Madam Justice Frances Kiteley will be a keynote speaker at the Conference.

Madam Justice Kiteley:

Co-Chair since 2006 of the Canadian Centre for Court Technology (which she joined in 2005) and member of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

Prior to her elevation to the bench, Madam Justice Kiteley was called to the Bar in Ontario in 1976; she was in private practice in Toronto for 19 years and was elected as a Bencher . . . [more]

Coming up this fall are two conferences dealing with aspects of law and technology that you won’t want to miss:

1. The Canadian Forum on Court Technology, hosted by the Canadian Centre for Court Technology, takes place in Ottawa on September 22 and 23, 2010. Keynote speakers include Richard Susskind (author of “The End of Lawyers”), Allan Seckel (Deputy to the Premier of British Columbia) and Justice Louise Charron (Supreme Court of Canada). Panels will cover a wide variety of topics including the use of video in the courtroom, online dispute resolution, e-discovery, and modernizing the electronic records in Canadian

. . . [more]