The coolest thing about being a lawyer is the ability to walk into privileged space. It’s why every immigrant parent wants their child to be a lawyer, why TV shows perennially propagate legal dramas, why politicians hate lawyers and are lawyers, why in the Godfather the biggest flex is having a lawyer-consigliere, and why there are, for lawyers, only two kinds of people: lawyers and non-lawyers.

Most tangibly, a lawyer enters a courthouse by skipping security, a place guarded by metal detectors, police, jails, and judges. Then, upon entering a courtroom, only the lawyer has the presumptive right to pass . . . [more]

Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law.

Detachable Penis: A Queer Legal Saga. By Sam Elkin. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2024. 200 p. ISBN 9781771126656 (softcover) $29.99; ISBN 9781771126663 (ePUB); ISBN 9781771126670 (PDF).

Reviewed by Brianna Calomino
Digital Projects Librarian
University of Calgary

With a distinctive book cover featuring a crocheted penis that elicits a . . . [more]

Almost ten years ago the BC Family Unbundled Legal Services Roster (the “Roster”) and Unbundling Toolkit were launched [Note 1]. We are delighted to announce that, in partnership with Access Pro Bono BC, the Roster is now being administered by the new Legal Referral Service (“LRS”).

This transition marks an important milestone in the continued growth and sustainability of unbundled legal services in British Columbia.

Unbundled legal services (often called limited scope services) help to improve access to legal advice, coaching and representation for the public. [Note 2] This approach also offers many important benefits for legal professionals, the . . . [more]

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]

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]

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]

Have you ever felt so done with everything that if there was one more thing on your plate you could just explode?

I remember watching cartoons as a kid where the characters would get red in the face, the head would get bigger and bigger and then “boom” they would explode in a cloud of smoke. This is the best way to depict how many of us feel when we are at the end of our ropes. That strange sensation in the body that is telling you to walk away from your desk, go out in nature, calm down… do . . . [more]

These changes are intended to update existing Canadian Non-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) disclosure standards to conform to the new international accounting standard, IFRS 18 Presentation and Disclosure in Financial Statements, which is effective for annual periods beginning on or after January 1, 2027.

Background and Context

IFRS 18 Impact: The IFRS 18 standard requires the disclosure of Management-Defined Performance Measures in a note to the financial statements, which would have removed them from the scope of the existing NI 52-112 definition of non-GAAP measures.

Purpose: To continue providing investor protection and transparency, both in the financial statements and beyond . . . [more]

Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law.

Democracy, Protest and the Law: Defending a Democratic Right. By Michael Head. London, U.K.: Routledge, 2024. vii, 198 p. Includes index. ISBN 9780367608323 (hardcover) US$190.00; ISBN 9781003100652 (eBook) US$56.99.

Reviewed by Haley O’Halloran
Research Librarian
Toronto Lawyers Association

While reading this book, Toronto, the city where I live, passed a . . . [more]

Discourse on AI and the law often centres on the prospect (or lack thereof) of catastrophic injury to existing legal institutions and structures. Will AI tools decimate the legal profession, replacing all the lawyers? Or will lawyers who use AI simply replace lawyers who do not? Will our courts be overrun by hordes of robo-judges? Or is human decision-making essential and here to stay? These debates have proved remarkably resilient. Versions of them have bounced around for years, shifting shape as the technology progresses and our anxieties evolve.

I’m all for looking at the big picture and asking big questions, . . . [more]