My last Slaw column discussed two recent cases in which Ontario’s Law Society Tribunal found individuals who had previously engaged in sexual misconduct involving minors were currently “of good character”. The findings in those cases, AA and Colangelo, have since been (repeatedly) upheld on appeal.[1]

Unsurprisingly, these decisions were controversial in the court of public opinion (sample Toronto Star comment: “When your [sic] a member of a governing body that characterizes pedophiles as people ‘of good character’, you have a problem”). Lawyers and law students similarly expressed dismay with the outcomes (for example, one commenter on . . . [more]

I have the impression, no more than that, and in no sense verifiable nor measurable, that among the eminent experts and commentators, there seems to exist a possibly small number of self-interested and obsessive nerds, primarily in North America, on the periphery of that part of the law publishing industry which actually has paying customers, who spend much of their time pretentiously telling us that the major players are about to go under and be overtaken by minnows. I understand that similar but different paranoia extends also to legal practice; it seems, to me at least, to be . . . [more]

As a child living in remote Northern B.C., my dad had a dog sled team made up of several Siberian Huskies. Huskies are working dogs prized for their strength and endurance. They require significant exercise and mental stimulation. A Husky without a task is easily bored and can be destructive. In the summertime, my dad would harness his dogs to a small cart to keep them occupied and happy. Without their cart, they would howl their displeasure.

I’m afraid I might be a Husky. I love to work. I love setting tasks and completing them, whether I’m paid for it . . . [more]

On December 18, 2024, the Supreme Court of British Columbia issued a decision in Clearview AI Inc. v. Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, 2024 BCSC 2311. At its core, the case involved a challenge by a U.S.-based artificial intelligence (AI) company against a binding order from British Columbia’s privacy regulator. The company, Clearview AI, had amassed a large facial recognition database by scraping billions of publicly accessible images from the internet, many of which depicted individuals located in British Columbia, without obtaining their consent.

The decision is significant not only for its factual context, but for what . . . [more]

This is a case of not closing the barn door after the horse is out, to use a pre-twentieth-century expression for a twenty-first-century issue. But, more precisely, I want to argue for propping the barn door open to enable the rest of the horses to run free after a good number have been questionably sold off.

Let me explain. Think of those sold-off horses as the research studies that at least three major research publishers – Taylor & Francis, Wiley, and Oxford University Press with more deals pending – have rented out to AI giants, such as Microsoft, for the . . . [more]

The concept of “professional identify formation” came to the fore in 2007, when the report Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law[1] was published by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching . Commonly known as the Carnegie Report, it determined that preparation for the profession required three apprenticeships. The third of these was “concerned with providing entrants to the field effective ways to engage and make their own the ethical standards, social roles, and responsibilities of the profession, grounded in the profession’s fundamental purposes.”[2] This concept became known as “professional identify formation.”

Further defining professional

The market for legal AI is teaming with options. Many of them are compelling. All of them are expensive.

What the companies offering these tools hope that you don’t notice is that free (or almost free) tools, like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are getting so good at basic legal research tasks that many lawyers looking to boost their productivity don’t need to look any further.

We highlight three ways to use these free tools to make research more effective — but we note that becoming a subscriber to one of them, for roughly $30 a month, will tend . . . [more]

Ten years ago, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set out some recommendations for cultural competency training for lawyers, law students and public servants. The Calls to Action (numbers 27, 28 and 57) call for education/training on the history of Indigenous peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown relations. The Commission stated that such training would require “skills based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism”.

There were no calls to action for education or training of judges. . . . [more]

Ontario’s Civil Rules Review Working Group has proposed the most comprehensive reform of Ontario’s Rules of Civil Procedure since their introduction in 1985. The Consultation Paper released in early April weighs in at 122 pages, with recommendations affecting every major element of civil litigation within the province.

The Working Group’s overarching goal is to get “all cases heard within two years.” This is certainly not unambitious, given that the status quo average is between four and five years. Quicker times to disposition, the Working Group hopes, will generate lower legal bills and better access to justice.

There seem . . . [more]

The global legal services market needs optimistic contrarians: strong people who think fast and clearly, and whose actions are decisive and fearless. Their power needs to be united, harnessed, and used for good.

The legal services sector has always had a reputation for being tough. It’s getting tougher by the minute and unlikely to let up.

While disruptive factors are many, the three most daunting are:

• Accelerating advances in generative artificial intelligence that are usurping service-oriented tasks and upending how various types of legal work get produced and priced – all of which is impacting traditional law firm pyramid structures

As we start to come out of the winter season, I thought it was important to remind everyone that at times, there are friends and colleagues who are having a harder time shedding the heaviness of the dark winter months.

Recently I watched a commercial, where a man is sitting quietly at a football game in the midst of cheering and laughter from everyone around him. Let’s call him John. The person in the next seat, let’s call him Adam, is cheering loudly and tries to encourage John to participate and enjoy the game.

The action progresses to show that . . . [more]

Renowned for its dysfunction, the leadership of the Ontario Superior Court deserves some credit for belatedly admitting the court to be in crisis. Acknowledging the need for bold, fundamental reforms it tasked the Civil Rules Working (Working Group) with identifying ways to reduce complexity, costs and delays and stated that “minor amendments (to the Rules) would be insufficient.” Despite that mandate, the Working Group in their Phase 2 Consultation Paper has proposed implementing further rules and procedures, changing a handful of existing Rules and rearranging the balance. One step forward, two steps back.

Handicapping the Working Group

Initially, the Working . . . [more]