Several of my posts this year have focused on the importance of plain language for our profession. Good, clear communication is a vital component of client management as it helps us better understand our client’s needs and enable the client to make informed decisions. On the other hand, poor communication is a leading cause of professional liability claims against lawyers.

Understanding who your audience is and ‘stepping into their shoes’ is a key. In my last post, Good Communications: Don’t Forget Generational Considerations, I focused on the impact of generational differences and preferences. This is only one factor when . . . [more]

Whether or not there is truth in the rumours that upstart, Harvey, has been keen to acquire the much-admired vLex, it was interesting to read the analysis by Isha Marathe, of Legaltech News, on the topic, as reported via legal market heroes, House of Butter.

The HoB report concludes, “If Harvey wants to make true on the third item in its tech offerings—workflow automation; an AI assistant, and legal research—it’s going to have to find the data. The story of Harvey and vLex underscores the market barriers to a startup becoming a substantial legal research mainstay . . . [more]

Strategic and profitable growth has nothing to do with size. Instead, it has everything to do with market positioning.

[This is Part Two of a two-part series on Strategic Growth in the Legal Services Market and the foundation for the second half of my September 2024 keynote address to the Alberta Civil Trial Lawyers Association in Calgary.]

I noted in my final thoughts of Part One that evolution in the global legal services market has been upon us for well over three decades. Also, that shifts within the staid and traditional legal services industry have been accelerating more fiercely over . . . [more]

Hello my friends.

Recently I went to a health food store and needed some advice about a particular product.

The salesperson was very kind and was able to help me in making a decision.

During our conversation, we somehow got on the topic of post pandemic mental health. She said that after Covid lockdowns were finished, most people went back to “normal”, but no one is really feeling like their pre-pandemic selves.

As I pondered about what she said, I realized that in an effort to get on with our lives, we ran out the door, forgetting to put on . . . [more]

I am sharing some interesting information from the Library of Congress. On November 24^th they posted this blogpost about Native American languages on the general blog. “Two important collections of Native American heritage have been digitized and placed on the Library’s website, enabling readers and researchers to dig into histories that are not widely known.

The first, featuring portions of the papers of Indian agent and ethnologist Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, focuses on the culture and literature of famed 19th-century Ojibwe poet Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (Bamewawagezhikaquay) and bicultural collaborations and literary contributions of members of her Johnston family of . . . [more]

A common message we hear today is that AI will soon bring about sweeping changes to the practice of law, making us so much more efficient that we’ll have plenty of time for other things.

I’ve kept my finger on the pulse of AI since ChatGPT appeared in 2022. I’m a heavy user of AI as a law professor and part-time criminal lawyer. I’m constantly experimenting with it and dazzled by its capabilities—you won’t find a bigger fan of AI.

But if there’s one thing that’s clear, it’s that AI will not transform the practice of law. Far from it. . . . [more]

It has been a year of paradoxes and extremes. From economics to politics, global phenomena have spread onto our shores. Populism, strongman tactics, fear of the other, class division, and the marching forward of technological progress all put their stamp on our profession.

Bulls and Tent Cities

Economically: the TSX roared to a 20% return and Bay Street salaries continued to grow north of $130,000 for first year associates. But stalwart Minden Gross shut down, proving again the fickle nature of partnerships. Main street lawyers turned away clients as the rural exodus grew, and despite growing costs, resulting in less . . . [more]

In “The Lawyer as Friend,” a famous 1976 law review article, Charles Fried proposed that a lawyer should act as a “special-purpose friend” to each of his or her clients. Within the bounds of the retainer, Fried argued, the lawyer must adopt the interests of the client as their own — just as a friend would.

This analogy helps clarify why conflicts of interest are so toxic to lawyer-client relationships. A conflict of interest usually arises because a lawyer’s loyalty to a client is undermined by the their work for other clients, or by the lawyer’s own personal interests. . . . [more]

The Federal Court of Appeal took the occasion of an appeal of the order of the Patented Medicines Prices Review Board (the “Board”) that required a patentee to share reports on medicines that were no longer under patent, to reaffirm the jurisdiction of the Board.

Courts have consistently held that the Board’s jurisdiction is limited to patented medicines and does not extend to medicines for which the patent has expired.^[1]

The Board ordered Galderma Canada Inc. (“Galderma”) to provide reports on sales for six years after the patent had expired.

Galderma had provided the reports while the medicine was . . . [more]

When was the last time you heard someone talk about NFTs? Was it when Paris Hilton and Jimmy Fallon showed off their Bored Apes on national television back in January of 2022? Or perhaps it was when Donald Trump unveiled his line of NFTs in December 2022. Or maybe, just maybe, you have that one friend who still insists, daily and with unwavering conviction, that NFTs are poised for a triumphant comeback, that the future of art is non-fungible, and that you’re a fool for not mortgaging your home to buy a JPEG of a doge meme. For the rest . . . [more]

Recently, NSRLP participated in the 2024 National Pro Bono Conference, held in Montreal. The two-day event brought lawyers, academics, community workers and judges together to discuss issues of access to justice – and to identify and share initiatives aimed at tackling the multitude of challenges associated with a lack of access to justice.

In reflecting on that experience, what remains evident is that if we are to take these problems seriously, it is necessary to engage a variety of stakeholders in their resolutions. This requires the cooperation and commitment of government, the profession, the judiciary, those working in access to . . . [more]

For many legal practitioners, the thought of a visual contract is terrifying. Afterall, without all the flowery legalese, how will a court know how to interpret the contract? Except that the traditional approach to contract drafting is changing as drafters increasingly focus on clarity. Clarity can come in many forms: plain, uncomplicated language, white space and the strategic use of informational design like fonts, underlining, and highlighting to illustrate important elements. The hold-up to greater adoption appears to be based on risk and concern about a court’s interpretation, which often means that contracts are written by lawyers for other lawyers . . . [more]