“Simple ideas are easier to understand. Ideas that are easier to understand are repeated.
Ideas that are repeated change the world.”
– Simon Sinek, Author & Speaker

There are a lot of things I love about working at a small law firm. Access to lawyers and senior leaders is more frequent, building relationships with everyone across the firm is actually achievable, and getting real-time insights into the practice of law happens daily. But for me, the main feature has been the ability to implement simple ideas, that demonstrate my experience and expertise, quickly and effectively.

If you are a sole . . . [more]

Last month, a Texas lawyer’s “stunning” failure to comply with professional conduct rules and discovery obligations made international headlines.

The errors occurred in the context of a high-profile defamation case. Ultimately, a jury ordered Alex Jones—a far-right radio host and conspiracy theorist with millions of listeners—to pay nearly $50 million to the parents of a child killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. Jones had repeatedly (falsely) asserted that the mass shooting was a hoax in which the children’s families were complicit, in service of a government plot to take away Americans’ firearms.

Mark Bankston, . . . [more]

In the genre of self-help books which I readily consume and then promptly fail to follow, sometimes one or two pearls of wisdom enter my consciousness and reemerge in this column. One of these is Gretchen Rubin’s suggestion in her book The Happiness Project that we ought to cultivate the activities which brought us joy when we were children. When I was younger I loved getting ready for the first day of school. I loved the freedom of the summer, but as the end of August approached I liked getting my pencils in order and my binders and notebooks packed . . . [more]

There are humans, I am told, whose lives don’t revolve around to do lists, completion of tasks, and productivity systems like Getting Things Done or Atomic Habits. Humans who don’t wake up clutching a bullet journal or begin tapping on Todoist before they leave bed. Humans who more or less go with the flow, who live in the moment, and who don’t spend their life energy building and tweaking a set of byzantine systems to make sure they’re doing the right things at the right time.

These humans are called normal people. It is not a category that includes . . . [more]

The previously predicted and wholly predictable sale, by Informa PLC to Montagu, of 80% of the former’s Maritime Intelligence business unit will be one to watch for its affect on law publishing. The fact that Jane’s is part of the Montagu portfolio may be a relevant factor in the sale, and indeed over the years there has been shuffling of key personnel between Jane’s and Lloyd’s. Assuming that Informa’s i-Law, together with the range of books, law reports and journals under a handful of imprints, form part of the sale, and/or, if so, they are subsequently sold on, it . . . [more]

In the movie Marriage Story, Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver) are divorcing. They have a young child, and the main issue is the child’s parenting arrangements. In the movie, Charlie is the more reluctant spouse, and he has finally booked a consultation with a lawyer. When he arrives at the law firm, he is told by the receptionist that the lawyer he was there to meet cannot see him because Nicole already did. The lawyer has been conflicted out. It turns out that Nicole has met with several lawyers, at her sister’s insistence, before finally retaining the lawyer . . . [more]

Cause you’re working/Building a mystery/Holding on/And holding it in/Yeah you’re working/Building a mystery/And choosing so carefully

Sarah McLachlin, “Building a Mystery”

Even lawyers will quickly flip (or scroll) to the end of a court or tribunal decision to see how the case turned out. Patient readers of mystery novels never read the last chapter first because much of the pleasure in reading is in the suspense of not knowing the outcome. However, decisions are not mystery novels and there is no purpose in making them suspenseful.

In recent years courts and tribunals have slightly improved their approach, often by putting . . . [more]

It has struck me more than once – a shock, I admit, to my naivete – to find in a looming figure in our profession – a lawyer whose fame, power, and wealth I would never approach – an Achilles heel, a human folly, a single blow so powerful to the pedestal offering no return, as to bring me to my senses, a la Nietzsche in Ecce Homo: I would rather be a satyr than a saint! What was this discovery? A moral judgment of an inferred vulnerable trait: to step into the office elevator doors on a Monday morning . . . [more]

I’ve previously argued that retired Supreme Court of Canada judges should not practice law. This column considers a distinct type of post-judicial activity: the private retention of retired SCC judges by powerful institutions to prepare reports in response to controversial events.[1] Such “fixer” work does not necessarily (and, in many scenarios, would not) involve the provision of legal services. However, it still raises concerns. As I outline below, retired SCC judges taking on this type of work risks threatening public confidence in the Supreme Court itself. I recommend that, going forward, retired SCC judges should decline such mandates.

What

Algorithms have become ubiquitous in our society, yet they are widely misunderstood. Many of these misunderstandings arise from widespread lack of understanding of the technical basis for what algorithms are and how they function, but even experts often don’t understand how they work, only that they do in many situations. This lack of understanding means that there are both rational and irrational calls for caution as they are adopted further. To balance the benefits from technology adoption and caution, we need to approach these issues carefully and consider what algorithms are being used for and what underlying technology and data . . . [more]

I’d like to bring to the attention of Canada’s law societies — and courts, Attorneys-General, and everyone else who wields power in the legal system — five reports from each of the past five months about declining trust in government competence and institutional legitimacy, in Canada and elsewhere.

• In March 2022, the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan assessed the national economic impact of the trucker convoy occupation of Ottawa the previous month, finding that “in the absence of effective and forward-thinking action by government, there will be less business investment, less foreign investment,

Section 8(1) of Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (CASL) prohibits the installation of a computer program on another person’s computer system without express consent. Compliance and Enforcement Decision CRTC 2022-132 dated May 19, 2022, indicates that this analysis is very technical and may in some circumstances require forensic computer evidence to make out a prosecution under this section of CASL.

In 2015, CRTC enforcement staff identified five Canadian Internet Protocol (IP) addresses linked to 1882914 Ontario Inc., operating as Datablocks Inc. and 2348149 Ontario Inc., operating as Sunlight Media Networks Inc. that appeared to be redirecting users to webpages hosting exploit kits. . . . [more]