Should lawyers be marriage counsellors? The Divorce Act seems to think so. For reasons discussed below, I’m less sure.

The Divorce Act—the federal legislation that governs divorce in Canada— has been the subject of increased attention because of significant amendments made in 2021. On Slaw, for example, Deanne Sowter published two thoughtful columns addressing what these amendments mean for family law lawyers (see here and here). Not having practiced or taught family law, I wasn’t familiar with the details of the legislation, but was interested in the impacts of the 2021 amendments on lawyers. Before I could consider . . . [more]

I wrote two drafts for SLAW this month. I wrote and rewrote a piece on the pros and cons of committee work. I wrote and rewrote a piece on tips for tracing legislative histories. Both of these may be shared in the future, but as I was writing I realized I was feeling burnt out after a great, but incredibly busy academic year. All I wanted to do was have a coffee and complete the daily wordle puzzle.

So, if you are feeling burnt out, having a hard time focusing, or just want to take a quick break, my gift . . . [more]

Ever wondered, “why did I become a lawyer? Maybe a career in law isn’t for me?”

You aren’t alone. We all question our decisions from time to time.

A career in law isn’t one thing. It’s not one skill set. It’s not one specialization. This diversity of options and trajectories can make it such a valuable career choice and a challenging one.

Finding the legal career that fits you may take some effort. It can mean making several transitions. What’s important to know is that this is a process of learning about yourself and, in turn, learning about what will . . . [more]

Procedural resources are vital for the prosecution of cases before courts and tribunals. These resources range from case-relevant legislation – including the legislation establishing the court or tribunal – to the rules of procedure and decided cases of the court or tribunal. They ground arguments, and guide and assist lawyers in making compelling cases. Claims can fail or succeed depending on the procedural resources available and accessible to litigants. Fairness dictates that these procedural resources be readily available to all litigants who need them, not just to lawyers.

Litigants represented by lawyers have little-to-no worries regarding these procedural tools. Their . . . [more]

On March 3, 2022, the Arctic Council became the latest collateral casualty to the Russian invasion in Ukraine. A mere week after Russian troops began invading and bombarding Ukraine, seven members of the Arctic Council (Canada, United States, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland) condemned the belligerent actions of its eighth member, Russia. Their condemnation also included pausing the work of the Council as well as all of its subsidiaries immediately and until further notice. The indefinite hold on the activities of such an important forum for international cooperation will inevitably have severe impact regionally and internationally on salient topics, . . . [more]

For a while during the pandemic, online hearings were the only option for courts and tribunals. Justice was done on Zoom, or else it wasn’t done at all.

Now, as we emerge from the age of Covid (knock on wood!), online vs. in-person is a recurring controversy across Ontario’s justice sector. After the Superior Court of Justice ordered most contested family law matters to return to court, a group of family bar lawyers organized in defence of the online option. By contrast, the Landlord and Tenant Board is insisting on fully online practice, while the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario . . . [more]

This for you who don’t love the law. You often wonder if you should do something else, if you chose the right career path, if you have wasted a big chunk of your life as a mercenary of justice. If you divvy up your time the way you want to, your priorities would be ordered from highest to lowest: family, travel, exercise, beach, reading, work, Netflix. But an accounting of how you actually spend your time shows your priorities are backwards, starting with work and work-friends, then moving on to Netflix and sports-watching, and last and least, family. Reflecting on . . . [more]

For many, creating content can seem like an intimidating task. With over 130,000 lawyers in Canada, finding a way to stand out is imperative to building a book of business. Creating content is a tool all lawyers have available to them but very few know how to strategically include content creation in building their profile and, in turn, their book of business.

If you use content creation to build your profile, one of your key goals should be in anticipating what client wants to read next, and how to get your expertise out to that network. For marketing, providing information . . . [more]

I recently attended “Greener Arbitrations: The Path Towards Carbon Neutrality”, a webinar organized by the North America Committee of the Campaign for Greener Arbitrations (CGA-NA).

I was so impressed by their project that I immediately signed their green pledge. I also signed the green pledge endorsed by the World Mediators Alliance on Climate Change (WoMACC).

The pledges themselves are fairly simple. They encourage the use of technology to avoid unnecessary travel to hearings and meetings, and use of electronic documents instead of paper. When travel is necessary, they encourage use of more environmentally friendly transport and meeting facilities. And . . . [more]

On December 6, 2021, Gap Inc. (Gap) entered into an undertaking under Canada’s Anti Spam Law (CASL) to address allegations that it violated CASL.^[1]

The undertaking resolves the allegations against Gap and its subsidiaries Banana Republic and Old Navy. Alleged were that Gap (and its subsidiaries) had sent commercial electronic messages without the consent of the recipients. A further allegation was that the messages did not include an unsubscribe mechanism that could be readily performed.

The terms of the undertaking require Gap to commit to updating its compliance program addressing the sending of commercial electronic messages. Elements of a . . . [more]

I provide a wide range of services to law firms, so I can always tell what’s happening in the industry by the run on certain types of services.

Sometimes I seem to do nothing but coaching; lawyers wanting to improve their personal skills in a range of business areas. Other times, it seems that everyone wants to sell their firm. We’re sort of in the middle of that right now. But the real push this year so far has been for strategic plans. Normally, each plan looks completely different because each law firm is different. They are in different stages . . . [more]

It has been several years since we wrote on the topic of physical security, but it seems like a good topic now that so many law firms are changing how lawyers work. While there are some law firms demanding that all their lawyers return to work, more and more law firms have settled into a hybrid workplace environment. Many cybersecurity topics are sexier, but maintaining physical security is more critical now than ever.

Old-fashioned Physical Security

Pre-pandemic, we thought about conventional physical security (which some law firms still do not have). We had self-locking doors, security cameras, alarm systems, locked . . . [more]