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Archive for ‘Columns’

Age-Appropriate Design for Canada: Moving Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Consent

Canada is at a pivotal moment in children’s privacy. Federal reform under Bill C-27, including the proposed Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA), continues to advance, while provinces such as Quebec—through Law 25, which introduces enhanced rights and stricter consent obligations, have already begun reshaping the legal landscape. At the same time, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) continues to identify children’s privacy as a policy and enforcement priority, underscoring the need for a modernized framework that reflects minors’ unique vulnerabilities and developmental needs. OPC Annual Report 2021 , Bill C-27 Overview Quebec Law 25 Summary

Despite . . . [more]

Posted in: Justice Issues

The Law Firm Private Equity Puzzle

Unprecedented market conditions are forcing law firms to choose if and how they meet demands of clients and the legal market itself with private equity being a major and, in many cases, deciding factor in enabling solvency and structural reformation.

My opinion column, The Law Firm Pyramid Rollover, that examined how artificial intelligence, pricing, and transience of the legal service sector’s workforce is causing the traditional law firm pyramid structure to rollover like an upending iceberg sparked two strong and opposing reactions: One was numerous republishing requests, reposts, and commentary while the other was dead silence.

The former . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Marketing, Practice of Law

Competitively, a Challenging Mountain to Climb

Although it is a continuing rather than a new story, I was nevertheless interested to read the recent listing by Publishers Weekly, entitled The World’s Largest Publishers, 2025. For clarity, this is a top 25 of the largest, by revenue, of all publishers in the world and not just those which publish legal information. Nevertheless, first and second on the hierarchy are Thomson Reuters and RELX. The key aspect of the latest report is that after a seven-year run, RELX has been overtaken by Thomson Reuters as the new front-runner in the grouping. In 2024, Thomson Reuters’ revenues . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Publishing

You Are a Loose-Fish and a Fast-Fish

Melville’s Moby Dick, which fell flat out of the presses and was out of print in 1891 when he died, was thankfully revived 70 years later in the 1920s for it gave us access to not only one of the best books ever written, but a legal theory that will stand the test of time, that is, that possession is the whole of the law. How can this be so? By virtue of two simple principles:

I. A Fast-Fish belongs to the party fast to it.

II. A Loose-Fish is fair game for anybody who can soonest catch it. . . . [more]

Posted in: Practice of Law

Healthy Communication Boundaries in a Connected World

Two recent events in my professional life have me thinking (and worrying as is my nature) about the push and pull we lawyers experience when communicating with clients. In an increasingly connected world, how do we balance our obligation to respond in a reasonable timeframe with the client’s expectation to receive frequent and immediate responses via text or instant messaging?

The first event is the launch of the Public Concerns Pathway (PCP) from the Law Society of Saskatchewan. I was the Knowledge Engineer on this project that provides the public with clear information about common concerns with legal professionals and . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information, Practice of Law

Poor Decision-Making and Backlogs in the Administrative Justice System

There is no “one” solution to the delays in administrative justice in Canada. When a problem is caused by multiple reasons, it often takes multiple approaches to resolving it. The volume of disputes has grown over the last decade and the reasons for this are complex. Society is becoming more litigious, which could be due to an increased awareness of legal rights and also a reduced willingness to compromise. The volume of complaints or applications to tribunals is also partly due to the rise of self-represented parties, who may not have a full understanding of the law. One of the . . . [more]

Posted in: Administrative Law, Dispute Resolution

Book Review: Oatley & Lehman on Achieving Fair Verdicts in Personal Injury Cases

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.

Addressing the Jury: Achieving Fair Verdicts in Personal Injury Cases. By Roger Oatley & Troy Lehman. 3rd ed. Toronto: LexisNexis, 2025. xix, 438 p. Includes bibliographic references and index. ISBN 9780433531654 (softcover) $145.00.

Reviewed by Lorissa Kinna
Reference Librarian
Great Library, Law Society of Ontario

The third iteration of Addressing . . . [more]

Posted in: Book Reviews, Legal Information

The Real Problem in Hallucination Cases Is Not the Failure to Verify

Cases keep cropping up where counsel has used AI to create a court submission containing made-up cases. The common response on the part of courts and the profession has been: ‘prompt, but verify.’ It’s okay to use AI, just make sure it’s accurate.

I think this response misses the mark. But consider first how fixated we’ve become over the issue of verification — implying that this is all we need to be concerned about in deciding whether counsel should be using AI to write court submissions.

As Judge Moore in a Federal Court case wrote earlier this year:

The use

. . . [more]
Posted in: Legal Technology

Grey Rocking at Work: The Art of Strategic Boringness

I don’t have to ask if you’ve ever encountered a bully at work. I know you have. We all have.

There’s one flavour of workplace bully that is particularly challenging to deal with: the narcissist. I’m using the term colloquially here­ — they aren’t waving around a clinical diagnosis to show off their bona fides — but you know the signs.

They gossip and stir conflict. Undermine others. Seek attention. Create constant drama. And they are masters of manipulation, turning others against you. Sometimes, the constant gaslighting and blame-shifting is enough to turn you against yourself

I’m exhausted just writing . . . [more]

Posted in: Legal Information

Artificial Intelligence – AI in Governance: From Hype to Action

AI has evolved rapidly from conceptual promise to practical workplace reality, dramatically reshaping governance and organizational policy. At the 2025 GPC annual corporate governance conference session in Montreal, many AI themes came up throughout the sessions and addressed some of its impacts including how boards need to approach AI adoption balancing the charm of innovation with the necessary guardrails of governance.

The discussions held included an a real-time poll showed more than 90% of attendees already used at least one AI tool. Application of AI was particularly notable, divided evenly between professional use (46 respondents) and non-professional use (46 respondents), . . . [more]

Posted in: Administrative Law

The Legal Story vs. the Real Story

I am writing this on December 15th. You may not read this until after Christmas but I hope it will still be timely!

If you have had enough Hallmark movies, or podcasts highlighting the latest twists in US politics, I have a suggestion for you. Tune in to the CBC’s See you in Court podcast. It tells the stories behind legal cases that changed Canada. Host Falen Johnson teams up with a journalist to dig into a case that challenged the status quo and reshaped the law.

The series begins with the story of Henry Morgantaler, and continues . . . [more]

Posted in: Dispute Resolution

The Wellness Lawyer: “Running Away”

Have you ever felt like running away?

In the middle of doing work or going through a stressful moment, you imagine how wonderful it would be to just go somewhere far away. Perhaps the image of a desert is something that you are imagining now as you read this. No one to bother you; just you, the ocean, white soft sand, and maybe someone to serve you a delicious meal?

Escaping the moment that is causing us stress or anxiety is something that the mind does in order to cope. When we go on vacation, we are giving our minds . . . [more]

Posted in: Practice of Law

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