Transformative change is underway in the Canadian lawyer licensing system. Two of the country’s largest law societies have signalled the impending end of high-stakes, multiple-choice legal-knowledge exams as the primary test of lawyer licensure.

In Ontario, a September report from the Law Society of Ontario (LSO)’s Professional Development and Competence Committee proposed that the current multiple-choice barrister and solicitor exams be replaced with a “mandatory skills-based course with assessments for all licensing candidates.”

The committee identified a lengthy list of problems and challenges associated with the written exam system, including:

• Written exams fail to assess core practice skills like interviewing,

Artificial intelligence, pricing, and transience of the legal service sector’s workforce will cause the traditional law firm pyramid structure to rollover like an upending iceberg. The result? By 2030, global legal services will operate much differently than they do now.

Twin juggernauts – AI and Pricing – compounded by continuing transience of the legal service sector’s workforce will take a major toll on law firms unprepared for their impact. This reckoning will upend the traditional pyramid structure with the result being that by 2030, the global legal services sector will operate much differently than it does now.

The countdown clock . . . [more]

After ten hours of flying, an eight-hour layover, a seven-hour timezone change, and one missed flight, I finally made it to my second Legal Design Summit in Helsinki. In 2023, I reluctantly left Helsinki after buzzing with excitement about the like-minded community I had just met and the interesting work being done across the globe to improve access to justice using legal design techniques. The momentum of the event had been fueling my professional interests and writing over the last two years, but it was time for a “re-up”.

After its 2024 hiatus, the Legal Design Summit was back this . . . [more]

There is a story about a business owner, we will call him Joe, who hired two people to help him unload large barrels of wine.

The wine was very expensive and he specifically instructed the workers to be very careful.

Unfortunately, as happens in life, one of the workers slipped as he was unloading the barrel and it cracked, spilling all the contents on the ground.

Joe was very angry. He told the workers that he will sue them for damages if they don’t pay him for the now unusable wine.

The workers were very poor and they begged Joe . . . [more]

It transpired, on the cusp of partnership, that one of the lawyer’s junior associates arranged a meeting with a CEO of a tech startup and presented an irresistible synergy.* The startup was a match for a client, a deep-pocketed conglomerate on the lookout for an investment. A buy-out of the startup would rocket the client’s value on the market and establish the lawyer as the go-to man for equity financing, credit facilities, a corporate governance overhaul, an IPO, and produce corresponding billings. Such a catch would net him first partnership, then power dwarfing the law firm itself and finally propel . . . [more]

Earlier this year, I was invited by the Canadian Bar Review to write a review of a book by Professor Adam Dodek of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law titled: Heenan Blaikie: The Making and Unmaking of a Great Canadian Law Firm. I found the book an excellent read and I highly recommend it. My review is included in the current issue of the CBR, now available online. I’m grateful to the Canadian Bar Review for both the opportunity to write this article and for their permission to reproduce the excerpt below.

This is a gripping account of a . . . [more]

Tasked with proposing reforms to the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure, the Civil Rules Working Group (“Working Group”) misfired rather badly. For example, the Working Group proposed adding a prelitigation protocol that would in effect require plaintiffs to serve their Affidavit of Documents before commencing litigation and accordingly disclose sensitive information (think medical records, bank and credit card statements, tax returns and proprietary business information) directly to opposing parties, often before such parties had retained counsel. Ignoring privacy issues and resultant risks of such information being posted online, because why not, this would add significant up front cost to . . . [more]

When a senior associate left the firm, the busy practice group leader moved swiftly. Files had to be reassigned, and quickly. The next morning, John, an associate in the group, opened his inbox to find seven new matters had been dropped onto his desk without warning.

At first, he froze. Then came a wave of anxiety: the tightening in his stomach, and the mental calculation of how to stretch his already packed schedule.

What unsettled him most wasn’t the extra work; it was how it was handled. The partner didn’t reach out to give him a heads-up or to ask . . . [more]

Artificial intelligence is impacting how lawyers market themselves and grow their practice. However, it’s wise to first consider if and how AI tactics can fulfill business development strategies that convert to achieving a measurable growth objective.

The hype around artificial intelligence is stimulating a fear factor bordering almost on hysteria for many lawyers and their law firms who are fixating on it more than any other concern in the modern global legal services market. While fear can be understandable, mostly because for many the benefits of AI remain somewhat murky, we need to grasp the reality that AI is a . . . [more]

In July, I was counsel in a voir dire in BC Supreme Court, where four police officers testified over three days. While the officers gave evidence, I took over 30-pages of handwritten notes. I could capture verbatim maybe 30 percent of what was said. The rest of the time — when answers went on for too long or counsel and the witness talked over one another — I got only the gist of it. Yet, precision was key.

At one point, we stood down for over an hour for the court clerk to go through the recording to find a . . . [more]

I recently watched a series on Netflix, called Truth Be Told.

In one of the episodes, the main character tells a story about a time when she physically lost her voice due to trauma she experienced in foster care.

Losing one’s voice is something that is not new to those going through the system whether judicial or otherwise.

I have heard so many self represented litigants say that they don’t have a voice; that they are not being heard; that no matter how hard they prepare they are drowned out by the complicated and bureaucratic machine of the legal system. . . . [more]

Sheriff of Nottingham: “Locksley! I’m gonna cut your heart out with a spoon.”

Robin Hood: “Then it begins.”

Later, Sheriff of Nottingham’s cousin, Guy of Gisbourne, asks a good follow-up question: “Why a spoon, cousin? Why not an axe? Or…”

Sheriff of Nottingham: “Because it’s DULL, you twit. It’ll hurt more.”

(Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991))

There are a few surprising issues worth discussing: 1. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is nearly 35-years old; 2. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves only has an IMDB rating of 6.9/10 (I wholeheartedly disagree); 3. The Sheriff of Nottingham, though a character derived . . . [more]