The recent CBA national conference for immigration lawyers passed as though COVID is a distant memory. Crowded rooms full of professionals who serve the Canadian immigration system and our diverse mosaic of communities, in some way or another. Past practices of social distancing or meeting remotely have gone the way of the Dodo bird. At this recent conference, I was struck by one of the huge benefits of in-person learning: presenters can be candid and forthcoming, without fear their comments are being recorded. Speakers were able to share their thoughts and opinions freely without potential negative repercussions to them personally… . . . [more]

Mark your calendars, the third iteration of the National Family Law Arbitration Course begins in January 2024.

Courses in arbitration practice are available from organizations across Canada. While these courses are of a generally high quality, their primary focus tends to be the arbitration of employment, construction and corporate/commercial disputes. Family law disputes, however, have important differences that set them apart and demand a special approach to their management and resolution. Family law cases cannot be handled with the same off-the-shelf approach that might be used to resolve other civil cases.

The National Family Law Arbitration Course provides a complete . . . [more]

Contracts are integral to how institutions operate – from government, to banks, to non-profits, to commercial markets, and beyond. However, the past few years have rocked our understanding of how we work with contracts. The effects of pandemic disruptions, rising prices, and the proliferation of artificial intelligence are just some of the system-wide changes that have filtered down into the fundamentals of contracting.

Whether your role involves drafting, negotiating, enforcing, or litigating contracts, you need to be up to date on how contract law is changing today.

Make sure you’re prepared with , running December 6, 2023. Fully updated for . . . [more]

Caitlin Cunningham is a JD candidate at the University of British Columbia Peter A. Allard School of Law and served as a student assistant to Assistant Professors Marcus Moore and Samuel Beswick for the Canadian Law of Obligations conference 2022.

On June 23 and 24, 2022, the Peter A. Allard School of Law hosted the third Canadian Law of Obligations (CLO) conference, held on the grounds of UBC’s Green College. The theme of the conference was The Power and Limits of Private Law. This edition of the conference honoured the accomplishments and career of Dr. Lionel Smith, the Sir . . . [more]

The next CALL/ACBD webinar will occur on June 28th from 1-2:30pm EST. It will be presented by David Ireland (Associate Professor and Director of Clinics for the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba), Freya Kodar (Professor and faculty member Faculty of Law, University of Victoria ), Dr. Laverne Jacobs (Faculty of Law, University of Windsor) and Dr. Richard Jochelson (Dean of Law for the Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba).

This webinar will explore the ways in which persons with disabilities interact with the law in Canada. This will be done through an examination of barriers regularly faced . . . [more]

I have been told the CBA Immigration section is the most active of all the sections within the CBA. For years, the highlight for this section has been the CBA Immigration Law Conference where we regularly see 400 to 500 practitioners descent into a Canadian city to discuss recent policy & program updates from IRCC & CBSA. We review significant caselaw and hear from the lawyers who argued those cases, including lawyers from the Department of Justice who offer their perspective, and we opine (sometimes with vigor) on all the changes we would like adopted. I have been attending these . . . [more]

After a slight delay owing – we think – to the pandemic, the National Family Law Arbitration Course will run later this year, in October and November, and be preceded by two single-day programs for lawyers and mental health professionals interested in parenting coordination. Before then, an advanced program on managing mediation-arbitration processes in family law disputes will run in May. There are few training opportunities in Canada aimed specifically at the out-of-court resolution of family law disputes, and if this is where you’d like to take your practice, I don’t know that better options are available.

Special program: Issues . . . [more]

This course has been rescheduled – thanks, Covid – to October and November 2022. Registration is now open.

I am pleased to announce the 2022 edition of the National Family Law Arbitration Course, a 40-hour course organized by myself, Lorne Wolfson and Lawrence Pinksy. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the arbitration of family law disputes in Canada, and includes two optional 7-hour pre-course programs for mental health professionals and family law lawyers interested in working as parenting coordinators.

While good arbitration courses abound in this country, they tend to focus on employment, construction and other corporate and . . . [more]

I am really very pleased to announce the new National Family Law Arbitration Course, a 40-hour course organized by myself, Lorne Wolfson and the inimitable Lawrence Pinksy. This course is intended to provide a comprehensive introduction to the arbitration of family law disputes in Canada, and includes two optional 7-hour pre-course programs for mental health professionals and family law lawyers inclined toward masochism and therefore interested in working as parenting coordinators. While good arbitration courses abound in this country, they tend to focus on employment, construction and other corporate and commercial disputes; none are designed to address the special . . . [more]

I might have titled this post “pandemic pleasures” or some other alliterative title that made it clear that ONLY in 2020 would some opportunities be available. This year I had the benefit and pleasure of attending a conference that I have longed to go to – Law Via the Internet. LVI 2020 was originally intended to be in the UK. The conference is almost always overseas. Slawyers know that in-person conferences and travelling are not possible. Slawyers should also know by now that many, many things are now feasible like attending a global conference of interest but perceived as not . . . [more]

If you’re reading this blog and are a litigator in Toronto, there’s a fair chance that you’ve been involved either as a participant or an instructor in Osgoode’s Intensive Trial Advocacy Workshop (ITAW). ITAW is a multi-day program that has run every summer for the last 40 years and has had thousands of participants from Toronto, from across Canada, and from other parts of the world. It’s a rigorous program, characterized by advocacy performance in a supportive environment, personalized feedback from experienced instructors from the Bench and Bar trained in ITAW’s teaching methods, and a culminating mock jury trial presided . . . [more]

Everyone I connect with from legal is flat out busy. One of the challenges with being flat out busy is that you get so involved doing the tasks in front of you and don’t necessarily consider better ways of doing those tasks. This week and next, the Canadian Association of Law Libraries Virtual Conference Series continues. Cost: $0 Opportunity: $priceless. Please join us on Friday to celebrate excellence in Legal Publishing! . . . [more]