This week I’ll be attending the Manitoba Bar Association’s annual Midwinter Conference in Winnipeg. The conference provides lawyers with the full 12 hours of mandatory continuing professional development (MCPD), including 1.5 hours that meet the Ethics, Professionalism and Practice Management requirement, but that’s not why I attend.

In this age of webinars, online courses and individualized learning, I look forward to being in a learning environment with other lawyers, one that invariably includes time allotted for discussion and questions. Often I find I’ll learn as much from the feedback from other participants as I have from the formal presentations. . . . [more]

I am seeing it increasingly commonly – newly called lawyers who set up their own shingle without working for a law firm as an associate. In part, it’s due to the changes in the market which have left a scarcity of opportunities for young lawyers, or opportunities that are otherwise undesirable. But it’s also becoming a preferred option for a generation which values creativity, personal relationships, empowerment, self-determination and entrepreneurship.

Luz E. Herrera, who launched her own solo practice in 2002, described this phenomenon in the Denver University Law Review,

The Great Recession has caused many new attorneys

The end of a calendar year is a good time to reflect, assess and plan. One aspect of this reflection for me is looking at learning: what have I learned in the last year, what has adjusted based onthat learning, and what should I consider for 2014. I am a law librarian and just like every year, there are many items to add to the “things I learned this year” list. Some of that learning came from conferences and webinars offered by professional associations, some came from discussions at CBA conferences, Legal Education Society of Alberta events and . . . [more]

IP Osgoode has put online a series of videos of the panel discussions held during their symposium on User-Generated Content (UGC) Under Canadian Copyright Law held at Osgoode Hall Law School a month ago. You can see all six of the videos on the IPOsgoode site or view them on YouTube, the links for which are below:

• Video I: Practical Examples of UGC – Daniel Rosen, Gordon Duggan, Victor Nabhan (Panel Chair)
• Video II: Legal Aspects of UGC – Victor Nabhan, Samuel Trosow, Leonard Glickman, Pina D’Agostino (Panel Chair)
• Video III: Specific UGC Legal Aspects – Eva

When lawyers say they can’t afford their own services, you might have an access to justice problem.

Regina lawyer Alex Shalashniy said during the CBA Legal Futures Initiative’s Twitter chat Tuesday night that he’s heard lawyers admitting they would be unable to pay their own fees if they needed a lawyer – something he calls a “telling illustration” of the access to justice problem in Canada.

A number of people participating in the third weekly Twitter chat, this one dealing with how legal services can be changed to increase access, pointed to cost as a barrier.

Corinne Boudreau, owner of . . . [more]

Is continuing legal education the professional equivalent of renewing your driver’s licence – requiring little of you beyond that you show up, pay your fee and get your picture taken?

That was one of the questions asked during Tuesday night’s Twitter chat this week, where the discussion focused on the utility – or futility – of CLE.

While some participants made the argument that CLE is useful – Karen Dyck, for example, says lawyers will often have an “Aha!” moment that will send them back to the office to implement lessons learned. Sara Cohen says CLE is essential, “especially for . . . [more]

On September 19, 2013 I attended the Devry Smith Frank LLP Exclusive Human Resources Seminar Series at the Don Valley Hotel & Suites in Toronto. My notes from this session follow.

Religious Accommodation in the Workplace

L. Viet Nguyen discussed the challenge of accommodating religious practice and expression in the workplace. Religion is a fundamental freedom, guaranteed in the Charter, and discrimination on the basis of creed is prohibited by the Ontario Human Rights Code.

Religious accommodation in Canada is governed by a 2-part test from the 2004 SCC case of Amselem v. Syndicat Northcrest:

1. employers are

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries is accepting submissions for the May 25-28, 2014 Conference that will be held at the Hotel Fory Garry in Winnipeg. Do you have something to share?

The conference is an exciting opportunity to explore and learn about emerging issues in law librarianship, to acquire the tools for building both hard and soft skills, and to meet with vendors about their new products and the improvements of existing ones.

The theme of the 2014 conference refers to the coming together of our professional knowledge and inspiration. Inspired to seek creative responses to existing or anticipated

The Seventeenth Annual Canadian Information Technology Law Association (“IT.CAN”) Conference will be held in Toronto, October 24-25, 2013. The full conference brochure is available on the IT.CAN website, and registration is possible online in English and en français. The brochure contains details concerning CPD and CLE credits available.

As usual, the speakers’ list is a who’s-who of experts in IT law and includes a number of lawyers who write or have written for Slaw, namely: Daniel Logan, James Kosa, Andrew Terrett, Richard Austin, John Gregory, and David Canton.

If you have any questions about the program please contact Lisa . . . [more]

I am a woman. I am a mother. I am a law librarian. I am a leader. Except for the leader, and law librarian bits, I rarely think about what the other two “I am” statements have to do with my job. Attendance at the Monday morning Plenary session at the CBA Legal Conference 2013 where Arin Reeves of Nextions presented “The Next IQ: The Next Level of Diversity & Inclusion for the 21st Century” caused me to reflect on being a woman and a mother in the context of my career.

I have rarely felt diminished, oppressed or that . . . [more]

Many of us enjoy attending and sharing knowledge gained at conferences, and several fellow Slaw bloggers recently have done so in respect of last week’s American Association of Law Libraries annual meeting. An understated newer highlight of the AALL annual meeting is the poster sessions exhibit, introduced in 2012. I took a couple of turns through the exhibit and was impressed by the depth and range of projects and studies carried out by fellow law librarians, instructors, and researchers. The AALL annual meeting site contains the full list of accepted poster sessions, with descriptions. Below are brief notes . . . [more]

While travelling home from Seattle last week after the AALL conference, which Connie, Kim and I blogged about here and here and here and here, I had an interesting seat mate. More than one interesting person actually. My philosophy is that if you are stuck on a plane and there is someone conversationally inclined, it is a good idea to put down your novel and learn. Every conversation is an opportunity to learn something, whether it is with a student travelling for the first time, someone on the way to visit a grandchild, or someone travelling on a business . . . [more]