Chris Mondics at the Philadelphia Inquirer wonders if the legal market has seen the worst of the biggest recession in the legal industry since the Great Depression,

For law firms, the devastation that swept through the legal marketplace in 2008 and 2009 has come to an end. Layoffs have stopped or at least have been sharply curtailed, firms that suspended hiring are recruiting once again, and profits, though flat or down, have stabilized at numbers that would make average middle-class American wage earners click their heels with delight.

Even the sky-high starting salaries for first-year lawyers, long the source of

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Rafia Zakaria is an American lawyer and Ph.D. candidate at the Political Science at Indiana University. She writes in the September 2010 issue of Guernica about how she has used Shari’ah (Islamic law) to enhance the rights of a female client from Jordan who had been married, abused in the U.S., and finally divorced.

Rudi Stettner of the IndyPosted gives a summary of the predicament of Zakaria’s client,

The woman had married a fellow Jordanian in a whirlwind courtship and followed him to America. It very quickly became apparent that the man had an American mistress. When Zainab (The young

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In Windsor Law, we do not just believe in social and legal justice, we live it.

One member of the faculty is challenging the validity of that slogan. Dr. Emily Carasco of Windsor Law has filed a human rights complaint against the law school and co-faculty member Dr. Richard Moon, as a result of the school’s search for a new Dean.

A background of the facts are available through The Windsor Star here, here and here. A copy of the Appendix to the complaint is also available through the Star here, which also outlines the background and . . . [more]

A look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering university this fall.

The right to a thesaurus has been established by the Federal Court of Canada. Or rather, the thesaurus has received official recognition as an “educational textbook or supply.”

Ken MacKay appealed successfully to the Federal Court after being denied thrice by the Correctional Service of Canada. The Honourable Mr. Justice Harrington cites A. V. Dicey, the first Edition of Roget’s, and US Supreme Court Justice Scalia and Bryan Garner (current Editor in Chief of Black’s Law Dictionary) in reaching his decision. In concluding, he writes:

According to Lewis Caroll, “[w]hen I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather

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In Friday’s episode of Law Librarian Conversations podcast, we talked with two social media-savvy third year law school students to get a dose of reality on what they think about social networking, online communication, legal research and practice skills. Our guests were Laura Bergus from Iowa who runs a legal podcast called Legal Geekery and writes for Lawyerist.com and Huma Rashid from Chicago’s John Marshall Law School, who runs a personal blog called The Reasonably Prudent Law Student where she offers budget fashion tips and thoughts on being a law student. Both Laura and Huma participate in the Social . . . [more]

The wonderful folks at AustLII, that powerhouse in the legal information institute movement, have just launched their International Law Library on WorldLII. From the press release [PDF]:

The International Law Library contains over 80,000 searchable documents for free access. This includes over 25,000 decisions of International Courts and Tribunals, over 30,000 treaties and international agreements (including the League of Nations and UN Treaty Series), international law journals and law reform materials. These materials cannot be jointly searched elsewhere on the Internet. AustLII’s LawCite citator tracks where international cases, treaties and law journal articles have been cited.

(A cavil: . . . [more]

A recent article in the Globe & Mail discussed the phenomenon of older students in university, driven in part by the recession,

Universities across Canada report a growing number of mature undergraduates – typically adults older than 25 who have taken more than a year off school – who are choosing to study full-time in order to find new careers or increase their competitive edge in a job market that is still reeling from the economic downturn…

A 2009 study by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada found that full-time enrolment for students of all ages had increased

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On many occasions we’ve posted on the need to communicate effectively about the law to a general public in non-technical prose. (e.g. Èducaloi, Public Legal Ed in New Brunswick via Twitter, Legal Problems in Ontario? You’re Not Alone, Your Rights – Your Language)

Lawyers — and those who work routinely with lawyers — often don’t recognise how much the concepts and vocabulary of the law constitute an effective barrier to communication. Bentham made the point long before us.

So we’re particularly pleased to support an excellent 2 day conference next month in Montréal organised by Educaloi . . . [more]

Monterey College of Law in California is partnering with BARBRI, a law exam review/prep provider, to bring iPads to students in their first year law program this season. Students in their law school program tend to be older (average age 38), and the iPad is meant to help them better keep up with readings and study for bar exams.

From the August 25/10 article in Campus Technology:

“Many of our law students work the equivalent of three jobs. Between law school, work, and family, it is a constant challenge for them to set aside enough time during the

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Ontario Regulation 34/10 to the Insurance Act became effective on September 1, 2010, along with several other significant changes affecting personal injury and motor vehicle collision practice in Ontario.

The Law Society of Upper Canada and the Ontario Bar Association hosted a session to discuss these changes, The New Auto Insurance Regime – Practical Strategies for Radical Change, with John A. McLeish and Dale V. Orlando of McLeish Orlando LLP. A paper provided by Patrick Brown and Rikin Morzaria, also of McLeish Orlando LLP, outlined the changes.

Roger G. Oatley and James L. Vigmond of Oatley, . . . [more]