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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]

Because of our point-based immigration system Canada is know for attracting some of the best and brightest around the world, resulting in a phenomenon known as the brain drain. But Canada often experiences its own drain, with many professionals and stars seeking bigger markets and opportunities in the U.S.

In a recent edition of The Medical Post, Matthew Sylvain notes an interesting phenomenon (Brain drain reversed? August 17, 2010). American physicians are moving to Canada, albeit in small numbers.

The most obvious reason is the economy, and Sylvain cites John Mabbott of Health Match B.C. in pointing . . . [more]

This is the second part to a post from a week ago in which I made a note to the CBA legal project management panel and issued a three-question survey.

To follow up, I’ll use the survey to identify issues relating the current pressures how we litigate on behalf of our clients. I have not yet developed strong views on this subject matter, so will simply present the survey results and some thoughts about each question.

As I did last week, I use the term “litigation” in the broad sense, to refer to any form of representation in an adjudicative . . . [more]

We’ve posted before about the work that the Canadian Bar Association has been doing on conflicts of interest and the development of tools for the profession to manage conflicts of interest. Two Slawers were closely involved, here and here, with a fine italic hand evident.

Today’s Lawyers’ Weekly front page reports on the CBA’s response to a report of an Advisory Committee to the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. The Advisory Committee had released a report in June which had departed radically from the analysis of the CBA Task Force on the key issue of current . . . [more]

I sat on a legal project management panel at the CBA conference on Tuesday. It was moderated by Barbara Boake of McCarthy’s. Andrew Terrett of BLG (and Slaw) provided the PM expert’s perspective, Brian Armstrong of Bruce Power spoke from the internal counsel’s perspective and I provided the practitioner’s perspective.

We had a very enlightening discussion, and spent a good deal of it talking about the challenges of planning for and pricing litigation (meaning any form of representation in an adjudicative process). I’ll follow-up on the discussion later, but thought I’d first lay some groundwork with a short and very . . . [more]

Knowledge@Warton has a great recap of a discussion from the 2010 Supernova forum. At issue is the evolution of social networking tools, and how they compare with corporate KM efforts. It’s an interesting discussion with a diverse range of opinions. If you’re currently involved in a KM program, or a law librarian seeking new ways to add value to your firm, I would encourage you to read this piece in its entirety.

One issue in particular that caught my eye was the contrast between ‘keeping it fun’ and maintaining value. Here’s a snippet:

While there are virtues to being able

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CNA releases 2009-2010 FOI Audit. Federal government not doing well. Exceptional Valedictory address.

Online Dispute Resolution is being adopted world-wide but particularly in the developing world. This post looks at the most recent developments from the ODR Conference held in June in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The title of this posting is the title of an article that just appeared on the Chronicle Review website of the The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Call it a more temperate look (more temperate than that of a now retired Canadian law professor – already noted on this forum) at law school education, albeit in the United States rather than Canada.

The focus of the article is the education of the graduates from “elite” law schools in the U.S. “at a time when most of the more-radical members of the faculty had either already disappeared or were losing their . . . [more]

I had the pleasure of presenting on knowledge management at the CALL/ACBD/MichALL law library conference currently underway in Windsor, Ontario. I shared the panel with Ginevra Saylor of Fraser Milner Casgrain, Denise Bonin of andornot, and SLAW’s own Simon Fodden.

It would appear that knowledge management is alive and well, albeit perhaps in an evolving manner. I will try to post shortly in more detail on the discussions that ensued at the session but thought for now I would post here at the following link a PDF of the paper I submitted called The Evolution of Law-Related Knowledge . . . [more]

Colleague and fellow blogger Patrick DiDomenico has started a blog called iPad4Legal that is further whetting my appetite for an iPad. He describes his new blog in these terms:

iPad4Legal is a blog about iPads as they pertain to lawyers, law firms, and the legal profession. We may occasionally stray and discuss iPhones or other Apple products since the technologies often overlap.

Another colleague described iPad as good for content consumers (which I am) but perhaps less so for content creators (which would be perhaps disappointing but something I suspect Apple would improve upon). The obvious interest will be in . . . [more]