Beaton Consulting, which is “Australia’s leading B2B services research and consulting firm, providing insights to drive business performance” has released this short video on trends in the legal profession over the next thirty years. It’s well done and provocative.

Beaton’s own description is that

it highlights the rise and rise of the legal profession, and what the future holds in a global commoditised market. Featuring fascinating statistics on the past, present and future of law, it’s a wake-up call to law firms everywhere.

I have my doubts about whether all these trees will grow endless to the sky. But something . . . [more]

With the arrival of 2010, the new Rules of Civil Procedure came into effect in Ontario, as announced on the website of the Ministry of the Attorney General. Rules were substantially reformed in an effort to achieve Honourable Coulter A. Osborne's goal to “make the civil justice system more accessible and affordable." The reforms include changes to Summary Judgment, Mediation, Third Party Claim, Discovery, and dozens of other rules. Of particular interest to Slaw readers, the changes related to discovery represent a positive step towards control over the time and expense associated with civil proceedings in this new era of e-discovery.

The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth recently completed their annual study of the Inc. 500, the fastest-growing private corporations in the U.S.

The Center claims to provide one of the few statistically-significant studies on the use of social media by corporations. The findings show that social media adoption by the Inc. 500 outpaces that of the Fortune 500.

If we can extrapolate the findings into another jurisdiction and the legal industry, this might provide yet another clue about how social media can offer leverage to smaller and mid-size firms. It also suggests an . . . [more]

I was reading Connie Crosby’s recent Slaw.ca post National: Canada’s Best Law Firm Websites. It described an article in the Canadian Bar Association’s National magazine about the best law firm websites in a variety of categories, including blogs.

And then, I came across an article in Legal Blog Watch on Law.com:

As the world goes to hell in a handbasket, the blawgosphere is abuzz with a debate over whether big firm blogs are boring. Blame it on the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100, which listed but two blogs from Am Law 100 firms. Not surprising, opines big-firm blogger Mark Herrmann,

. . . [more]

Family law matters seem to be the new flavour of the month when it comes to bad-cheque scams. In the past few weeks Ontario lawyers have sent me almost 20 different emails from fraudsters seeking help on matters involving the collection spousal and/or child support.

One message in particular is making the rounds as I have had at least a dozen lawyers send me a copy of it in the last week alone. A copy of that message follows: . . . [more]

The December issue of the CBA’s National magazine has been released, and includes the article “Canada’s best law firm websites” [pdf] by Luigi Benetton. Nine “legal technology professionals” were asked to rank and comment on law firm websites in a number of categories (including yours truly).

I encourage you to read the full article for the analysis, discussion and quotes, but here is the run-down of winners and honourable mentions with links in the various categories:

Big Firm (multi-jurisdictional)

Winner: Ogilvy Renault LLP
Honourable mentions: Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP

Small Firm/Solo

Co-winners: . . . [more]

If you check out Steve Matthews‘ great post today, Web Law Predictions for 2010, there is one that is already starting to stand out:

I’ll go out on a limb, and predict that 2010 will be the year a law firm somewhere will declare smart phones to be a security risk, jamming transmission internally or banning usage from inside the firm.

The ABA Journal recently noted concerns raised by Sharon Nelson and John Simek of Sensei Enterprises about the use of iPhones by lawyers. The major issue is that handheld device takes screenshots of documents in order to . . . [more]

Although Dan Pinnington recently mentioned the current issue of LawPRO Magazine, he didn’t point out that we got some coverage in it too.

The section on blogs, found on page 4, gives special mention to Slaw,

Blogs also offer readers the opportunity to respond and comment, thus starting an online discussion. (Of course, this has its risks:
Readers’ comments must be monitored to ensure that offensive or defamatory material is not published on your blog.) …
Some notable Canadian law blogs include slaw (www.slaw.ca), “a Canadian co-operative weblog about any and all things legal”
and Law 21: Dispatches

. . . [more]

♫ He roller-coaster he got early warning
He got muddy water he one mojo filter
He say “One and one and one is three”
Got to be good-looking ’cause he’s so hard to see
Come together right now over me …♫

Lyrics and music by: Lennon/McCartney.

On Friday Dec. 11, 2009 the Benchers of the Law Society of British Columbia passed amendments to the Rules of the Law Society that will allow Multi-Disciplinary partnerships in British Columbia effective July 1, 2010.

These changes, limited as they are, are momentous. For the first time in BC, a partnership, a LLP, . . . [more]

A story that’s been making the rounds this week (Lawyerist –Legal Blog Watch –ABAJournal –@davidtsfraser) deserves to be passed along one more step: U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel got fed up with the way lawyers wrote the proposed orders submitted to him, so he sent a memo to the whole bankruptcy bar setting out his rules for doing it right. They’re a mix of regs on proper form and injunctions about some stuff that should have been learned in grade school.

For instance, in addition to a request that documents be submitted in PDF electronically, . . . [more]

Hidden by the furore over Facebook’s privacy policy changes this week, an interesting little story about Facebook relationships between judges and lawyers popped up this week.

Florida’s Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee came out with a guideline on whether judges can “friend” lawyers who are appearing in cases before them. According to the Committee, it isn’t permissible since it creates the impression that the “friended” lawyer is in a position to influence the judge.

Of course, most people’s facebook friend list is comprised mostly of people who you’ve barely spoken with recently, never mind having any influence over. Luckily, judges can . . . [more]

[A post for Ontario lawyers only.]

We have received various questions and comments on the enhanced coverage for counterfeit certified cheques and bank drafts that we are providing under the 2010 LAWPRO insurance program and policy. To respond to those questions and comments, we’ve prepared an extensive list of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) that help explain this new enhanced coverage>, and also to provide some tips and guidance on how to make the coverage requirements work in your law practice.

These FAQs should help answer your questions as some recent media coverage about this new enhanced fraud coverage was not . . . [more]