I just noticed we never mentioned the latest InnovAction Awards winner announced in September! This year’s winner is New Family Organization created by Irit Rosenblum in Israel.

From InnovAction:

Irit Rosenblum broke fresh ground defending a universal right to family as intrinsic to the practice of law. Rosenblum pioneered a new sphere of legal rights surrounding the family based on the conviction that the rights to marry, divorce, have children, bequeath and inherit assets, and conduct family life are human rights and must be attainable to all regardless of faith, nationality, sexual orientation or status. She founded New Family to

Like everyone else, lawyers want to make the most out of the finite time, energy and resources available to them. Lawyers in private practice in particular often experience significant demands on their time. They face regular deadlines imposed by others without regard to their other time requirements, and often multiple clients require something to be done at the same time. There are regular interruptions during the work day via email, phone and fax. And, there is always something more to do on a client’s behalf – one more witness to interview, one more case to read, one more clause to . . . [more]

♫ I’d rather steal than foot the bill, I’d rather die
I’d rather steal than pay the bill, I’d rather lie ♫

Words and music by Vaux, “Identity Theft”

Yesterday was an eye-opening day for me. Someone apparently hacked into my Twitter account and started sending out spam tweets in my name. On the scale of the range of identity theft, this was rather low – as it was solved by changing my Twitter password to something VERY strong and sending out apologies to those who unfortunately, received the spam tweets. But like a vaccine, it inoculated . . . [more]

Heritage Law had our first firm retreat last Friday October 9th at River Rock Casino in Richmond, BC. Allison Wolf was our facilitator and did an excellent job.

It was somewhat of a coming of age event for a firm started four years ago as a solo. Practice areas have changed, people have come and gone, two children have been born – and now four lawyers and five staff were sitting around a table discussing strengths, goals and the path ahead. It was a particularly unique event for us as we are a virtual firm and many of our paralegal . . . [more]

♬ life can bring you down
creep up without a sound
yeah life can bring you down sometimes…♬

Lyrics, music and recorded by Sprung Monkey.

There is much talk in the media about the H1N1 virus. I think I was like most people in thinking it would be an inconvenience at worst – that is, until the first person I knew died from it. It is still early in the outbreak but I am now following the news announcements much more closely.

In terms of lawyers and law offices, this pandemic (I really don’t like that word since it . . . [more]

(This article comes from the latest issue of LAWPRO’s new Webzine and magazine.)

Almost every day LAWPRO receives calls and emails from lawyers who are acting on files that are possible or obvious frauds. The types of sham matters targeting lawyers range from collections and commercial loans to real estate and mortgage transactions.

Based on feedback, we believe that lawyers and law office staff are generally more aware of the red flags that warn of potential fraud. Lawyers are more often identifying and stopping frauds targeting them.

However, these calls also tell us that several recurring misconceptions are preventing . . . [more]

One of the most enjoyable aspects about working with clients outside the Canadian market is getting exposed to new areas of the law. This was the case when I started working with McClanahan Myers Espey LLP and was introduced to Mike Myers. Mike has a unique expertise, uncovering corporate life insurance policies where the company (and not the family) are the beneficiaries. The practice is more commonly referred to as dead peasants’ insurance or Janitors Insurance, and Mike works on behalf of the families. He is also one of a select few to have a successful track record in . . . [more]

David Bilinsky mentioned it in passing back in August: there are calls for increased civility amongst lawyers. On September 24th, the Law Society of Upper Canada announced Civility Complaints Protocols Established.

According to the press release,

The [Civility Complaints] protocols provide a procedure for trial judges and justices of the peace to refer incidents of misconduct to the Law Society. They also provide for a new process whereby judges can request that lawyers receive mentoring from a panel of senior members of the bar. The mentor will meet with the lawyer to discuss the conduct in question

It’s something I’ve always wondered about. How do you use video, presumably on YouTube, without looking like you’re advertising like this guy.

I got together with some of the most savvy lawyers I know in the area, and we sat around talking about why we blog, why litigators are often reluctant to participate, and a couple other issues. We forgot about the camera that was filming us, and took a look at the footage after we were done.

The musical intro/outro is us too – Garry Wise and Michael Carabash are pretty talented musicians on the guitar.

We liked . . . [more]

Twitter is developing a way of making a shareable list of Twitter users, so that people can form, recommend, or adopt groups of users. (See the story on ReadWriteWeb.)

Currenlty, TweepML offers a way of doing this sharable list making. (The name is a take on OPML, which stands for Outline Processor Markup Language, an invention of Dave Winer, and used principally for making an XML list of RSS feeds. Tweeps are people — “peeps” — who use Twitter.) The idea of such a list is that it makes it technically easier for you to follow groups of people. . . . [more]

If there’s one time of year that should give us cause to pause and look out from our legal Fishbowls it’s the autumn. Given the season, I thought I’d invite us all to take a break from our computer screens and document briefs and look out our windows to reflect on nature.

I had just such a moment of distraction last spring that I let slip into a Tweet. Peg Duncan (keeper of the LexUM e-discovery case law digests) translated it into this wonderful English-style Haiku:

the tower creaks

in the cool east wind

ridable waves in Toronto

Running a call-girl business is an inherently risky venture. The lines frequently blur, and participants end up in what the law would describe as prostitution.

To sort out these complicated legal dilemmas operators frequently have to hire counsel. Should these expenses be reportable for tax purposes?

The now-defunct Exchequer Court examined the issue back in 1964, in Canada (Minister of National Revenue – M.N.R.) v. Eldridge, when several employees of the respondent were arrested on prostitution charges.

. . . [more]