Merry Christmas, seasons greetings, happy holidays. These can be empty words for those struggling to cope with challenging financial times. Even in economiclly stable Alberta, recession planning has become the topic of the day. My gift on this day of celebration are some tips for financial stability from those who know far more than me.

From Slaw:

• Omar’s well put together recent post on Mitch Kowalski
• Gavins recent post on outsourcing

From the ABA Law Practice Managment Section:

• November 2008 article where Dennis Kennedy moderated a panel discussing practical tips for practicing law during times of economic turmoil.
• Will

Last week I met with Mitch Kowalski of the Legal Post. He mentioned our conversation earlier today on the site, which is the kick in the butt I needed to do my own write-up on it during our break from school.

Mitch is an alumn from my school, Western Law, but has chosen a career path unique from most. After practicing for many years on Bay St. he decided to open a writing center, first at Yorkville, and then moving to a more central location on Bloor West.

And just like those television infomercials, Mitch . . . [more]

According to their recent blog post, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is expected to soon release guidelines to help employers draft policies for use of social networking sites in the workplace. The Office cites a recent study by Ryerson University that identified a digital divide between young Canadians who use social networks and their employers. The blog post explains:

…researchers found that, by and large, employers currently don’t have policies, guidelines or practices in place that govern the use of social networking sites in the workplace.

However, a small number of employers are starting to. So

The concept of solicitor-client privilege goes back at least 400 years in the common law, and is one of the most well established concepts of privilege in our legal system.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) was recently caught listening and recording conversations with Mohamed Zeki Mahjoub and his lawyer since the Egyptian refugee and terrorism suspect was released on bail over a year and a half ago.

When challenged by Justice Carolyn Layden-Stevenson, CSIS lawyer Jim Mathieson agreed that any such recordings would stop, and records would be erased.

But other defence lawyers have now raised some very serious . . . [more]

An item I blogged about yesterday over at Stem, I am about to start a new role in 2009 as a column editor for the ABA LPM’s Law Practice magazine. The column will be called LegalWEB2.0, and is set to begin in the Jan/Feb issue. Here’s a small screen capture from the inaugural column:

Connected to this new role, I am hoping you’ll help one of our first columnists Doug Cornelius by taking a new survey on law firms that block social media websites via their proxy servers or firewall. If your firm blocks these sites, or even . . . [more]

I thought I’d take this opportunity to tap into Slaw’s coast-to-coast reach for a quick poll: how many courts across the country have created a rule/practice direction/notice to the profession that lists common cases and says they don’t have to be included in the case books filed by the parties? I was aware of such a list in Prince Edward Island, and I recently learned that such a practice has existed for some time in British Columbia and, more recently, before the Federal Court (though the current list appears to be limited to immigration matters). Where else? 

I . . . [more]

Aujourd’hui encore, trop nombreux sont les profanes aux yeux desquels l’Internet reste une terre inconnue, aux rituels propres et au langage incompréhensible. Pour se convaincre des réticences que continue à susciter le réseau parmi les professionnels du droit en particulier, il suffit d’ailleurs de faire état de tous les domaines de la pratique au sein desquels son utilisation est encore exclue. Par exemple, le courriel n’est toujours pas un mode de signification accepté par le législateur, et nombre d’avocats lui préfèrent la télécopie pour de simples communications. Les tribunaux de la Belle Province ne permettent pas encore la production de . . . [more]

Today saw the release of an Ipsos Reid survey on the legal problems faced by low-income British Columbians. More than 80 per cent have faced problems since 2005 that have been serious and difficult to resolve. The poll was commissioned by the province’s legal aid program.

Consumer, money, and housing issues topped the list of legal problems with employment and family relations following close behind.

“The high incidence of legal problems is troubling,” said Mark Benton, QC, Executive Director of the Legal Services Society, the organization that provides legal aid in BC. “This survey, along with other research . . . [more]

The folks over at Orange Legal Technologies have put together a news feed they are calling “Unfiltered Orange” focussing on electronic discovery. You can access Unfiltered Orange a few ways:

• directly from the Orange Legal Technologies website. Scroll down for the latest headlines, click through for the full news item from its original source.
• if you are on Twitter, follow the tweets from @complexd.
• if you are using a feed reader, or want to repurpose the feed, the RSS feed is available here.

They are apparently using Twitter to create the original feed. They have created this . . . [more]

An article in the recent Communications of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), “Got data?: a guide to data preservation in the information age,” makes the case for urgent investment in data cyberinfrastructure — whatever is required to store, manage, catalog and access data.

(Note: that link won’t give you much joy unless you happen to subscribe to the ACM portal. Fortunately, the author, Francine Berman, who is Director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center, has put up on her website a version of the piece in PDF, “Surviving the Data Deluge.” Such is the . . . [more]

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
– Master Yoda, P.C., C.J.C.

In this award-winning 2006 film produced in cooperation with the CBC, Steel Toes tells the story of a neo-Nazi living in Montreal. He viciously attacks an Indian immigrant without provocation, mistaking him for a Muslim, with serious injuries that resulted in death.

He is frustrated, angry with the millions of immigrants who come to Canada and reproduce in large numbers. They supposedly take jobs away from working-class whites like him and are changing his . . . [more]

Technology has become an essential part of practising law and working in a law office (or any office for that matter). My TechTips column from the Summer 2008 issue of LAWPRO Magazine summarizes what I think are the 10 essential technology skills and practices that every lawyer and law office staff person should be familiar with.

Do you know what Alt+Tab does? How about a right-click on your mouse? Do you know how to use Cut, Copy and Paste? How about Paste Special. The text format shortcuts will save you tons of time next time you have to type up . . . [more]