The CSA Group (formerly the Canadian Standards Association) with the assistance of the nationally based law firm Grant Thornton LLP has developed a free guide to help organizations develop and maintain a whistleblowing system with the goal to encourage workers to report ethical and safety issues within an established mechanism. Reported issues include suspected tax fraud, accounting fraud, corporate fraud, insider trading, health and safety issues and other serious offenses. . . . [more]

In “Of lawyers, law schools, and the keeping of the gates”, Dean Ian Holloway points out the high rate of depression in the profession and asks:

Are we producing lawyers who have the right personalities for the profession they’re joining?… Depression. Alcoholism. Suicide. Together, they are a tremendous plague on our vocation, and a condemnation of how we select our successors. Don’t we owe it to ourselves — and to them — to do better?

The emphasis on numbers (grades and LSAT scores) at the exclusion of testing for “resilience, grit, or mental toughness” means that we are . . . [more]

I’ve been thinking about legal career paths since last week’s release of Do Law Differently, Futures for Young Lawyers. The guide, published by the Canadian Bar Association’s Legal Futures Initiative, includes Jordan Furlong’s thought-provoking analysis of the current state of the profession and commentary from a number of Canadian “new law pioneers” about the skills and competencies that lawyers will need to make the most of the opportunities ahead.

My Slaw colleague Nate Russell gave his take on this guide here yesterday. When you read it (and you should), you’ll note he’s rather less enthusiastic about the publication, . . . [more]

A couple days ago CBA Young Lawyers released the 11th report in the Legal Futures Initiative, Do Law Differently: Futures for Young Lawyers. The report features profiles on 26 pioneers of the #NewLaw movement (one is my colleague Audrey Jun @AudreyyJun), and identifies emerging “new legal careers” along with the skills new lawyers will need to forge a life for themselves beyond the crumbling “old system” of equity partnership track positions, mentorship, associate positions or, well, to put it bluntly… any kind of full-time “lawyer job”. Everything is in flux and much is about to become myth over . . . [more]

Law-firm regulation is moving closer to becoming a reality in most Canadian provinces, but there are still a few misconceptions about what it is, and what it will mean for lawyers and the profession.

Nova Scotia has been studying ways to regulate legal entities, in addition to individual lawyers, for several years, and recently published a draft self-assessment tool for public discussion. The three Prairie provinces recently collaborated to publish “Innovating Regulation,” a discussion paper in which entity regulation figures prominently. The Law Society of Upper Canada also recently published a discussion paper seeking public input on entity . . . [more]

Toronto technology lawyer Addison Cameron-Huff has posted a list of “Toronto-based legaltech startups & established players.”

He notes that, “I’ve only listed startups that are active, have a software service or product, and appear to have their main office in Toronto … some of the established players are Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies that have a larger headquarters elsewhere.”

With 40 startups listed this is a great start and he welcomes suggestions for the list at addison@cameronhuff.com.

Cameron-Huff also maintains FlatLaw, “Canada’s Flat Rate Legal Marketplace.” . . . [more]

This weekend we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Black Law Students Association of Canada (BLSAC). The organization is one that has held special importance to me throughout law school and following, and one to which I credit much of my momentum in this field.

The conference was held this year in Toronto at the DoubleTree Hilton, immediately adjacent to the construction site of the new provincial courthouse, and historic site of the British Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the key locations of the Underground Railroad.

The Julius Alexander Diversity Moot this year was held at the Ontario Court . . . [more]

This post continues my discussion of remunerative practice models that improve access to justice. I spent a good bit of space in my post on unbundled services, also known as limited-scope retainers, dumping on the comprehensive service, billable-hour model of legal practise and explaining why I believe it is unaffordable and unpalatable to clients. In this post, I’m going to talk about another alternative to the billable hour, flat-rate billing.

The idea of adopting a flat-rate approach to work makes most lawyers pretty twitchy. The fundamental genius of the the billable-hour approach is that you are covered, no . . . [more]

Among regulators across Canada, and internationally, there is increasing interest in proactive regulatory initiatives that focus on better practice management to achieve improved client service and professional conduct. Traditionally, law societies have worked to ensure proper professional conduct by establishing rules and by discipline. This is primarily a reactive, complaints-driven process.

The Law Society of British Columbia, Prairie Law Societies and the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society are all considering proactive regulation. Other regulators in Ontario have implemented forms of proactive regulation, as have legal regulators in Australia and in England and Wales.

Last June, the Law Society of Upper . . . [more]

A litigation culture has arisen in this province over the last three decades which extols creating and litigating peripheral procedural disputes, instead of moving towards the timely adjudication of disputes on their merits. That culture now lauds, as the skilled barrister, the motions specialist, not the final hearing expert.

• Justice Brown of the Ontario Court of Appeal in “A 5-Point Action Plan to Get the Civil Justice System Moving Back in the Direction of Achieving its Fundamental Goal – The Fair, Timely and Cost-Effective Determinations of Civil Cases on their Merit”

The culture of creating and litigating peripheral . . . [more]

Self-represented litigants are a challenging reality in today’s legal landscape. In addition to the extra time and effort that can make dealing with a self-rep more expensive for your client and more frustrating for you, it seems there is a greater potential for a malpractice claim. This is highlighted by the number of claims LAWPRO is seeing where the opposing party was a self-rep. In 2014, there were 162 such claims, almost double the 86 we saw a decade earlier, in 2004.

As you work to resolve a matter, you may find yourself negotiating directly with a self-represented litigant. In . . . [more]

Last week my Facebook feed lit up after the article by Eric Girard, “What I learned at law school: The poor need not apply”, was published in the Globe. Mr. Girard, a 3rd year student at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, was on the verge of leaving school due to his financial circumstances until a friend stepped in and, at the last minute, offered to co-sign a loan. Mr. Girard’s story ends well but it highlights some significant problems with legal education in Canada. The high cost of a legal education puts it out of reach from . . . [more]