As you’ll likely know, there’s been a great deal of concern expressed here and elsewhere lately about the economic state of the profession, the most recent addition to the discussion being Mitch Kowalski’s post Articling Debate Exposes Convocation’s Flaws and the comments it garnered. I made a comment on that post suggesting that one aspect of the discussion — the complaint that the law schools are graduating too many students — might be proceeding without the benefit of data and asking whether anyone had the stats.

It’s Sunday and I was reflexively lazy. But a moment later I thought to . . . [more]

I just wrapped up meetings this weekend in Montreal with the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) Young Lawyers conference. The National Directorate from across Canada conducted brainstorming and discussions on issues of importance to young lawyers, particularly the future of the profession.

As expected, the articling debate in Ontario has been closely watched in other jurisdictions. Young lawyers across Canada are thinking deeply about where entry to practice licensing should end up. You can read some of my thoughts about the motion passed this week at Convocation in an article yesterday by Kirk Makin in The Globe.

But as . . . [more]

Today the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) once again considered the issue of what to do with articling in Ontario.

Once again, the matter was webcast so that all could see the debate.

Once again, viewers were shocked by what they saw.

Once again, Benchers came across as clubby and out-of-touch.

Time and again, they stood up and made verbose, rambling arguments based on nothing more than anecdotes, personal experience and emotional pleas.

Given that most are litigators, it’s astounding that so many do not understand how to make brief, pithy remarks; they’ve clearly been trained (perhaps during articling) . . . [more]

A modern currency amongst our legal governance bodies is the “retention of women” in the practice of law. It’s a common rallying cry from the gatekeepers: Make sure the women stay! Because they know we are leaving, and they know as well that the impetus to leave arises, in part, from the disadvantages that we experience due to our disproportionately heavy role in creating and parenting children.

For women in bigger law firms, their maternity leaves prevent them from obtaining the same seniority or work opportunities as non-parenting counterparts. Once baby arrives, women in bigger law firms are then compared . . . [more]

Four – or so it seems.

CanLII’s summer 2012 survey of Canadian lawyers and Quebec notaries (discussed here) drew over 4,300 responses*, allowing us to extract insights into matters of general interest.

As shown below in a survey screenshot of Question 10, we asked about online sources used to conduct legal research.

In addition to the eight options offered, respondents added many, many more to the list, but in the end less than a third of respondents reported using more than four online sources in the past 12 months.

The results also showed us that the more experience . . . [more]

Two judges of the Divisional Court have quashed the decision of a private high school to expel a student, on his last day before graduation, for smoking pot in his dorm room.

Gautam Setia attended Appley College (a well regarded private high school) in Oakville, Ontario. The night before his final exam he met up with some friends to celebrate the end of high school. They smoked some marijuana off campus and Gautam and a friend later returned to his residence. While in his room they smoked the last bit of pot, and got caught. Gautam admitted to smoking marijuana . . . [more]

National magazine from the CBA now has a new website www.nationalmagazine.ca

The UK government is introducing legislation that will provide, among other things, that as between candidates for the bench who are equally qualified, preference may lawfully be given to the one whose appointment would contribute to rectifying the under representation of a disadvantaged category.

Jonathan Sumption of the UK Supreme Court delivered the Bar Council Reform Lecture last week in which he says “Attitudes have changed but their legacy will take a long time to disappear.” He states that positive discrimination is the only thing that is likely to accelerate the rate of progress in reaching judicial diversity, but argues . . . [more]

The Law and Justice Foundation of New South Wales has published a series of reports on legal need in the various states and the country as a whole based on empirical surveys. The Legal Australia-Wide Survey: Legal need in Australia, for example:

provides the first comprehensive quantitative assessment across Australia of an extensive range of legal needs on a representative sample of the population. It examines the nature of legal problems, the pathways to their resolution, and the demographic groups that struggle with the weight of their legal problems.

The Legal Australia-Wide Survey

had the largest sample of the

. . . [more]

There have already been several posts on Slaw and elsewhere about the current articling debate in Ontario.

As one of the invited moderators of the debate I have been actively involved in reflecting and commenting on the issues, and I’m quickly coming to the conclusion that this could be the start of changes across Canada. A recent article in The Lawyers Weekly noted that even though Manitoba graduates currently can find articling positions, the situation there may drastically change because of what is going on in Ontario.

Where We Are Right Now

During October Convocation a number of legal organizations . . . [more]

A committee representing Federal Court judges, court officials and lawyers is proposing changes to the rules of the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal [press release] to make things easier for self-represented litigants and to cut down on vexatious lawsuits:

“The study proposes new tools to address abusive, inappropriate, disproportionate and wasteful litigation conduct. It also identifies a number of steps – many novel – to improve access to the Federal Courts, particularly by self-represented parties. ”

“The study is the product of a comprehensive policy review of the practices and procedures of the Federal Courts. A national

. . . [more]

Next week Benchers of the Law Society of Upper Canada will (hopefully) decide on the future of articling in the province of Ontario. So, rightly or wrongly, one piece of the legal training puzzle in Ontario will be determined.

The elephant in the room however is the law schools.

Many will say that law schools are there simply to serve the purpose of providing a legal education that students are free to use in whatever fashion they choose; ensuring students become lawyers is not the role of law schools.

This is naïve. And it would only be the most hard-hearted . . . [more]