We’ve all come across them. Difficult people can be found everywhere, including co-workers, clients, and lawyers on the other side. Sometimes these difficult people are actually manifesting what could be considered a personality disorder, and it looks like the prevalence of them are increasing.

At the Federation of Law Societies conference in Halifax this week Bill Eddy of the High Conflict Institute closed the session by looking at the changing population and the implications for the courts. Eddy indicated that there is a clear trend that clients have fewer conflict resolution skills, more high‐conflict behaviour, and more personality disorders. . . . [more]

Becoming a lawyer is a long process with many hurdles to overcome.

Your undergrad grades and LSAT score need to be good enough to get you into law school. Law school grades, rightly or wrongly, are by and large what determine if you can land an articling position which is, of course, a requirement to be called to the bar. Throw in the bar admission course and exams, which change every few years it seems, and you are almost there. However, licenses to practice law are only given to those who are of “good character”. For most, this requirement is . . . [more]

A series of lawsuits involving Mathews, Dinsdale & Clark and Adrian Jakibchuk, a former associate of the firm, was settled on June 7. The case emerged after Jakibchuk alleged inappropriate behaviour by David Cowling. More information on the background to this lawsuit was available here on Slaw when it was first launched.

Although the details of the settlement remain confidential, Christina Cheung of Precedent shares some information they have obtained:

Pleadings obtained by Precedent in the Jakibchuk lawsuit indicate that MDC paid an undisclosed sum of money to Cowling in order for him to drop his lawsuit and leave the

. . . [more]

Today’s going to be an interesting day at the Supreme Court: they’re hearing argument in the Election Act appeal (Ted Opitz, et al. v. Borys Wrzesnewskyj, et al.), the first such direct appeal brought to this court. Factums are available here; and this is the link to the webcast. If you’re too pressed for time to wade through factums or watch the hearing live, you might like to follow Ottawa law prof Carissima Mathen’s tweets from the courtroom instead.

[Remember: when you need to get to the Supreme Court website and can’t recall the official URL, just . . . [more]

Following the report of the LSUC task force on articling, there has been a lot of discussion in Ontario about how entry to the legal profession will look in the future.

This is a hot topic in the UK too, but for a different reason.

Deregulation brought about by the UK Legal Services Act is reshaping entry to the legal profession there. More school leavers are now opting to enter the profession via the apprenticship route rather than through law degrees. School leavers can join firms as litigation executives and train to become lawyers on-the-job via the Chartered Institute of . . . [more]

I’ve seen other summer reading lists lately and thought it would be fun to put together my own list of books currently or recently on my nightstand. There’s quite a range here–management/leadership type titles, geek girl titles, and some challenging fiction. I’m not really one for light reading! And, there’s probably no way I can get through all of these in the summer, but I can certainly try. And of course in putting this list together I found even more new books, so I better get reading.

What is on your summer reading list?

Here is the list (with no . . . [more]

A full contingent of five judges sitting at the Ontario Court of Appeal unanimously ruled that where an employment agreement provides for a stipulated sum upon termination without cause, and is silent as to the employee’s obligation to mitigate, the employee will not be required to mitigate.

Peter Bowes had a written employment contract with his employer, Goss Power Products Ltd. (“Goss”). The employment agreement contained a sliding scale as to how much notice or pay in lieu of notice Peter was entitled to in the event that his employment was terminated without cause. The longer Peter was employed, the . . . [more]

I have been following an interesting blog and twitter feed (@LawSync) prepared by LawSync out of Sheffield Hallam University. LawSync has put the “wow” back into law school and is a project of that university’s Department of Law, Criminology, and Community Justice. According to its website:

The name of this project reflects our desire to see a better synchronisation between law as an academic discipline and professional practice, the expectations both of legal professionals and users of legal services, and regulatory influences. Law schools, law students, and legal professionals need to keep in sync with market needs and

. . . [more]

Hell hath no fury like a scorned Internet, as Charles Carreon is finding out the hard way.

First, Carreon sued online comic the Oatmeal on behalf of his client FunnyJunk.com over a blog post published a year ago wherein the Oatmeal’s founder, Matt Inman, criticized FunnyJunk for hosting copies of his comic without proper attribution. Carreon and his client accused Inman of defamation and demanded $20,000 in damages.

Inman’s response was, predictably, to publicly mock Carreon and FunnyJunk in a blog post detailing the ludicrousness of Carreon’s accusations and. Furthermore, Inman responds to the demand of $20,000 in damages by . . . [more]

Let me throw some controversy into your world today.

When I speak to groups about innovation in legal services the topic that always hits a raw nerve is the subject of office space. Next to personnel costs, office space is one of the largest fixed costs of any business, including law firms. However, much like the weather, every lawyer talks about it, but no one does anything about it.

It is a space planning rule of thumb that law firms need between 600 – 1,000 square feet of space per lawyer. Think of the savings if that number could be . . . [more]

we frequently refer to Bill such-and-such years after the Bill has been passed and has become an Act. In the last decade, people tend not to distinguish between a Bill, which has not become law, and an Act, which has.

The ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 is seeking comments on a newly released Issues Paper entitled “Issues Paper Concerning Model Rule of Professional Conduct 5.5 and the Limits on Virtual Presence in a Jurisdiction.” They are seeking comments to assist their consideration of the issues that come up when lawyers establish a presence and practice virtually in a jurisdiction that is away from their physical location. Responses are requested by July 31, 2012. See the above link for instructions on where to send them.

Remote virtual practices raise all sorts of interesting questions:

• How do you ensure the

. . . [more]