I’m reading Patrick McKenna’s new Slaw column offering advice to the newly minted law firm support professional. His three points, I think, are all spot on; and I say that after spending more than 12 years in-house. Generating respect as a non-lawyer within a law firm isn’t easy, but it is entirely possible.

No matter which role you play, the big challenge will always be to select the right projects. And the curve ball, is that it doesn’t matter if you believe that your selected projects are important or valuable. What matters is if those projects deliver value to the . . . [more]

I came across an interesting article in the Autumn issue of University of Toronto Magazine. It indicates that John A. Cunningham, a behavioural scientist at U. of T., has come up with new criteria for defining how much alcohol consumption is too much.

You can measure your own drinking habits against these criteria by taking a short five minute survey at checkyourdrinking.net.

The survey asks about the amount of alcohol you consume, and compares it to averages for others of the same age and sex. On an annual basis it also reports how much you spend on alcohol and . . . [more]

I know a few law librarians.

I make no secret of it.

Some of them have been essential in making Slaw a success — and only in part because they “got” IT light years ahead of the legal profession generally. Some have been engines driving the creation of powerful institutions of legal learning. Some have even been known to play vital roles in firms that practice law.

Why, then, do law firms hide their law librarians as if they were . . . dipsomaniac uncles and aunts?

I don’t say that firms sequester them in dank, windowless quarters. Or that . . . [more]

Chris Mondics at the Philadelphia Inquirer wonders if the legal market has seen the worst of the biggest recession in the legal industry since the Great Depression,

For law firms, the devastation that swept through the legal marketplace in 2008 and 2009 has come to an end. Layoffs have stopped or at least have been sharply curtailed, firms that suspended hiring are recruiting once again, and profits, though flat or down, have stabilized at numbers that would make average middle-class American wage earners click their heels with delight.

Even the sky-high starting salaries for first-year lawyers, long the source of

. . . [more]

A recent article in the Globe & Mail discussed the phenomenon of older students in university, driven in part by the recession,

Universities across Canada report a growing number of mature undergraduates – typically adults older than 25 who have taken more than a year off school – who are choosing to study full-time in order to find new careers or increase their competitive edge in a job market that is still reeling from the economic downturn…

A 2009 study by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada found that full-time enrolment for students of all ages had increased

. . . [more]

We’ve posted before about the work that the Canadian Bar Association has been doing on conflicts of interest and the development of tools for the profession to manage conflicts of interest. Two Slawers were closely involved, here and here, with a fine italic hand evident.

Today’s Lawyers’ Weekly front page reports on the CBA’s response to a report of an Advisory Committee to the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. The Advisory Committee had released a report in June which had departed radically from the analysis of the CBA Task Force on the key issue of current . . . [more]

I sat on a legal project management panel at the CBA conference on Tuesday. It was moderated by Barbara Boake of McCarthy’s. Andrew Terrett of BLG (and Slaw) provided the PM expert’s perspective, Brian Armstrong of Bruce Power spoke from the internal counsel’s perspective and I provided the practitioner’s perspective.

We had a very enlightening discussion, and spent a good deal of it talking about the challenges of planning for and pricing litigation (meaning any form of representation in an adjudicative process). I’ll follow-up on the discussion later, but thought I’d first lay some groundwork with a short and very . . . [more]

Over the last few months I have noticed a marked uptake on the topic of legal project management in the legal literature and blogosphere. Although I think lawyers have always “done” legal project management (not always well), I also think the recent buzz on the topic is related to the economy and the recent emphasis within the legal profession on changing trends and the need to do legal project management better.

SLAW recently did a book review of Steven Levy’s book called Legal Project Management. In addition to Steven’s book, there is also Jim Hassett’s The Legal Project Management . . . [more]

♫ Dance Dance wherever you may be
I am the lord of the dance said he
And I lead you all wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance said he…♫

Lyrics by: Sydney Carter, music by: Elder Joseph Brackett, “Lord of the Dance“.

Effective July 1, 2010 Multi-Disciplinary Partnerships (“MDP’s”) are allowed by the Law Society of British Columbia. Law Society Rules 2-23.1 and following govern the establishments of MDP’s in the Province of BC.

This is a big change for law firms in BC. For one 2-23.1 (1) states:

“member of

. . . [more]

I suspect we’ll be hearing quite a bit about a new suit filed by David Cowling of Mathews, Dinsdale & Clark against two former employees of his firm. Jim Middlemiss seems to have broken the story first on the National Post, and it was quickly picked up by the huge American blog Above the Law, so I won’t repeat all of the facts here again or provide too much commentary on the case.

Although Middlemiss points out the similarities to the LaCalamita case and the George Hunter suspension, there’s one important difference. The employee here, Sarah Diebel, . . . [more]

Do you know where the greatest risks of a malpractice claim come from? More importantly—did you know there are simple steps you can take to reduce the risk of a claim being made against you?

The July/August issue of Law Practice Magazine is devoted to helping you avoid the dreaded allegation of legal malpractice, as well as other dangers to your law practice.

LAWPRO’s claims statistics indicate that four out of five lawyers will face at least one claim during the course of their careers. So the odds are you have already experienced a claim or two—and if not, you . . . [more]

If you're in the dark, go turn on a light. At least you will see the monsters you have to slay.