Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Technology

Free Access to Easy-to-Use Compliance App
Lesha Van Der Bij

To say COVID-19 has sped up the pace of legal change is an understatement. Usually it takes months (or even years!) to make changes to Canadian laws, but now we are seeing significant amendments announced and in force on the same day. With many businesses worrying about day-to-day survival, there is little or no time to stay on . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Practice

Get Help From Clio During COVID-19
Emma Durand-Wood

Clio has just announced a $1 million COVID-19 legal relief initiative in order “to help create business continuity and peace of mind for you, your law firm or your legal organization. …

Research & Writing

Are You Old or Just Elderly?
Neil Guthrie

Elderly is a tricky word. In North America, it’s used as a euphemistic — or at least . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Research & Writing

Finding Historical Federal Committee Information
Susannah Tredwell

LegisInfo provides committee information (e.g. the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology) back to the 35th Parliament, 1st Session (1994). …

Practice

Free Products and Resources for Legal Professionals During COVID-19 Crisis

A very quick tip today: Bob Ambrogi has assembled a webpage that lists “products and services offered by companies for free to support the work of . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Practice

Lawyers Ahoy-Hoy: Six Tips for Better Telephone Calls
Shawn Erker

Like fashion, communication methods evolve, change, and sometimes come back again. During the twentieth century, telephones became ubiquitous, largely replacing the need for written telegrams and letters. …

Research & Writing

More on (Non-)Latin Plurals
Neil Guthrie

I groan (inwardly) every time I see or hear the word syllabi at the law school where I teach. Syllabus has . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Research & Writing

Of Bad Business Jargon There Is No End
Neil Guthrie

Some further things to expunge from your professional (and non-professional) vocabulary. Availability: This is, like functionality, a multisyllabic word that can usefully be replaced by something short and simple – and therefore clear and direct. … . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Research & Writing

From the Specific to the General
Neil Guthrie

Burden: In a recent news release, the Ontario Securities Commission said this: ‘Most recently, the OSC announced 107 regulatory changes to reduce burden for market participants while maintaining critical investor protections.’ Good initiative, but the use of burden annoys me. The burden or the regulatory burden would be better: a specific thing, not a general state of affairs. . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Research & Writing

Use Sessional Clippings Books for BC Legislative Research
Susannah Tredwell

British Columbia’s Hansard (the transcripts of the Legislative Assembly) was not published until 1970, making researching the intent behind a piece of pre-1970 legislation challenging. … . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Research & Writing

The
Neil Guthrie

As used (or not) in the names of countries. One does still occasionally hear or see the Ukraine, but be careful not to use that around people of Ukrainian origin. They can get very shirty about it. Their point is that the definite article the makes the country sound more like a region, like the Midwest or the Highlands – and, by implication, . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Practice

A Step a Day to Leverage LinkedIn
Sandra Bekhor

How long have you been on LinkedIn? A few years? More? Have you added or changed anything since that time? Your headshot? Your profile? The type of content you post? …

Research & Writing

Some Additional Apostrophe Catastrophes
Neil Guthrie

This was the headline of a recent LinkedIn post: Cryptocurrency do’s, don’ts and dangers. Think before you use the . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Research & Writing

Titles
Neil Guthrie

Not of books, but of dignitaries. Judges: Stephen Waddams observes in Introduction to the Study of Law (my edition is 1992) that it is not proper to refer to a judge as Your Honour (or My Lord/Lady, where that is still used) outside the courtroom. …

Practice

Find Articling/Summer Students With the CPLED Student Resume Directory
Law Society of Saskatchewan Library

CPLED is . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Technology

My Favourite Apps – Part V
Lesha Van Der Bij

Passwords. The bane of most people’s existence. So many to remember! I know a few people who swear they have figured it all out – using some kind of mnemonic to remember all of their passwords. Apparently, I am not that clever. So I recently turned to LastPass. You remember one password and LastPass stores the rest. … . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on practice, research, writing and technology.

Research & Writing

Free Access to Early Canadian Historical/Legal Documents on Canadiana
Alan Kilpatrick

Canadiana Online’s unparalleled online collection of historical materials is now free to access. The collection, available at no charge at Canadiana.ca, contains more than 60 million digitized pages of books, periodicals, and government publications from early Canadian history. Why should lawyers and legal researchers take note of this thrilling development? Canadiana Online features an outstanding . . . [more]