We’ve compiled the list of the forty most popular downloads for 2010. Many of them are consistently popular year to year, such as Peg Duncan’s e-Discovery reading list, limitation periods charts, retainer precedents and various technology articles (such as Essential Smartphone Apps and The best Blackberry tips). Some more popular recent articles include:

• The Sample Budget Spreadsheet continues to grow in popularity, up 20% this year compared to last (in which it had doubled in downloads from 2008). Clearly lawyers are intersted in taking steps to improve their bottom lines.
• There was also obviously a desire for

ACJNet from the Legal Resource Centre Alberta has long been a mainstay for Canadian legal researchers. This resource has now been relaunched as three new portals for the public and those who work with the public:

• LawNet Canada
• LawNet Français
• LawNet Alberta

The press release from the Legal Resource Centre:

LAWNET IS NOW AVAILABLE!

Friday, January 7, 2011

The Legal Resource Centre is pleased to announce the launch of LawNet, three web portals that will help you find the legal-related information you need: LawNet Alberta, LawNet Canada, and LawNet Français.

What can LawNet do for you?

LawNet

It would not be a gross generalisation to say that many in the legal profession in the UK would wince at the idea of young people being taught to use the law as a tool to manage their affairs and claim their rights. Common reactions may well focus on the old adage that “a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing”, or the absurdity of young people needing to know anything about the law. But, in these gloomy economic times when young people’s (particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds) debts spiral, their advice and support services downsized or removed, and . . . [more]

Glen Greenwald on Salon has a thrice-updated story on the U.S. Department of Justice’s attempt to obtain from Twitter as much information as possible about a number of people associated with Wikileaks. On December 14, 2010 a U.S. Magistrate Judge made a sealed order requiring Twitter to divulge:

A. The following customer or subscriber account infomation for each account registered to or associated with Wikilcaks; rop_g; ioerror; birgittaj; Julian Assange; Bradley Manning; Rop Gongrijp; Birgitta Jonsdottir for the time period November l, 2009 to present:
1. subscriber names, user names, screen names, or other identities;
2. mailing addresses, residential addresses,

The debate over legal outsourcing is going mainstream, with a special report in yesterday’s Toronto Star (print copy only; Legal temps fill holes, cut costs).

The article focuses on Toronto-based LexLocom, a joint venture between Warren Bongard of legal recruiter ZSA and Scott Ewart. The services offered range from senior counsel with specialized expertise for specific projects, to low-end document review and due diligence work, and do it for about a third less than traditional firms.

Sue-Lynn Noel of Livingston International explains in the article why she used LexLocom’s services, when the boss of her in-house legal . . . [more]

A hat tip to my good friend and Sooner Jim Calloway for pointing out this helpful ZDNet iGeneration blog post on locking down Facebook.

While privacy as we used to know it is dead – unless you stay off the web (and even that probably doesn’t work anymore because your friends will post information or pictures about you), you can still do things to keep your Facebook page information a bit more private (Note: I didn’t say totally private). The difficulty is that Facebook frequently changes its profile and privacy settings pages, and with all the different pages and . . . [more]

From the Law Library of Congress, a new report: New Zealand: Maori Culture and Intellectual Property Law.

The protection of the traditional cultural expressions of indigenous people from inappropriate use raises issues relating to the differences between standard intellectual property concepts and the “worldview” of such groups.

This report might ring some bells in Canada. The Maoris work to maintain traditional forms while addressing current issues, as in this powerful video. As usual, one of the main troubles is actually cashing the cheque. Perhaps a tipping point is approaching, especially for those with some cultural capital. . . . [more]

While becoming a lawyer was always my career goal, I always felt one downfall to the career path was the lack of the opportunity to travel. As law is very jurisdiction-specific, we rarely have the opportunity to go on “business trips”. This is especially true for solo and small-firm lawyers, however I’ve heard the same is true for those who practice in larger firms. Some lawyers certainly get the chance to appear before international tribunals, however this is clearly unique and not something most lawyers will experience. While those in other professional fields like accounting and consulting will be quick . . . [more]

CALL has undertaken an new educational initiative this year, and the next of its series of webinars is to be held on January 25, 2011 from 1:00 – 2:30. Here are the details:

Go beyond the catalogue! The next generation of Integrated Library Systems (ILS) gives libraries new ways to deliver services, helping to position the library as a strategic information centre. Join Steve Lastres in this exploration of innovative and creative implementations which take the ILS beyond library management and into the realm of Knowledge Management.
Steven Lastres is a well-known speaker and writer on libraries and KM. He . . . [more]

Ahh 2011, brought to you by Canadian Copyright Laws; tablet wars, Facebook fatigue, (anti)social media, what does that cloud look like?, A Space Odyssey (if you read the title slightly incorrectly). Where is tech going to take us? Before we start to look forward I thought we could look back…wayyyyyyy back to what is widely regarded as the first personal computer, the Kenback-1.

Available in 1971 for $750.00 the Kenback-1 ceased production in 1973 as the Kenback Corporation went under. This personal computer did not have “intel inside” (no microprocessor) and had 256 bytes of RAM, it was the . . . [more]

Some people like bees, some people don’t. I’m in the former camp. Don’t know why. I just find them, their industry, colour, smarts, appealing. (Wasps and hornets are another matter: see Wikipedia to learn how to differentiate them from bees.) And of the bees, I’m partial to the big fuzzy bumblebees.

What got me musing about bees in mid-winter was an article in the Guardian recently that talked about an alarming 96% drop in the numbers of four bumblebee species in the U.S. Like their honey bee cousins, Bombus — the genus name means “booming” in Latin — is a . . . [more]

Our firm recently launched a LinkedIn Campaign for Lawyers which encouraged all lawyers to create and maintain a profile on LinkedIn. Hicks Morley has a company profile on LinkedIn that contains the profiles of approximately 80 members. While a company account is beneficial to set up as a way to gain access to these profiles, the real marketing benefit comes from the exposure of individual lawyer profiles.

LinkedIn was chosen as the primary social media marketing tool for the following reasons:

• Business oriented professional online directory 
• Key resource for subject matter experts, referrals & new clients
• Ability to connect with