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

. . . [more]

A year ago, when the Libel Reform Campaign was launched only the Liberal Democrats strongly endorsed the need for change.

Now the Rt. Hon. Nick Clegg, as Deputy Prime Minister will announce a major reform project on Friday, which we’ll link to as soon as it is released. . . . [more]

I had an interesting App experience this morning. While using The Weather Network’s iPad Application, my device crashed. Hard. It locked up so completely that my attempts to hard boot the device with a forced power-cycle didn’t work. Ten minutes later, the OS did finally auto-reboot on its own; but during that time, I seriously considered that my battery was going to have to run out before I would be able to regain access.

The experience was a gentle reminder to a long standing issue for me. That the web, as a working environment, is so incredibly rock solid; and . . . [more]

Ooh, the App Store is here!

For those of you who use Macs at home or (less and less rarely) at the firm, this is Apple’s new venture in vertical integration of the computer experience and world domination. Just as the iTunes Store sells products for iPads, iPhones and iPods, so this Mac application will front end the sale of a thousand apps (as of opening) with more to come.

Whatever else it turns out to be, it’ll be a boon for the small app developer who has had a hard time getting our attention up till now.

For what . . . [more]

I recently read that the publisher of Mark Twain’s books Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer will release a new combined edition of the books that will replace the word “nigger” with the word “slave” in an effort not to offend readers. The new versions without the “N” word are scheduled to be published in February 2010.