As we’ve recently seen here on Slaw, getting governments to cough up information can be a difficult proposition. But there’s some help for folks in Nova Scotia. The Right to Know Coalition is:

… a non-profit organization. Through advocacy and education, RTKNS encourages the use and development of freedom-of-information legislation to foster a better informed and more politically active electorate in Nova Scotia and to improve the quality of public and private decision making in the province.

RTKNS has been around for years but has somehow slipped under my radar and eluded Slaw’s attention. Our apologies for that.

The . . . [more]

My good friend Jim Calloway, practice management advisor for the Oklahoma State Bar Association, just added a fantastic post on his Law Practice Tips Blog.

Jim’s post, One Firm’s View of Client Expectations is about a South Carolina law firm that has decided to use its web site to make certain their potential clients have clear and realistic expectations about the firm before they even schedule an appointment. Check out the Client Expectations (Realistic or Unrealistic) section of their web page.

This page has statements I have never seen on a law firm’s website before: “We do not work . . . [more]

The International Competition Network (ICN) is a group concerned to encourage competition-friendly policy changes in member nations. Canada’s Competition Bureau is a member.

Founded in 2001, the ICN

…provides competition authorities with a specialized yet informal venue for maintaining regular contacts and addressing practical competition concerns. This allows for a dynamic dialogue that serves to build consensus and convergence towards sound competition policy principles across the global antitrust community.

Unlike the G8 and some other more shadowy international groups, the ICN has a secretariat, and thus presumable also collects and maintains files of its own creation. The website . . . [more]

First Member of Atlantic Canada's Mi’kmaq Community to be Appointed Judge

We southerners are rarely able to see the stars, let alone the true spectacle of the heavens, the aurora borealis. But never fear: the internet to the rescue. The Canadian Space Agency maintains the AuroraMax Project, which features a web cam pointed at the Yellowknife sky — after dusk, natch. So the insomniacs among us can watch live as the northern lights play up in the ionosphere.

Now, Yellowknife is currently on Mountain Daylight Time, 6 hours off GMT, with sunset at around 7:20 p.m. local time. If you’re not prepared to stay up to catch the best of . . . [more]

In conjunction with the release of his latest autobiography, The Fry Chronicles, Stephen Fry has produced a rather unique interactive iPhone app titled myFry. What really catches your attention about it is the app’s navigation system:

When I first saw it, I was immediately struck by its beauty. Its functionality, however, remained something of a mystery to me. The designer of the app, Stefanie Posavec, writes:

The app functions as a ‘visual index’ of key theme tags within the book, which have been divided into 4 major groups: People, Subjects, Emotions, and Fryisms (metaphors, similes, word play,

. . . [more]

Legal Project Management has certainly become flavour of the month. I will be co-chairing a full one-day conference on the topic (on November 1^st, 2010 in Toronto). This is the first Canadian event of its kind and the fact that the conference is organized by the Canadian Bar Association and has both law firm and in-house counsel speakers suggests that the idea of applying project management principles to legal services has broad support and interest across the profession.

But while the topic resonates for many lawyers (with its prospect for increased budgetary certainty and potentially better outcomes), my experience . . . [more]

The fall 2010 session of the Supreme Court of Canada began earlier this week.

Not everyone knows that electronic facta filed by the parties in cases before the Supreme Court of Canada are available on the Court’s website. This has been so for cases filed since February 2009.

For example, if you want to find out about the arguments of the parties in upcoming hearings of the fall season, you only need to click on the style of cause (party name) link for a particular case.

For example, today, the Court heard an appeal in the case of Information . . . [more]

On Monday, November 15, 2010 from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM EST, I am presenting a teleseminar along with Hermie Abraham of Abraham Law, David Anber of David Anber’s Law Office and Phil Brown of the Law Society of Upper Canada, Prof Development & Competence on:

* Choosing the right technology to stay connected
* Collaborating with clients on the Web
* Addressing all considerations before going virtual
* Finding the simplest tools to make it work seamlessly
* Upholding confidentiality in the virtual office

Link to program page: http://ecom.lsuc.on.ca/cpd/product.jsp?id=CLE10-0110301
Link to printable program brochure: http://ecom.lsuc.on.ca/cpd/flyer.jsp?id=CLE10-0110301

Please join us! . . . [more]

In Friends of the Earth – Les Ami(e)s de la Terre v. Canada (Governor in Council) 2009 FCA 297 [leave to appeal dismissed 2010 CanLII 14720 (S.C.C.)] , the Federal Court of Appeal let the Canadian government get away with open defiance of a statute of the Parliament of Canada,the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, 2007 (KPIA).

According to the federal government, its defiance is no business of the courts, because the obligations in the KPIA are “not justiciable”. The Federal Court of Appeal agreed, but with the thinnest of justifications.

This country signed and ratified an international convention on the . . . [more]

My experience in private practice – and from my conversations with other sole practitioners in smaller markets, it was a common one – was that it was, at times, a roller-coaster. Billings were often feast or famine. To compensate, lawyers can develop a thick skin when it comes to dealing with difficult clients. Our tolerance level went up just for the sake of regular billings.

Another experience that I occasionally enjoyed – and again, from my conversations with other sole practitioners in smaller markets, it was a not uncommon one – was that it was good to terminate the relationship . . . [more]

The days when law students lament over whether they should “blog” are surely over when the Dean of Law has their own blog.

Lorne Sossin, Dean of Osgoode Hall, has just launched Dean Sossin’s Blog, where he “can draw your attention to topics that affect Osgoode, our students and the broader legal and academic community.” The sole post is from Monday, and provides a response to Maclean’s always contentious 2010 law school rankings.

It’s not off to a bad start, although there could be greater use of the hyperlinking function. There also appears to be a significant . . . [more]