A rogue and disgruntled associate in a large Canadian law firm had a bone to pick with a few of its partners. Rather than pull in one of those discrete committees that operates just under the surface of every large firm and deals with sensitive internal matters, this associate opted for an office-wide diatribe sent via e-mail from his home. 

The scandalous statements created shockwaves and went through the local legal community like a missile. Inside 24 hours the first media outlet called the firm and the associate for interviews, with many more to follow, including national print media. Then, . . . [more]

An article in last Monday’s edition of The New York Times called “A Sign of the Court’s Polarization: Choice of Clerks” described the increasing tendency for U.S. Supreme Court judges to hire clerks of like-minded political ideology. For example, each and every clerk hired by Clarence Thomas over the past 20 years – all 84 of them – first trained with an appeals court judge appointed by a Republican president. The article then quotes Professor Garrow of Cambridge University who says that “we have created an institutional situation where 26-year-olds are being given humongous legal authority in the . . . [more]

♫ Doin’ it right, doin’ it right, doin’ it right, doin’ it right..♫

Lyrics and Music by: Tom Lavin, recorded by The Powder Blues Band.

Donna Seale (Human Rights in the Workplace) human rights lawyer and educator, has launched her newly redone blog: http://donnaseale.ca/

Doug Jasinski of Skunkworks Creative Group Inc. shares the credit with Donna for the creative input and design.

Donna is a great example of how the power of web 2.0 combined with the Interjurisdictional Practice Protocol can lever a lawyer into a prominent and successful national practice – even from small town Manitoba!

Great . . . [more]

One letter away from the good life in America. Attaboy, Google.

The flip side of copyright is the public domain, of course. It’s by far the larger field, though you wouldn’t know it from the attention we lawyers pay to the rights side of the coin. But because copyright is time-limited, that smaller field of rights is the one that trails most closely behind us, is nearest to us; and so the works under copyright are those we are more aware of and those more closely pertaining to the issues of the day: if copyright originated on our yesterday, the public domain is what we find when we look back to . . . [more]

Does censoring sex ads help or hurt the victims?

There is a lot written about what people post about themselves on social media, and whether or not that is a good thing. New location based services such as foursquare ramp up that controversy. Letting others know where you are might have social advantages, and has the potential for interesting and useful services based on where you are at the moment.

But looming in the background are the dangers of that personal transparency. Letting apps or friends know where you are is one thing – but how much of that detail do you really want the world to know?  . . . [more]

The highest of distinctions is service to others.

— King George VI

I’ve been fortunate to have been presented with a number of opportunities to volunteer and provide support to many worthwhile organizations and causes since I started practicing as a lawyer while I’ve actually never stopped to consider why I volunteer until now. When I did pause to contemplate my motivation I realized a number of things. My volunteer activities have ranged from volunteering at a music festival, and acting as a moot court judge for a law school, to being on the board of various volunteer organizations such . . . [more]

I’ve just returned from a couple of weeks in Halifax. But for Earl – which was downright scary – the sunshine and surf were A+. If I didn’t know that Nova Scotia has a six week window of post-fog/pre-cold pleasant weather in a year I’d suggest we start calling the place “Halifornia.” I love it there, but not for the weather.

As usual for us, Seanna and the kids flew and I drove back solo with Buffalo the cat. With tear-inducing traffic in Montreal it took 19 hours, which left lots of time for podcasts. Here’s a list of some . . . [more]

Many Ontarians cannot afford a lawyer. Chief Justice Winkler said that “an expanding group of Ontarians are finding that the system is often too expensive, too complicated and too slow in assisting them with their legal problems.” Chief Justice McLachlin has said the options for “average middle-class Canadians,” ineligible for legal aid, are “grim.”

In response to this, one initiative has involved the appointment of amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) in mental health appeals and family law disputes. In a decision called Bhajan v. Ontario (Children’s Lawyer), the Ontario Court of Appeal recently described . . . [more]

In Friday’s episode of Law Librarian Conversations podcast, we talked with two social media-savvy third year law school students to get a dose of reality on what they think about social networking, online communication, legal research and practice skills. Our guests were Laura Bergus from Iowa who runs a legal podcast called Legal Geekery and writes for Lawyerist.com and Huma Rashid from Chicago’s John Marshall Law School, who runs a personal blog called The Reasonably Prudent Law Student where she offers budget fashion tips and thoughts on being a law student. Both Laura and Huma participate in the Social . . . [more]

The wonderful folks at AustLII, that powerhouse in the legal information institute movement, have just launched their International Law Library on WorldLII. From the press release [PDF]:

The International Law Library contains over 80,000 searchable documents for free access. This includes over 25,000 decisions of International Courts and Tribunals, over 30,000 treaties and international agreements (including the League of Nations and UN Treaty Series), international law journals and law reform materials. These materials cannot be jointly searched elsewhere on the Internet. AustLII’s LawCite citator tracks where international cases, treaties and law journal articles have been cited.

(A cavil: . . . [more]