From the Crime Writers of Canada, a list of summer titles for 2010’s backyard hammock days. . . . [more]

One of the most complicated things to address as part of a long term outsourcing is the implications of change. Gartner Group recognized this when it released the results of a survey in which it found:

• 55% of enterprises have renegotiated their outsourcing agreement terms within the lifetime of the contract;
• 15% of such renegotiations occurred within the first 12 months;
• only 23% of enterprises did not expect to enter into renegotiations; and
• nearly 8 in 10 outsourcings will go through renegotiations at some stage.

According to Gartner’s survey, one of the biggest issues leading to contract renegotiation was a . . . [more]

I live in a one television household. One television supplied with data via satellite dish, 3 cell phones, 3 laptops, a desktop, an iPad, 3 iPods with screens and the best piece of tech – a long play record player that has a USB port. We don’t watch a lot of television, but for a family of four, we do consume our fair share of internet bandwidth.

There is plenty of news lately about internet delivered television. Google TV, Apple TV, and way back in 2005, PC World talked about Microsoft’s Internet TV, today’s version being Microsoft Mediaroom . . . [more]

♫ Dance Dance wherever you may be
I am the lord of the dance said he
And I lead you all wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance said he…♫

Lyrics by: Sydney Carter, music by: Elder Joseph Brackett, “Lord of the Dance“.

Effective July 1, 2010 Multi-Disciplinary Partnerships (“MDP’s”) are allowed by the Law Society of British Columbia. Law Society Rules 2-23.1 and following govern the establishments of MDP’s in the Province of BC.

This is a big change for law firms in BC. For one 2-23.1 (1) states:

“member of

. . . [more]

On July 28, 2010, US District Judge Susan Bolton said the US administration “is likely to succeed” in its argument and issued a preliminary injunction suspending the implementation of several key provisions of Arizona’s immigration law that were to come into force July 29, 2010.

The Google Scholar Blog has pulled up a metric dozen “entertaining legal opinions” for our amusement — and, presumably, to remind everyone that Scholar makes many U.S. judgments available free. For example, there’s a reference to US v. Syufy Enterprises 903 F. 2d 659 (1990) which is said to contain the names of over 200 movies smuggled into the ordinary text.

(The blog helpfully provides a link to an article that marks up the titles in the judgment for you. Me, I think it’s interesting that in Syufy one of the judges is named Quackenbush, because that’s the . . . [more]

The Goals of Private Law
Edited by Andrew Robertson & Tang Hang Wu
published by Hart Publishing, Oxford & Portland, Oregon, 2009
price: £85.00
ISBN: 9781841139098

“ What modern British and Canadian legal philosophy regarding private law is up to right now; its personalities, theories, ideas and sources.”

This book is a collection of twenty papers originally presented at a conference held at the National University of Singapore in 2008. The authors are principally British and Canadian with two from the United States (one of whom used to teach at a Canadian law school), two from Singapore, two from . . . [more]

(or, how I used the G20 to my advantage)

The G20 was probably the biggest news story in Canada for at least a couple of days in June, and certainly for a longer period in Toronto. The preparations by the organizers of the summit were echoed by those of us living and working in the downtown. As we drew closer to the arrival of the world’s leaders, it became increasingly clear that Business As Usual was not an option. The clear message from the organizers was to stay clear of the downtown core if you possibly could. Hatches were battened, . . . [more]

To market successfully, you need to speak the language of your target audience. To do that, you first need to identify who you’re targeting. Many lawyers make the mistake of trying to target too broad an audience. The result is a watered down message that doesn’t really speak to anyone.

The first step in creating a marketing strategy is to explore your current client base and identify the clients with whom you work best and bring the most value to your firm. Next, you’ll identify those clients with whom you do not enjoy working, and ascertain the characteristics of ‘undesirable’ . . . [more]

Norwegian lawyer Fredrik Heffermehl, who holds an LLM from NYU, argued in his book, Nobels vilje published in 2008, that half the awards of the Peace Prize have not conformed to Alfred Nobel’s 1895 testamentary intentions. Now his book is about to be published in translation as The Nobel Peace Prize: What Nobel Really Wanted and the issue is being mooted in the English-speaking press.

Heffermehl’s interpretation is that “Nobel did not establish a prize for ‘peace’ in whatever guise, but a prize for work for peace in certain ways and certain fields” [emphasis in the original]; . . . [more]

There has been much written on Slaw and other places about the paperless office, or the virtual office. 

My personal view is that for the most part, we either already have the tools to accomplish it, or if we don’t have them, they can be acquired at low cost. The barrier is mostly our will to do it. Some people don’t see the need, or have a hard time giving up paper, or just find it hard to change.

Technolawyer points to an article that’s worth a read by New York lawyer Jay Fleishman entitled Being a Virtual Lawyer is . . . [more]

About a month ago, I gave up my private practice to accept a position as in-house counsel. It posed an interesting challenge, both logistically and professionally. Logistically in the sense that I now had an office full of furniture, files, equipment and knick-knacks that had to be either dispersed or stored, and professionally in that my new employer’s industry (mining services) was almost completely foreign to me. 

It turns out that both the logistic and professional challenges are proving a bit easier to manage than I had initially thought (which is certainly a relief). However, some new issues are arising . . . [more]