Knowledge@Warton has a great recap of a discussion from the 2010 Supernova forum. At issue is the evolution of social networking tools, and how they compare with corporate KM efforts. It’s an interesting discussion with a diverse range of opinions. If you’re currently involved in a KM program, or a law librarian seeking new ways to add value to your firm, I would encourage you to read this piece in its entirety.

One issue in particular that caught my eye was the contrast between ‘keeping it fun’ and maintaining value. Here’s a snippet:

While there are virtues to being able

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Law is a vocation where every word counts; each word has a meaning. However, in almost all correspondence with lawyers, the words “without prejudice” or “confidential and legally privileged” are present. With the ever-growing use of email, it has become standard to include a confidentiality notice at the end of your message, just below the signature. Do we really know the meaning of the words we use though?

“Without prejudice” has been used by British courts for over 100 years. According to an article by Ronald D. Manes, Solicitor/Client Privilege, it originates from the solicitor-and-client privilege which was “established by . . . [more]

A lawsuit launched to enjoin foreign law firms from practising law in India is lurching ahead in Chennai. Originally begun in March, the suit names 30 international law firms and one LPO as respondents. According to Legally India, the court has just ruled that the respondents will now be served and must defend against the suit.

The individual plaintiff, a lawyer, rests his case on the Advocates Act, 1961, which governs who may practice law. According to his petition (available here in PDF via Legally India), only Indian citizens may practice law in India, though foreigners may be admitted . . . [more]

The Prime Minister has announced that the next Governor-General, who will replace HE Michaelle Jean on Oct. 1, 2010, is David Johnston.

Johnston has two LL.B. degrees, one from Cambridge (1965) and another from Queen’s (1966). He is currently the President of the University of Waterloo. In 1997, he was appointed a companion of the Order of Canada.

But one of the more interesting points of his career is when he served as the Dean of the law school at the University of Western Ontario, my alma mater, between 1974-1979. In an e-mail to our law school community the . . . [more]

The Supreme Court of Canada today granted leave to hear the appeal of Van Breda v. Village Resorts Limited, 2010 ONCA 84, a decision I blogged on earlier here.

One hopes the Court will take the opportunity to clarify when a court should take personal jurisdiction over out-of-province defendants since, despite a clear intention to clarify or update the law by the Ontario Court of Appeal, I am not convinced they did as much.

A search here on my custom Google search of Canadian law firms, blogs and journal sites shows a fair bit of chatter over this . . . [more]

On Tuesday July 6, I heard that the United States government filed a lawsuit against the State of Arizona over the immigration law, arguing that it is meant to supersede the federal government's authority under the US Constitution to regulate immigration.

Activity in the LPO space is increasing. Wipro is the latest company to provide legal process outsourcing services to Microsoft. For those who haven’t heard of Wipro, let me enlighten you. Wipro is a $5.7 billion revenue IT and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) organization with a presence in over 50 countries. What’s an IT/BPO giant like Wipro doing in the LPO space you might ask? It’s a good question. But if I were to guess, one has to think that they see the opportunity to service the growing demand for low cost, quality legal services. Wipro are reportedly planning to . . . [more]

Its halfway through 2010, and we’ve compiled the top 40 most downloaded practicePRO articles and resources. Many of the perenial favourites at still there, including many of our retainer precedents, budget spreadsheet, the ILA checklist, Peg Duncan’s ediscovery reading list and avoiding the dangers of metadata article).

There are some interesting new entries at the top though:

• We’re glad to see the our fraud information is being read, including the collaborative family law scam alert and the article on sophisticated new cheque frauds.
• There seems to be a craving for articles on smartphones! Essential

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I see from Carswell’s online catalogue that a new 7th edition of the the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (the “McGill Guide”) is due out on July 19, 2010.

There are separate records for what appears to be a softcover version ($50) or a hardcover version ($93) with no immediate indication of there being an online option.

I have long been critical of parts of the McGill Guide so it will be interesting to see what is new in the 7th edition.

I found with the 6th edition there were no good examples of citing to the Canadian Encyclopedic . . . [more]

Although I was going to blog at some point on using the iPad for legal work (e.g., including the useful tip to use the “two finger swipe technique” to properly scroll pages when using the Safari browser on iPad when searching Westlaw or Lexis – see video here for the technique, which works), the reality is that the iPad has been for me an entertainment device.

While I was successfully able to use the iPad in place of a laptop on a recent 1-week business/pleasure trip (with the business-side of things largely being checking email, taking notes and doing some . . . [more]

The electronic format of the Ontario Reports is the worst of both the print and electronic worlds; it is dreadful. I cannot read the “two-page” format as the print is too small and, if I go to the single-page format with the type at a size I can actually read, I can’t go from the bottom of one page to the top of the next. My effort to contact the electronic publisher, not LexisNexis, to get its help was ignored.

As I have mentioned before on Slaw, we now desperately need some real effort to be made to deal with . . . [more]

The Law Society of BC has issued a Notice to Profession asking for comments on a proposed model Anton Piller order. A copy of their draft proposed 19-page model order is here in PDF (and I hope to review it shortly).

As stated in their draft documentation:

This Model Order is prepared in response to comments of the Supreme Court of Canada in Canadian Bearings Ltd. et al. v. Celanese Canada Inc. et al, 2006 SCC 36, which endorsed the development of model civil search and seizure Orders (a.k.a “Anton Piller” Orders) in Canadian jurisdictions. This draft is intended

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