A couple of months ago, I wrote about recent animal rights jurisprudence in which plaintiffs instituted actions as owners of animals, to enforce rights under existing laws. Although those cases did involve a certain consideration of the animal’s best interests, the premise nonetheless remained that the animals were property or chattels, as opposed to sentient or rights bearing living things (Nakhuda v. Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary, 2013 ONSC 5761; Reece v. City of Edmonton, 2011 ABCA 238). In recent years, animal rights and environmental groups have also sought public interest standing to bring suit as citizens . . . [more]

This is Mental Health Week in Canada. Partners in Mental Health, a national charitable organization that was borne from the Mental Health Commission of Canada, are running a campaign called Not Myself Today. They are focussing on building mentally healthy workplaces and are inviting organizations to participate to support areas of awareness, education and public engagement campaigns. A number of prominent companies have already signed on.

Why is this important? According to information from the Canadian Medical Association, only 23% of employees said they would discuss their mental health with employers. 44% of employees say they . . . [more]

What is the purpose of retirement? Some say it is to stop doing what you have to do and then start doing what you want to do.

But what if you are now doing what you want to do? Those lucky people say that retirement has no attraction for them because they are already doing what they want to do. Some say they love their job.

Apparently more and more people are continuing to work rather than retire. The American Association of Retired Persons reports that in the 65 to 69 age group, that 32% were still working in 2013 . . . [more]

Interest is returning to the potential of expert systems or knowledge-based systems in law. This is in part due to the increased capabilities of machines at a time when the business of law is undergoing dramatic change. It comes with the obligatory “us vs them” talk of lawyers work being taken over by machines that learn. While I have always found the binary thinking of computers attractive compared to some legal reasoning, in this case, an either/or approach is too blinkered.

Hence, I recently tweeted rather cryptically for the sake of brevity: Tools, like lawyers, imperfect alone, hence need each . . . [more]

Here are excerpts from the most recent tips on SlawTips, the site that each week offers up useful advice, short and to the point, on technology, research and practice.

Technology

Send Personalized Connection Invites for Better Uptake on Your LinkedIn Connection Requests
Dan Pinnington

I’m just back from an ABA conference and am following up with some of the people I met. That might mean a phone call or an email with a link to an article, and in some cases, it means sending a LinkedIn connection request.. . . .

Research

Read a Textbook
Shaunna Mireau

I have . . . [more]

Justice Vallee has authorized the return of the sale proceeds of the former Molson Brewery Grow-Op, which total just north of $4 million, to the property’s owner.

The Attorney General of Ontario had been attempting to have the sale proceeds preserved pending a future forfeiture hearing on a number of grounds, including that the property was the proceeds of an unlawful activity and was used as an instrument of unlawful activity.

The court agreed that the property was used as an instrument of unlawful activity. However, given that the owner of the property had no involvement, or knowledge, of . . . [more]

This article is by Nora Rock, corporate writer and policy analyst at LAWPRO

Consulting with more experienced colleagues to confirm that you’re on the right track in resolving a problem is natural and commendable in any profession. Working in isolation is inefficient, and leads to preventable errors. Without access to information about others’ experience, we’re forced to make our own mistakes. For this reason, sole practitioners are routinely encouraged to seek out mentors and advisers from among the broader bar.

But what if every time a colleague outside your firm asked for your opinion on a legal issue, you became . . . [more]

The second annual FutureLaw Conference took place last Friday at Stanford University. Hosted by Codex – Stanford Center for Legal Informatics this was a conference “focusing on how technology is changing the landscape of the legal profession and the law more broadly.”

Judging by the comments in the storified #FutureLaw Twitter stream it looks like it was a very interesting and successful event. It was also live streamed and the day’s videos will be made available soon for those of us unable to attend.

Richard Susskind opened the proceedings with a talk entitled, “The Future of Lawyers: From Denial . . . [more]

Greg Lambert, prominent law blogger and Director of Library & Research Services at Jackson Walker LLP will be one of our plenary speakers at the upcoming CALL/ACBD conference. His topic is “Three Foot Radius of the Law Library” so I was curious what he has said recently about the law library on 3 Geeks and a Law Blog.

I was most interested to read his thoughtful post “So, What is Wrong with Law Firm Libraries Today?” from April 15th. It is in direct response to a provocative tweet put out by Patrick DiDomenico saying . . . [more]

Branding is an often misconstrued word. Yes, it refers to the visual expression of your firm – the logo, colour palette and images. But more importantly it refers to an idea, a unique message that is capable of resonating with your target audience. It’s about understanding what makes your firm distinctive and how you can look and sound appealing to your audience in an authentic way. This marketing jargon may sound all well and good but you should still ask – what makes a great Canadian Law Firm brand?

The great Canadian Law Firm Brands

Recently, Acritas, a UK based . . . [more]

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from sixty recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Canadian Securities Law 2. Avoid a Claim 3. ABlawg.ca 4. University of Alberta Faculty of Law Blog 5. Double Aspect

Canadian Securities Law
CSA publish guidance on implementing OBSI dispute resolution mechanism
The Canadian Securities Administrators today released guidance to assist registered dealers and advisers outside Quebec, which are . . . [more]

I’ve written extensively about the need for diversity in the legal profession, and for legal education to be more innovative and accessible. I haven’t touched on as much on one of the key missing pieces in legal education, which is the diversity of those providing the education to begin with.

Of course diversity in academia should be promoted for all the reasons we advocate for it to occur in the private sector – better creativity, more productivity, improved returns, and of course, the moral imperative to do so.

Part of this moral imperative includes the recognition that law school . . . [more]