A number of Australian library associations including the Australian Law Library Association released a study earlier this month that highlights the big 5-to-1 bang for the buck from resources invested in government, law firm and organizational libraries.

In fact, every one dollar investment in special libraries such as law firm libraries brings 5.43 dollars in return to their organization, according to the study commissioned by the associations.

From the press release:

“ALIA [Australian Library and Information Association] Executive Director Sue McKerracher said, ‘Working in the library and information sector, we all recognise the value of special libraries. What

Each Thursday we present a significant excerpt, usually from a recently published book or journal article. In every case the proper permissions have been obtained. If you are a publisher who would like to participate in this feature, please let us know via the site’s contact form.

Royal Succession and the Canadian Crown as a Corporation Sole: A Critique of Canada’s Succession to the Throne Act, 2013
Philippe Lagassé and James W.J. Bowden
Constitutional Forum constitutionnel Volume 23, Number 1, 2014

(Excerpt: pp. 19, 20)

I. The Canadian Crown as Corporation Sole

. . . .

Perpetuity and seamless succession, . . . [more]

This article provides more details on the following comment that I posted (April 10^th) to Dan Pinnington’s article of April 8^th, “Ontario Judge Strongly Pushes for Greater Use of Technology in Courts and Orders E-Trial”:

My Comment, excerpted:
Make the preparation work of a lawyer making production comparable to that of an accountant. The client doesn’t give the accountant 100,000+ records and say, ‘here, you make up our financial records and then do the audit.’ The litigation lawyer should be able to work the same way, by combining the searching and reviewing into

This year, as we have done for a few years in the past, Slaw will each day in the coming week host a number of student essays written for Professor Adam Dodek’s first year course in Legal Ethics at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Common Law. As Professor Dodek has said here before:

I have found that our students have great perspectives on these issues because they were so recently members of that ridiculous term that only lawyers use: “lay people”. While law school is certainly a socialization process for the legal profession, law students have not been fully

A few months ago, a subscriber to John Gregory’s listserv (which every IT law enthusiast should subscribe to) sent a message regarding how the impact of IT on the legal profession was being taught (or rather wasn’t being taught) in Universities across the country.

Of course, that very question has preoccupied lawyers and legal scholars alike for two decades with regard to IT law, i.e. whether it should be treated as a subject in and of itself (in which case it usually isn’t a mandatory class, meaning that students can go through law school without hearing the word “Internet” . . . [more]

À Québec aujourd’hui et demain, au Château Laurier, a lieu le 22e Congrès annuel des conseillers en accès à l’information et en protection de la vie privée (programme). Me Chantal Bernier, Commissaire par intérim à la vie privée du Canada, a offert une excellente allocution d’ouverture ce matin. À retenir: le Commissaire à la protection de la vie privée (CPVP) du Canada aura bientôt des dents pas mal plus longues. . . . [more]

Have you developed a new and better way to serve your clients, a breakthrough way to find new business, or a truly innovative way to value and sell your services? If so, you deserve recognition from your legal industry peers, colleagues and clients. Presented by the College of Law Practice Management, the InnovAction Awards recognize lawyers, law firms, and other legal service providers engaged in extraordinary, game-changing, innovative activities. Apply today to share your breakthrough and to earn the recognition you deserve. Applications and more information are available at www.innovactionaward.com

Past winners are listed here. . . . [more]

Access to justice is an ongoing problem across Canada and the call is out for lawyers to contribute to the solution.

Late last fall, the Canadian Bar Association’s Task Force on Access to Justice issued a final report, Envisioning Equal Justice. The Task Force set targets to bridge the growing gap between those who can afford legal services and those who are eligible for publically funded legal services (i.e. legal aid). One of those targets is that by 2020, all lawyers will volunteer legal services at some point in their career.

Around the same time, the Action Committee on . . . [more]

CASL – the new Canadian anti-spam act – comes into force July 1. It contains extensive, complex provisions that apply to the sending of any email that has a hint of a commercial purpose (a “CEM”). In the short term it may increase the amount of email we get. We have all received emails from mail lists we are on asking us to confirm our consent. But there is another reason we may get more. The reason goes like this:

CASL requires express or implied consent from the recipient before a CEM can be sent.

The act contains a . . . [more]

Each Wednesday we tell you which three English-language cases and which French-language case have been the most viewed* on CanLII and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about.

For this last week:

1. Bank of Montreal v Faibish 2014 ONSC 2178
   

   [2] Let me express my profound frustration as a judge who has tried to encourage both counsel and fellow judges to make greater use of modern information technologies in our Court. Those who make up the public court system – be they the judges adjudicating the cases or the counsel pleading them – provide a

Sandra asked the team of legal support staff she manages what would contribute to their motivation at work. They all told her “appreciation – being thanked when we do a good job.”

Mark , a young associate, is unhappy at his firm. One of the things bothering him about the culture is the lack of appreciation for people’s efforts.

Chelsea and her close colleagues laugh at themselves for being foolish: after all their years of practice they still hanker after an appreciative word from their partners for taking on some of the essential but non-billable work critical to the firm’s . . . [more]

I’ve been following the career of singer, songwriter, producer and entrepreneur extraordinaire Pharrell Williams for a while. Sometimes I’ll take a break from my work, find a video of people around the world dancing to his hit “Happy” and feel instantly energized (if not verklempt). And then I go back to my desk, review some of the latest online legal media and wonder where all the misery is coming from.

Are there any happy lawyers or legal professionals to be found online? Maybe social media isn’t the place for expressing career satisfaction. Maybe blogs are a place for giving advice, . . . [more]