Slaw is pleased and proud indeed to announce that Kate Simpson has joined Slaw as a columnist in the Legal Technology group.

Kate is a Knowledge Design Consultant who works with law firms from both sides of the Atlantic. With her company Tangledom, Inc., Kate works at the intersection of law, technology and design.

You can follow Kate on Twitter @tangledom.

Please welcome Kate to Slaw . . . [more]

The Canadian Bar Association Futures Initiative holds the first of five FuturesChats today. Each Tuesday in October — today and October 8, 15, 22 and 29 — Slaw blogger Omar Ha-Redeye of Fleet Street Law will moderate a Twitter chat about the future of law in Canada. The conversation is live from 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. ET [5:00-5:30 p.m. CT / 4:00-4:30 p.m. PT etc.].

The topic for today is “the primary objective(s) of legal education.”

To join the conversation log on to Twitter, follow @OmarHaRedeye, and search for the #cbafutureschat hashtag. Or you can use tweetchat.com to become . . . [more]

This article appeared in the September 2013 issue of TitleNews.

Cyber Criminals Steal More Than $1.5 million from California Escrow Company.

California-based Efficient Services Escrow Group was shut down by the state after cyber criminals stole more than $1.5 million from the firm’s trust account and wired the money to China and Russia.

In a petition filed in Orange County Superior Court, the California Department of Corporations (DOC) said the thieves first wired $432,215 to an account in Moscow on Dec 17, 2012. Then, the criminals wired more than $1.1 million on Jan 24 and 30 to a trade . . . [more]

Today I read with interest Toronto law librarian Katie Thomas‘ post on the On Firmer Ground blog, “MOOCs: What’s In it for Law Librarians?“. She does a great job of outlining the availability of MOOCs (massive open online courses) for librarians.

She asks the question, though:

And what of MOOCs for law librarians? I did not find any that were purposely geared to law and librarians. There are courses on environmental law, criminal law, English common law, constitutional law and more. I think Wendy Reynolds raises a good point when she surmises in a comment on SLAW

. . . [more]

PM announces nominee for Supreme Court of Canada
30 September 2013
Ottawa, Ontario

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced the nomination of Mr. Justice Marc Nadon for the Supreme Court of Canada. Mr. Justice Nadon will replace Mr. Justice Morris Fish, who resigned from the Supreme Court of Canada effective August 31, 2013.

“I am pleased to announce the nomination of Mr. Justice Nadon, whose extraordinary body of legal work – as a longtime judge on both the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal; judicial member of the Competition Tribunal; expert in maritime and transportation law with almost . . . [more]

Evernote is a digital notebook application with both desktop and mobile versions, all of which easily synch so that your information is available on any of your devices at any time. Evernote is a cross-platform application, which means that you can use it and information will synch even if you have a Windows desktop, an iPad and an Android phone.

Although many consider Evernote to be a productivity app, it can also be a helpful marketing and business development tool to help lawyers capture marketing and business development ideas, keep track of notes on prospective clients, and develop content, among . . . [more]

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from forty-one 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. Legal Post Blog 2. Social Media for Law Firms 3. Le Blogue du CRL 4. BC Injury Law Blog 5. Entertainment & Media Law Signal

Legal Post Blog
Lawyer speaks out against an antiquated family law system
It is a common refrain among regular Canadians, “I’m not sure I . . . [more]

The Legal Innovators Roundtable, a monthly gathering of the like-minded in downtown Toronto, is a constant source of fresh ideas on the changing face of the legal industry. (If you would like details of meeting times and place I would be happy to provide them.)

Here is an ABA article circulated last week. It profiles Novus Law, a Chicago based legal services company that reviews, manages and analyzes documents for large-scale litigation, now poised to focus on drafting briefs and motions. Interestingly neither founder is a lawyer.

See the long list of legal process outsourcing and litigation support firms at . . . [more]

On September 19, 2013 I attended the Devry Smith Frank LLP Exclusive Human Resources Seminar Series at the Don Valley Hotel & Suites in Toronto. My notes from this session follow.

Religious Accommodation in the Workplace

L. Viet Nguyen discussed the challenge of accommodating religious practice and expression in the workplace. Religion is a fundamental freedom, guaranteed in the Charter, and discrimination on the basis of creed is prohibited by the Ontario Human Rights Code.

Religious accommodation in Canada is governed by a 2-part test from the 2004 SCC case of Amselem v. Syndicat Northcrest:

1. employers are

. . . [more]

One Sunday each month OnPoint Legal Research provides Slaw with an extended summary of, and counsel’s commentary on, an important case from the British Columbia, Alberta, or Ontario court of appeal.

SABOURIN AND SUN GROUP OF COMPANIES v. LAIKEN, 2013 ONCA 530

1. CASE SUMMARY  Areas 0f Law:  Mareva Injunction; Contempt; Principle of Finality ~Civil contempt does not require finding of deliberate intent~

International : Les tribunaux québécois sont compétents relativement à la requête en séparation de corps et en garde d'enfant présentée par la mère après son départ de la Colombie-Britannique et son établissement au Québec.

On August 8, 2013, we wrote about Quebec’s New Rules and Procedures for the province’s Immigration and Skilled Workers Program and the significant changes to the program’s selection criteria. As indicated by the Quebec government, "All applications will be processed according to the new rules in effect as of August 1, 2013, with the exception of those for which processing began prior to that date."