MWP. My colleague and her team have started using this acronym to help sort the projects that come to them. MWP stands for make work project. MWPs are the bane of busy people and groups and when analyzed will necessarily fall to the bottom of a pile. A caution though, one person’s MWP may be viewed as a necessary rush by someone else.

Whether you are working in a service department inside of an organization or you are taking in work from clients, some tasks are simply MWPs. From the library side of legal work, some theoretical MWP examples: extra . . . [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

iPad Obliterate: A Tech Tale of Disaster (And How a Backup Can Avoid Heartache)
Dan Pinnington

Lance Ulanoff did an op-ed post titled “iPad Obliterate: A Tech Tale of Disaster” on Mashable last week. In the post he relates his personal story of how he lost all the data on his iPad. His post should be required reading for anyone with a mobile device as there are some very . . . [more]

A lot of government decision-making makes people who care about the environment want to tear out their hair. Sometimes they go further and sue. Does it help?

Suing the government can certainly draw attention to a decision. Sometimes, the subsequent negotiations can lead to a better result. Very occasionally, Canadian courts actually do force a government to to do a better job on an environmental matter. For example, they have required the federal government to actually come up with a plan for protecting an endangered species, as the Species at Risk Act specifically requires them to do. And in Oldman . . . [more]

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

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