The May 2013 issue of the AALL Spectrum, the monthly publication of the Association of American Law Libraries, is devoted to law library architecture south of the border. Nice pix.

From the presentation:

The 13th annual architecture series features two new buildings and four remodels/renovations from two public law libraries, one law firm, and three academic libraries. Both new buildings aim to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certifications. In Baltimore, the library transitioned from occupying two floors to being spread over six, and in Denver, the new library bridges print and electronic.

In Seattle, the law firm

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I was honoured to be a part of panel discussion at the recent Georgetown Law Center Symposium “The Shrinking Pyramid: Implications for Law Practice the Legal Profession.”

Several thoughts occurred to me while attending this event; one of which I’ll share with you now.

There was some discussion about the fact that lifelong partnership at one firm is a relic of the past; there is a constant merry-go-round of lateral partners moving from firm to firm to firm. We see this in Canada as well. Lateral hires typically move for more money (and sometimes for firm management reasons) but paying . . . [more]

With this entry Slaw goes past an impressive milestone: our bloggers and columnists have given our readers ten thousand posts since Slaw began very nearly eight years ago. In that time we’ve acquired thousands of readers from Canada and around the globe and our complement has grown from half a dozen bloggers to a robust two dozen bloggers and sixty columnists.

This is a good occasion to say thank-you to those of you who now write for Slaw and to the many who have contributed over the years. And thank you especially to you, our readers, who are the reason . . . [more]

Beginning September 2, 2013, foreign nationals applying for Canadian visas from countries such as Haiti, Jamaica, Saudi Arabia, Albania, Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria, Columbia, Burma, Egypt, Yemen and Pakistan, will undergo mandatory fingerprinting and digital photo collection at new visa application centres being established by Canada overseas. Citizenship and Immigration Canada has indicated that the new measures are necessary because of a "rise in global identity fraud" and technological innovations that "make it easy to steal, forge or alter identity documents."

More than 1200 legal marketing professionals gathered in Las Vegas for the industry’s largest conference earlier this month. This where marketers with a shared obsession for business development and client retention, sharpen their skills.

Here are the best nuggets from the sessions I attended:

1. Client focus simply defined: always doing what’s best for the client.
2. Understanding the client’s business means being responsive because you understand (and share) in the urgency, follow client directions and never, ever, undermine general counsel.
3. Business strategy knowledge includes understanding the products, competitors and their geographic market.
4. Law firm client relationships are stickier than first thought

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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.

Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and the Refugee Determination Process
Nicole LaViolette
Paper prepared for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada in support of a presentation made to the Board members. March 2, 2010

[Footnotes omitted. They are available in the PDF of the full paper available via the link on the title.] . . . [more]

Very shortly, at 7 pm ET, a presentation on Orphan Works and Digital Libraries will be live-streamed. The stream will be available at http://tfisher.org/hls1x-copyright.html.

For later viewing, the presentation and discussion will be archived in about a week at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/tfisher/CopyrightX_Events_2013.htm.

The speakers are top-notch: Brewster Kahle, John Palfrey, and Robert Darnton. It seems likely their discussion will be set in the context of the Digital Public Library of America, which launched last week, and with which all are connected. Copyright themes likely will focus on US law.

More information on the DPLA is . . . [more]

In excess of 15% of the population of Manitoba face barriers to their full participation in the activities of daily living, according to recent estimates.  Addressing and removing these barriers is the purpose of Bill 26, Manitoba’s proposed Accessibility for Manitobans Act, introduced in the Legislature today.

This legislation has been in the works for some time. In its November 2010 Discussion Paper for Made in Manitoba Accessibility Legislation the government stated that:

“The proposed legislation will provide for a long-term, systematic and proactive approach to dealing with accessibility issues for seniors and persons with disabilities. With this approach,

. . . [more]

Recently a precedent setting family law case involving a sperm donor claiming to be a parent of a child born to lesbian mothers was settled out of court. Not unlike many non-traditional families the women in this northern Ontario case conceived a child by way of donor sperm, but precedent setting in that the sperm donor applied to the courts to be declared a parent and for liberal access rights to the child.

Settling out of court is great for the parties involved who got to determine the details of their settlement agreement and put an end to long and . . . [more]

Earlier this month, Kirk Makin of the Globe and Mail scooped an announcement of a major set of Reports on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters, an inititaitive that started with the Chief Justice’s challenge to the Canadian Bar Association last summer.

The four Reports from Working Groups chaired by Justice Thomas Cromwell were officially released this morning:
Backgrounder
Report of the Court Processes Simplification Working Group
Report of the Access to Legal Services Working Group
Report of the Prevention, Triage and Referral Working Group
Report of the Family Justice Working Group

And a background literature review: Family . . . [more]

We are always naming things – businesses, brands, trade-marks, domain names, and children. But what makes a good or valuable name? Naming anything can be a personal or emotional thing – but it is part science.

Take a brand name or trade-mark, for example. The first choice of many for their business or product name is one that describes their business or product. But that does nothing to distinguish that business or product from the competition. Much better to have one that is unique and memorable, rather than descriptive.

Over the past decade it has become more important to adopt . . . [more]

Slaw has just received word that the national Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters has placed four working group reports online. The Committee, established by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Beverley McLachlin, and chaired by Supreme Court Justice Thomas Cromwell, was, in the words of the Backgrounder, also online, “convened to address the urgent and multiple issues surrounding access to justice in civil and family matters.”

The four reports made available are:

• Report of the Court Processes Simplification Working Group (29 pp.)
• Report of the Access to Legal Services Working Group (30

. . . [more]