When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability… To be alive is to be vulnerable.

– Madeleine L’Engle

The release of Canada’s national mental health strategy Changing Directions, Changing Lives last year served as a reminder that we are all, even lawyers, vulnerable to the effects of mental illness.

In today’s knowledge based workforce, the effects of mental illness are felt not only by individuals and their families, but also the economy. The impacts of mental illness may be further compounded . . . [more]

I closed December’s article by writing: Another important thing about managing projects [is] you have to be there. Projects don’t manage themselves. As Woody Allen said, “90% of life is just showing up.”

But what does “showing up” as a project manager mean?

Three facets of showing up bear examining. The three related to each other, but although there is overlap, each has key characteristics worth understanding separately.

Presence

Consider the lawyer/project manager who spends most of his time in his office, sending emails to the team from time to time. When he does walk around, the team feels just . . . [more]

Over the last few years the physical footprint of law firm libraries has been decreasing. Reasons for this include the ever-increasing price of real estate and the availability (both real and perceived) of legal materials online. Some library users rarely or never set foot in the library; this may be because they work in a different office, they work from home, or simply that they prefer to be able to access library services electronically.

In some cases, the decrease in square footage has been library-driven; if the library manager sees that the library does not need all the space it . . . [more]

A wag once said that the Yiddish word Chutzpah has been defined as the quality of a person who is accused of killing his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the Court because he is an orphan. The Crown’s chutzpah runs throughout the entire line of post-1982 Aboriginal rights cases from Guerin to the most recent decision, Manitoba Métis Federation Inc. v. Canada (AG) 2013 SCC 14 (MMF), decided Friday, March 8, 2013. (This is the most succinct and least scholarly statement of the thesis that I have been in the throes of finishing for the last while.) In every ground breaking decision the Crown makes arguments that the Court points out are singularly lacking in merit and that display a serious disregard for the Crown’s, its obligation to avoid even the appearance of “sharp dealing”, to resolve ambiguities in treaties and in statutes “in favour of the Indians”, its fiduciary duty to Aboriginal communities, its duty to consult and accommodate and the honour of the Crown.

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

Helpful Keyboard Shortcuts for Navigating MS Outlook
Dan Pinnington

Keeping your hands on the keyboard is always faster than reaching to the mouse for a few clicks. Here are some handy keyboard shortcuts for basic navigation in Microsoft Outlook:Switch to Mail: CTRL+1 . . .

Research

Use the Telephone
Shaunna Mireau

I have mentioned in the past that calling a friend can be a fast path to a research . . . [more]

Like most law firm librarians, it is my responsibility to make sure that people in my organization have the information resources they need to do their work. We subscribe to a great number of resources and they are in so many formats and databases that locating specific items can be challenging. To make it easier for our users, my team has been creating what we call Practice Area Pages on our Intranet. We feed these pages with tools and information, both internally created and externally sourced.

One of the pages we have created supports our Insurance Practice Group. This page . . . [more]

What can legal business developers learn from a consumer brand expert? Quite a bit, actually, Forbes Magazine contributor Patrick Spenner points out in his article that engagement is important… but that the new frontier in 2013 for consumer brands is… SIMPLICITY. How simple can we make it for a customer to make a decision to choose you? 

As you know the legal profession is behind when it comes to adapting to trends… some lawyers are still not convinced that market engagement is a worthy goal. If you are one of the believers, then you know that market engagement matters! If . . . [more]

Taking a case to trial is a long and expensive journey. Even the most assertive plaintiffs and their counsel may struggle to move a lawsuit forward quickly due to unresponsive defendants, scheduling difficulties and limited court availability.

For this reason, our Rules of Civil Procedure provide for the option of a summary judgment motion, which allows the moving party to proceed “directly” to a judge and make a pitch that this particular case can be decided by a motion judge and does not require a full trial. Cases most suited for summary judgment are those which have little or no . . . [more]

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries 2013 conference  will be held this year in Montreal from May 5 to 8. The theme is Librarian: Multifaceted Professional.  Note early bird pricing is available only until the end of this week so don’t delay in registering!

Programming this year looks excellent:

• Pre-conference workshop on Saturday – Leading Teams Through Change – with Terri Tomchyshyn, Department of National Defense
• Sunday afternoon – two roundtable discussions at 4 pm: CALL Book Club – Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking. Susan Cain and E-books and Collection Development

. . . [more]

The Brits have launched a new quarterly magazine, “Legal IT Today.” From the editor, Joanna Goodman:

Our community is everyone interested and involved in legal IT: CIOs, IT managers and decision makers, vendors who develop IT products and services for the legal sector, strategic and technical consultants, educators, authors, speakers and bloggers and of course the end users – lawyers, managers and business support professionals in law firms and other legal services providers. We will feature contributions from across these groups in every issue as well as collaborating with relevant publications worldwide.

Here’s the table of contents for . . . [more]

I was doing some research into social media policy examples for a course, and came across Jaffe PR’s Social Media Policy Template for Law Firms and Attorneys. It is available for use and adaptation by lawyers and firms. Last updated in November 2012, this template was first published in 2008 and has been updated a number of times over the years as social media has developed.

From the introduction:

At Jaffe PR, we have made our best effort to outline a comprehensive set of online policies and procedures for using social media effectively and responsibly. This is our fifth

. . . [more]

The story of Griffiths Energy’s unlawful payments to the Chad ambassador’s wife led last month’s news. Attention focused on the company’s self-disclosure and investigation, and also on the involvement by high profile Canadian lawyers in the original unlawful transaction. Based on the media reports so far, it seems that Griffiths was originally represented by the Heenan Blaikie firm. That firm advised Griffiths that the company “could not make or offer or give an advantage or do anything directly or indirectly with [Chad] Ambassador Bechir”. Griffiths then retained the MacLeod Dixon firm, and had MacLeod Dixon paper the transaction in which . . . [more]