By Ian Gamble and posted to the Thorsteinssons LLP website

For the original article and pictures on the University of Ottawa website, click HERE.

Additional note: Professor Zweibel was a pioneer in the field of teaching Alternative Dispute Resolution, piloting the first course over 15 years ago.  She was able to develop this into a mandatory course in our first year program and integrated ethics into it. 

Common Law Professor Ellen Zweibel  has been awarded the Desire2Learn Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning  for 2013, an international recognition of her exceptional dedication and genuinely innovative approaches to higher education.

“Ellen Zweibel is a true leader in her field and the University of Ottawa is fortunate to have her,” says Dr. Rose Goldstein, Vice-Principal, Research and International Relations at McGill University.  “So many students and teachers have benefited from Ellen’s innovative teaching and this award is extremely well-deserved.” Continue reading →

By Cristin Schmitz for the Lawyers Weekly, September 21, 2012, issue:

The abrupt resignation of the Canadian Judicial Council’s independent counsel could be challenged in Federal Court, says counsel for the complainant at the Douglas Inquiry.

Complainant Alex Chapman’s counsel, Rocco Galati of Toronto’s Galati Rodrigues, queried how independent counsel Guy Pratte could quit his duties to present evidence at the Canadian Judicial Council’s inquiry examining misconduct allegations against a Manitoba judge, without first obtaining permission to withdraw from the inquiry committee.

“No lawyer in any court can get off the record without a motion, and I may take steps to clarify that myself for my client in the Federal Court,” Galati told The Lawyers Weekly. “I doubt that independent counsel can simply resign on their own decision — ​​they need leave of the [inquiry] committee. If any independent counsel who takes a retainer can just resign, well then it makes a mockery of this process.”

The inquiry committee, chaired by Alberta Chief Justice Catherine Fraser, is deemed by the Judges Act to be a superior court.

For the full story on the Lawyers Weekly website, click HERE.

Allan Hutchinson, “Salomon Redux: The Moralities of Business” (2012) 35 Seattle University Law Review 1109 – 1133.

For all but the corporate lawyer, Salomon is more helpfully understood as a decision that is less about the legal status of a corporate entity and more about the morality of business practices, including but not limited to, incorporation. Continue reading →

From the LSBC website:

Public invited to apply to sit on discipline and credentials hearing panels

Vancouver – The Law Society is inviting members of the public to apply to participate in its hearing panels. Starting tomorrow, ads will appear in newspapers across the province seeking qualified applicants.

Hearings are important to the Society’s role in ensuring lawyers meet high standards of professional conduct, learning and competence. Hearing panels hear cases about alleged discipline violations and incompetence by lawyers, as well as the character and fitness of new lawyer applicants.

The Law Society’s hearing process already includes some non-lawyers, by the inclusion of government-appointment members of its board, called the Benchers. This new group of people that will be called upon for panels will further expand the role the public plays in the regulatory process.

For the rest of the story, click HERE.

Adam Dodek, “Lawyering at the Intersection of Public Law and Legal Ethics: Government Lawyers as Custodians of the Rule of Law” (2010) 33 (1) Dalhousie Law Journal.

Abstract: Government lawyers are significant actors in the Canadian legal profession, yet they are largely ignored by regulators and by academic scholarship. The dominant view of lawyering fails to adequately capture the unique role of government lawyers. Government lawyers are different from other lawyers by virtue of their role in creating and upholding the rule of law. Continue reading →