Alice Woolley’s new paper entitled “Can Good Character Be Made Better? Assessing the Federation of Law Societies’ Proposed Reform of the Good Character Requirement for Law Society Admission” is going to be published in the Cdn. Journal of Administrative Law and Practice and is available HERE
APPLY BY JUNE 3 FOR FALL 2013 WORKSHOP ON TEACHING ETHICS
Fellowship applications are now open for the Fall 2013 workshop of the National Institute for Teaching Ethics & Professionalism (USA). Please forward this announcement to others who may be interested.
The Fall 2013 workshop of the National Institute for Teaching Ethics and Professionalism (NIFTEP) will take place Friday, November 15 – Sunday, November 17, 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia (USA). The workshop theme is: “Are We Making a Difference? Developing Outcome Measures to Evaluate the Effectiveness of LawSchool Efforts to Teach Ethics and Develop Professionalism.” Fellows must be able to arrive at the Atlanta airport no later than 11:00 AM on Friday, November 15 (or, if driving, at the conference facility by 12:30 pm) and commit to participate to the end of the workshop at 2:00 PM on Sunday, November 17. The Fall 2013 workshop is co-sponsored by the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism. Former NIFTEP Fellows are welcome to apply. Continue reading
Thanks to Legal Ethics Forum for the original notice.
Laurel Terry’s paper is forthcoming in the Saskatchewan Law Review and up on SSRN for those that are interested. Click HERE.
Abstract:
Globalization and technology have changed the practice of law in dramatic ways. This is true not only in the U.S. and Canada, but around the world. Global regulatory trends have begun to emerge as lawyer regulators have had to respond to new developments. In 2012, Australian regulators Steve Mark and Tahlia Gordon and the author, who is a U.S. academic, documented some of these global trends in lawyer regulation. See Laurel S. Terry, Steve Mark, & Tahlia Gordon, Trends and Challenges in Lawyer Regulation: The Impact of Globalization and Technology, 80 Fordham L. Rev. 2661 (2012). Their article concluded that regulators face issues in common regarding “who” is regulated, “what” is regulated, “when” and “where” regulation occurs, “how” it occurs, and “why” it occurs.
The current article examines Canadian lawyer regulation in light of the global trends Terry, Mark, and Gordon previously identified. The current article asks whether there is evidence in Canadian lawyer regulation of these same who-what-when-where-why-and-how issues. The article concludes that these trends are indeed present in Canada and explains why it is important for Canadian lawyers, regulators, clients, and other stakeholders to be aware of these global trends. The article also addresses the issue of whether these trends matter in a jurisdiction such as Saskatchewan that is not a global financial center on the order of New York, London or Toronto. The answer the article provides is “yes” – these trends are relevant to Saskatchewan and to jurisdictions throughout the world that care about lawyer regulation.
The OBA Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowships
in Legal Ethics and Professionalism
Call for Applications for 2013-14
The OBA Foundation, a charity established by the Ontario Bar Association, has assumed funding and administration of The OBA Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowships in Legal Ethics and Professionalism (“Fellowships”), formerly The Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowships in Legal Ethics and Professionalism. The OBA Foundation is now accepting applications for the two Fellowships for the 2013-14 year.
The details of the Fellowships, including Fellowship Terms, are available at the OBA Foundation’s Fellowships Web Page. The deadline for applications is Friday July 19, 2013. Continue reading
Ottawa, 2 May 2013 –The Canadian Judicial Council has indicated that the Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Quebec, having learned of allegations made against the Honourable Michel Déziel during the hearings of the Commission of inquiry into the granting and administration of government contracts in the construction industry, has brought the matter to the attention of the Council. Continue reading
By Ian Gamble and posted to the Thorsteinssons LLP website
In Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited v. The Queen, 2013 TCC 135, the Tax Court of Canada (TCC) usefully examined various elements of solicitor-client privilege and common interest privilege when it ordered the disclosure of certain documents. The judgment arose following an interim motion brought by the Crown seeking disclosure of certain internal communications relating to a cross-border investment involving the Canadian, Australian, and Italian subsidiaries of a UK parent company. The Crown was partly successful. The following useful principles emerge from the judgment, and should be kept in mind by anyone involved in significant corporate transactions. Where reasonable and appropriate, these principles should be expressly referred to on the face of the applicable communication and document.
For the list of principles, click HERE
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 and posted in Lawyers Weekly, April 12, 2013. For the original article on the Lawyers Weekly website and photos, click HERE.
Should ex-judges be forever banned from appearing as counsel in their former courts – or indeed in any courts?
Charles Huband of Winnipeg’s Taylor McCaffrey, who sat on the Manitoba Court of Appeal for 28 years before he retired in 2007, doesn’t think so. Manitoba’s Law Society takes the same position — although the opinion of legal regulators across Canada is not unanimous. Continue reading
An assessment of the taxpayer-funded legal bills of a former Toronto police officer who killed his lover has found that one of his lawyers overbilled the province by nearly $200,000.
Richard Wills was convicted of first-degree murder in 2007 for killing Linda Mariani then stuffing her body in a garbage can and sealing it behind a wall in his basement. Wills was once a millionaire, but he systematically divested himself of his assets, then ran up a $1.2-million legal bill to Legal Aid Ontario and the Ministry of the Attorney General.
The ministry asked the court to assess the legal bills of two of the several lawyers Wills went through and the court found Wednesday that of the approximately $770,000 that Munyonzwe Hamalengwa billed, about $178,000 was “excessive.”
The government did not pay Hamalengwa, who represented Wills on many pre-trial motions, for the last bill he submitted, so that leaves Hamalengwa owing the province $86,000.
The bills for the other lawyer, Raj Napal, have not yet been assessed and a lawsuit launched by the government to recover money spent on Wills’ defence was put on hold until both assessment proceedings are finished.
http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/CA/13/01/2013BCCA0147.htm
Appeal dismissed. Reasons by Hinkson JA. concurred in by Finch CJBC and Neilson JA. Concurring reasons by Frankel JA concurred in by Garson JA
Introduction
[1] Money laundering and terrorist financing involve the process of disguising activities in order to make them appear legal. The objective of these activities is to mask financial resources and criminal conduct from the scrutiny of state authorities.
[2] Beginning in 1989, the federal government introduced legislation aimed at combating these activities. The application of the various forms of legislation to lawyers and notaries proposed by the Attorney General of Canada (“Canada”) has been the subject of disagreement between Canada, and the members of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada (“FLSC”) and its member societies. Continue reading
Canadian Association for Legal Ethics / Association canadienne pour l’éthique juridique 