Google makes up to 500 changes a year to its algorithm. The newest Google Algorithm change was released on April 24, 2012 and was dubbed Penguin. This update focuses on webspam and eliminating black hat SEO tricks, but it's likely that other changes to the previous Panda algorithm this year will also be referred to in pop culture as Penguin as well …
A private member’s bill, Bill 96, the Electronic Commerce Amendment Act, 2012, was introduced on May 17, 2012, to amend Ontario’s Electronic Commerce Act. The bill does three things: i) It repeals the exclusion of land transfers from the E-Commerce Act (paragraph 31(1)(d) of the Act, s. 2 of the Bill). ii) It requires for a land transfer that …
This weekend I am going to spend some time watching the NBA playoffs on TV. Some might say too much time, but that would just be an opinion, not a fact. I'm not alone in having this weekend plan in...
Altman Weil just released its Altman Weil 2012 Law Firms in Transition Survey. This is the fourth time they have released this survey. While a tad big US law focused, it does clearly show that the bigger firms are waking up to and addressing the profound changes and challenges that are occurring in the practice of big law. A good read for those with …
They are, respectively, dropping and falling, these metaphors being used to describe the AUCC/ Access Copyright (AC) deal struck in in mid April. It being a month since that model deal was announced, it seems that mid May was given as a deadline for the schools that previously opted out to express their intent to sign the model deal. The long and strange …
The CBC is reporting that Justice Lederer today declared the 2011 federal election results in the riding of Etobicoke Centre to be null and void. The Conservatives won that seat by 26 votes, but, at the instance of Liberal candidate Borys Wrzesnewskyj that result will not stand. A variety of voting irregularities were noted by the court. The judgment …
In the New Normal of the legal market, law firms must think carefully about adding the fixed cost of new full-time lawyers. Three news items this week, a Citibank law firm report, a Freshfields launch, and an Altman Weil survey, highlight this concern. Among the 176 large law firms that ...
Because two new Supreme Court judges were recently appointed, the Court has released an updated brochure [PDF] containing information about, and photographs of, the building and the judges. Little if any of what's in here will be news to most lawyers, but you might find it useful to pass on to anyone you'd like to educate about the top court, its jurisdiction …
New, in reference to time, could be one day, one week, or a couple of years. In law librarian terms, I still feel new to my job because it is contantly changing. If like me, you are a librarian who didn't go to law school, the Canadian Association of Law Libraries can help you cope with the burden of 'new'. We have written before about CALL/ACBD's …
Some of the best new ideas are actually born of old ideas. Or, at least, ideas others have used—with a tweak or two. Who would have thought, for example, that those obnoxious Myspace pages created by a bunch of kids at the turn of the century would spark one of the biggest transformations in how business is done: social media for grown-ups in forms …
I'm not a big gamer. I had a blast with Angry Birds for a bit and then lost the lust for launching the anti-pig petards. So when I'm trying to kill time in the absence of wifi, I'll turn to good old solitaire — Klondike by threes, if it's of any interest. I've noticed something odd about the game, whether on my desktop, smart phone or tablet. At …
This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’ …
The scholarly journal is a form of publishing valued for being tradition-bound rather than path-breaking. The Philosophical Transactions of the 1665, which saw the very launch of this genre in England, is not all that far removed from the Philosophical Transactions A and B today (volumes 370 and 367 respectively). Certainly, in the early years, editor …
Since it's not sponsored by the regular legal conference outfits, a conference in Toronto next month may have flown under the radar for the Slaw community. The first Symposium on Criminality in the Art and Cultural Property World will be held at Osgoode Hall, 130 Queen Street West, Toronto, on June 15-16, 2012. Next month, Toronto will be the centre …
For those using Google's Custom Search Engine service, a recent post from Google announcing new features will be of interest. By utilizing these instructions, and making a small change to your on-page web code, you can now enable both date and relevancy sorting for your collections. If you're using any kind of structured data or rich markup — extra …
Greenfield/Belser has done it again! The firm was chosen as a finalist by SmartCEO magazine in their 2012 Volt Awards. The Volt awards honor “the accomplishments of Greater Washington’s pioneering Technology Innovators and Technology Implementers and Cyber Warriors.” Greenfield/Belser wowed the judges with our Agile/Scrum Methodology, which has …
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the need for firms to take a stronger look at risk management – in other words, to see risk management as much more than simply compliance with law society and other regulations. I suspect that many firms do not have a formal risk management role within the firm because they don’t believe there is much risk beyond …
The International Labour Organization (ILO), the agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues, is seeking ratification of its eight conventions covering fundamental labour standards by 2015. The ILO Core Conventions are as follows:
Law books tend to lack pictures. As do legal memos, factums . . . and judgments. Though a picture is said to sub for a thousand words, it's not traditional for legal workers to speed things along that way. And neither is it easy, or possible, perhaps, to come up with images that capture the sort of conceptual thinking that law involves. Yet every now …
One thing that became obvious at ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago this year was that lawyers are embracing tablet devices like the iPad in great numbers. Some people claimed that iPads even outnumbered laptops at the event. I’m not sure if that claim would have stood up to a head count but it was certainly plausible. The little tablets were everywhere. So …
Will you be one of the 400,000 lawyers retiring in the next 10 years? Today, Ed discusses what can be done when it's time to move on.
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In the Supreme Court of the United States decision of Kansas v. Marsh Justice Antonin Scalia stated, It should be noted at the outset that the dissent does not discuss a single case-not one-in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred in recent years, we would not have to hunt for it …
Two Ontario lawyers have just reported to us that they received the following message from the purported Lily Wang. This scam is very similar to other breach licence scams we have seen over the last several months. It is a setup to dupe a lawyer into wiring good funds from a trust account after depositing [...]
Toronto will be the first court in Canada which will have a formal policy for the kirpan, a ceremonial dagger worn by observant Sikhs. Other courts in Canada may allow the kirpan, including the Supreme Court of Canada, but do not yet have formal procedures in place. The arrangement came about through cooperation between The World Sikh Organization …
Those following the US antitrust litigation against Apple and five of the big publishers in respect of ebook pricing by now will have seen Judge Cote's decision to deny the defendants' motion to dismiss the class action suit by consumers. The Opinion & Order, In Re Electronic Books Antitrust Litigation 11 MD 2293 (DLC) makes for quite interesting reading …
Big data is a hot trending tech issue. Wikipedia defines big data as "a term applied to data sets whose size is beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, manage, and process the data within a tolerable elapsed time. Big data sizes are a constantly moving target currently ranging from a few dozen terabytes to many petabytes of …
Probably the most interesting thing happening in the BC legal world just now is the Justice Reform Initiative launched by the BC government back in early February. The review is chaired by Geoff Cowper, QC, of Fasken Martineau. The terms of reference for the initiative are ambitious. According to the government’s press release: “He [Geoff Cowper …
The Quebec Court of Appeal recently rendered a decision clarifying the restriction set out at section 128(1)(a) of the Act respecting the Barreau du Quebec ("Act"), which reads: 128. (1) The following acts, performed for others, shall be the exclusive prerogative of the practising advocate or solicitor: (a) to give legal advice and consultations on …
I have had the pleasure of being a public performer for 22 years as a gymnast, a classically trained singer, a flash mob performer and, more recently, a speaker on legal topics. Despite all of my experience, I still get nervous. Before most performances you will find me pacing back stage asking myself, “Why is this fun for me?” ... And then I got …
In the continuing battle between Fastcase and Casemaker to win over the hearts (and business) of state bar associations, score one for Fastcase. And a big one, at that. Today, the North Carolina Bar Association announced that, effective June 1, Fastcase will replace Casemaker as the legal-research service it offers its members. Making that particularly …
We have discussed on Slaw the mandatory disclosure of information from Facebook pages in civil litigation, and the disclosure of FB passwords to prospective employers. I do not believe that we have discussed the disclosure of information from FB in the course of a criminal investigation. A German court has recently ordered disclosure of the content …
I attended an excellent session on collection development for law libraries at the Canadian Association of Law Libraries Conference last week. The session was titled "Collection Development in an Era of Shrinking Budgets". The program stated: Aimed at those involved in collection development in all types of law libraries, this practical session will …
I know, I know. We’re moving away from Flash. But there are some pretty cool things you can do with it. Enter Scale of the Universe 2 by HTwins.net. By using the scroll bar to zoom in and out, you can click on objects to learn more about the scale of the universe. Why do [...]
Have we lost accountability? Have we lost taking personal responsibility for our own actions. Some in the political arena are saying that government has little or no legitimate role in our lives. We need to restore caveat emptor and all will be o.k. again. While we may have more government involvement n some areas than we'd like, we probably have too …
A recent book explains a half dozen ways to goose your creativity. The book is Jonah Lehrer, Imagine: How Creativity Works (Houghton Mifflin 2012) at 30-44. Lawyers practicing in companies need all the creativity they can muster, so here is...
With the surge of research on the neural underpinnings of cognition, you can’t help but project that as we learn more about the electrical and chemical exchanges in the brain, we will put more of the extraordinarily complex pieces together....
♫ I know you're waiting and you're so damn nervous I know you're hoping that I could explain this Look in my eyes I will try and show you…♫ Lyrics, Music and recorded by Rains. Two different articles hit my desk this morning and I thought they provided a sharp contrast into the divisions within the legal profession and ultimately, the future …
A couple new things to share regarding our directory of Canadian law blogs at Lawblogs.ca! First, Laurel (Stem’s resident WordPress guru) and I have been hard at work integrating all winners of the Canadian Law Blog Awards (a.k.a.…
A column by Richard Stock for the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association’s quarterly, Leading Corporate Counsel, Fall 2010, provides a rule-of-thumb for when to consider in-sourcing legal work. Stock writes that “a minimum of 600 external hours must be in-sourced to...
