“You’re a lawyer — you must like arguing!” While this may be true for some lawyers, when it comes to conflict with their closest colleagues, many would rather avoid the pain and discomfort. Although interpersonal conflict is often thought of as a battle between two people, I have learned that conflict is about tension between...Read More

In our July 2022 update on the Canada- U.S. Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) dispute over Canada’s supply management system for dairy products,[1] we referred to “new front” in the “dairy wars.“ New Zealand launched a complaint against Canada pursuant to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP),[i] taking issue with its lack of “promised access” to...Read More

The BC Family Justice Innovation Lab and its Youth Voices Initiative [Note 1] continue to support the ground-breaking work of the Transform the Family Justice System Collaborative. Last month, I attended the Youth Family Justice Conference, co-hosted by A2JBC, the Representative for Children and Youth, the Youth Voices Initiative, and the Society for Children and...Read More

Lawyers read more than ordinary people, and writing is the inverse of reading, so all of that reading ought to make great writers of us. Nevertheless, for many lawyers of my acquaintance, any sort of writing outside of the ordinary business of law can be a source of misery and self-torture. I have a suggestion...Read More

Contracts are integral to how institutions operate – from government, to banks, to non-profits, to commercial markets, and beyond. However, the past few years have rocked our understanding of how we work with contracts. The effects of pandemic disruptions, rising prices, and the proliferation of artificial intelligence are just some of the system-wide changes that...Read More

The 10th edition of the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (the McGill Guide) was published in the summer of 2023. Having been six years since the 9th edition was published, the most recent edition has made necessary revisions that improve the accessibility and inclusivity of sources. Anecdotally, the revision that seems to have garnered...Read More

I have been lucky enough to work with executives who understand the power of quality communication. Whether running a single office or multiple international locations, staff want to understand what their leadership is thinking. Leaders who lean into communication programs tend to have significantly higher approval ratings, their companies have less turnover, and employees feel...Read More

Last year, I submitted a report to the Law Society of British Columbia concerning the lawyer development and licensing system in that province. The report made only one recommendation — that BC create and adopt an entry-level lawyer competence framework as the basis for a new licensure system — which the law society’s Benchers accepted....Read More

A desire to redo my living room has caused me to become addicted to reality TV programs involving design. And to prove that you can learn about business from virtually anywhere, here is an important lesson I learned from “Making the Cut” (if you can believe it). “Making the Cut” is a clothing design contest...Read More

Communicating with clients can be difficult, especially when you are trying to convey your legal opinion to them. When I first started writing opinions, I had a tendency to write a lot and try to explain every detail to the client. This often resulted in lengthy opinions that weren’t accessible for the client. A tip...Read More