In “The Lawyer as Friend,” a famous 1976 law review article, Charles Fried proposed that a lawyer should act as a “special-purpose friend” to each of his or her clients. Within the bounds of the retainer, Fried argued, the lawyer must adopt the interests of the client as their own — just as a friend...Read More

The Federal Court of Appeal took the occasion of an appeal of the order of the Patented Medicines Prices Review Board (the “Board”) that required a patentee to share reports on medicines that were no longer under patent, to reaffirm the jurisdiction of the Board. Courts have consistently held that the Board’s jurisdiction is limited...Read More

When was the last time you heard someone talk about NFTs? Was it when Paris Hilton and Jimmy Fallon showed off their Bored Apes on national television back in January of 2022? Or perhaps it was when Donald Trump unveiled his line of NFTs in December 2022. Or maybe, just maybe, you have that one...Read More

PREFACE This is the second part of a post placing LEAF’s recent report, What It Takes: Establishing a Gender-Based Violence Accountability Mechanism in Canada (“What It Takes” or “LEAF report)” on gender-based violence (GBV) in the context of historical efforts to address GBV (albeit fragmentary references) and more recent developments: the 2021 Joint Declaration for...Read More

Canadian courts are concerned about AI. They are concerned that litigants may misuse AI and attempt to introduce fake cases or deepfake evidence into court proceedings. They are also concerned about AI potentially usurping judges’ decision-making role and thereby undermining the proper administration of justice. These concerns don’t merely exist in the ether – they...Read More

PREFACE This is the first of two posts placing LEAF’s recent report, What It Takes: Establishing a Gender-Based Violence Accountability Mechanism in Canada (“What It Takes” or “LEAF report)” on gender-based violence (GBV) in the context of historical efforts to address GBV (albeit fragmentary references) and more recent developments: the 2021 Joint Declaration by the...Read More

I am still recovering from our U.S. election which seemed to last forever and is not completely finished yet. As a retired federal employee, I worry about the safety and security of my colleagues back in DC. We were required to be nonpartisan and were unable to contribute to candidates or do any electioneering. The...Read More

In November, I’m presenting to law students about plain language and the importance of good communication. As always when preparing for a presentation, my first consideration is ‘who is my audience’ and ‘how best can I deliver my message to this audience’. In this circumstance, who my audience is and the impact on their communications...Read More

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. [This is Part One of a two-part series on Strategic Growth in the Legal Services Market and the foundation for the first half of my September 2024 keynote address...Read More

I’ve previously talked about the CanLII Manual to British Columbia Civil Litigation, a free resource that includes an annotated version of the B.C. Rules of Court. However, B.C. is not the only jurisdiction for which you can find an annotated Rules of Court on CanLII. The Civil Procedure and Practice in Ontario, published in 2022 and...Read More