21 Mar 2011
The Dutch law firm Houltoff Buruma is using a sophisticated computer game to select its new legal recruits. In “The Game”, legal knowledge doesn’t count for much.
What does this say about the future of legal practice?
13 Feb 2011
In Canada, lawyers enjoy a great deal of freedom to practice outside their home provinces. Generally, if a lawyer has no pending criminal or disciplinary proceedings, and has no disciplinary record, he can practice in any Canadian province other than Quebec for up to 100 days per year without advising the host province’s law society.
This has given lawyers, particularly those in smaller jurisdictions such as Prince Edward Island, a lot of freedom to expand their practices to neighboring provinces.
The agreement that allows for this kind of temporary (and permanent) practice mobility between the common law provinces seems to be working extremely well. It offers members of our profession great opportunities to learn and experience different approaches to common procedural problems – as well as, occasionally, to common problems in the substantive law. That sort of breadth and depth of knowledge translates to a more flexible profession that is able to offer clients more options when it comes to trying to solve difficult legal issues.
But it also raises some interesting ethical issues, both for the lawyers who find themselves in another jurisdiction, as well as for the judges before whom those lawyers appear.
24 Jan 2011
This session, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear an interesting appeal involving the case of Maître Gilles Doré.
Me. Doré is a Quebec lawyer, who wrote a personal letter to a judge complaining about how the judge had treated him in court. The judge then apparently then gave the letter to the Chief Justice of the Court, and the Barreau du Québec, which regulates lawyers in Quebec.
The Barreau suspended Me. Doré for 21 days.
Interestingly, the Canadian Judicial Council, to whom Me. Doré had also complained, issued the judge a severe reprimand, which suggests that Me. Doré’s complaint had merit.
Me. Doré appealed the Barreau’s finding to the Quebec Court of Appeal on constitutional grounds. He argued that if Quebec’s Professional Code, which governs lawyers, makes him subject to discipline for harshly criticizing a judge in a personal letter, then the Code violates his constitutional right to freedom of expression. The Court of Appeal disagreed, and upheld his suspension. Now, he’s taking his argument to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Me. Doré makes an interesting point.
19 Jan 2011
The Appellant’s brief in support of its Motion for Rehearing or Certification to the Supreme Court in the decision of the United States Fifth District Court of Appeals, in Marion v. Orlando Paint and Rehabilitation surely does counsel no credit.
That said, it does a Court no credit when its practice is to dismiss cases on their merits without issuing reasons.
29 Nov 2010
One of the things a person learns in the practice of law, is that the human capacity for the bizarre is boundless.
This is a phenomenon richly demonstrated in the tale of Paul McCulloch Alexander.
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