Submitted by Section Chair, Laurel M. Courtenay
Summary of Meetings
Number of Meetings Held: 6
January 21, 2016
Guest Speaker: Maureen Fitgerald
Meeting Title/Topic: Lean Out, Not In! (and hatter the glass ceiling once and for all)
Synopsis: In this presentation, Maureen Fitzgerald, PhD - a recovering lawyer and change agent - addressed the thinking that women need to work harder, explored the hidden reasons why women are not progressing in the corporate world – and provided practical solutions.
February 18, 2016
Guest Speaker: Euan Sinclair, Associate/Director of Knowledge Management, Lawson Lundell LLP
Meeting Title/Topic: Knowledge Management
Synopsis: Euan Sinclair will talked about how a knowledge management (KM) database is built and maintained; the benefits of a KM database; and the ownership of the KM database’s work product.
March 3, 2016
Guest Speaker: Joost Blom, Professor of Law at UBC
Meeting Title/Topic: What's New in the Conflict of Law?
Synopsis: Professor Blom will discussed some highlights of the last few years in the conflict of laws (private international law). These included the SCC’s important decisions in the Van Breda (2012), Banro (2012) and Yaiguaje (2015) cases dealing with jurisdiction, the “real and substantial connection” test and forum non conveniens. Lower court decisions on jurisdiction, foreign judgments and choice of law were also be discussed, as well the conflict of laws provisions relating to same-sex marriage in the Civil Marriage Act (2013 amendments).
April 26, 2016
Guest Speaker: Michael Sobkin
Meeting Title/Topic: Tax Law Update 2016
Synopsis: Applications for Leave to Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada: Practical Tips for Preparing a Persuasive Application or Response
May 12, 2016
Guest Speaker: Ivan Mokanov, Executive Director at Lexum
Meeting Title/Topic: How to keep track of freely available legal information with Lexbox
Synopsis: This webinar highlighted how the Lexbox free Google Chrome extension enables lawyers to organize and monitor their online legal research over time. Lexbox simplifies storing, updating and sharing legal information originating from various online sources. It allows to personalize your online legal research experience by enabling you to save frequent queries for reuse, receive updates and/or citation alerts, and collaborate with colleagues. Lexbox supports a variety of legal information systems including CanLII, e-Laws, the Federal Legislation Website and many other primary sources of legal information.
June 13, 2016
Guest Speaker: Sarah Nelligan, Lawson Lundell LLP
Meeting Title/Topic: SoloLink Project
Synopsis: Sarah Nelligan provided an introduction to the SoloLink project, an initiative of the CBA BC which provides an opportunity for practitioners who are in a sole practitioner, small firm, or in-house counsel setting to pose questions, offer advice, and share information with other lawyers via an online platform. SoloLink is intended to be a real-time resource that can be used by those practitioners who otherwise may have limited access to practice resources whether related to substantive or procedural legal matters, office management, general practice, or otherwise.
Comments and Observations of the Chair
Our mandate remains to promote the development and enhancement of legal research and legal writing skills of our members and to also provide resources for this purpose. The presentations covered in the past year were selected with this mandate in mind, covering substantive law topics such as Conflicts of Law presentation as well as legal research topics such as how to track freely available legal information with Lexbox.