#adam dodek

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Why Michael Cohen's Testimony Shows the Need for Regulating Law Firms

Why Michael Cohen’s Testimony Shows the Need for Regulating Law Firms

  On Wednesday, lawyer Michael Cohen testified before Congress. He admitted before Congress that “many times I ignored my conscience and acted loyal to a man when I should not have. Sitting here today, it seems unbelievable that I was so mesmerized by Donald Trump that I was willing to do things for him that I knew were absolutely wrong… But in the mix, lying for Mr. Trump was normalized, and no…

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Regulating Law Firms

As we say goodbye to 2016, it’s time to embrace 2017. For 2017, law societies should place an emphasis on regulating law firms.

A law firm’s culture seeps into the very make-up of its constituent lawyers. An unethical culture breeds unethical lawyers. An ethical culture breeds ethical lawyers.

In “Regulating Law Firms in Canada“, Professor Adam Dodek states that the absence of law firm…

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Moving Forward: From Ink Quills to Electronic Documents

Moving Forward: From Ink Quills to Electronic Documents

This weekend I attended the Ontario Bar Association Annual General Meeting  (AGM) as a Provincial Council Member. The AGM brought together lawyers from across the province, from different practice areas, and from different career stages. This lead to invigorating discussions about the future of our profession.

A significant topic was the Law Practice Program (an alternative program to the…

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The Implicit Premise Beneath the Surface

The Implicit Premise Beneath the Surface

The study of law can be disappointing at times, a matter of applying narrow rules and arcane procedure to an uncooperative reality; a sort of glorified accounting that serves to regulate the affairs of those who have power–and that all too often seeks to explain, to those who do not, the ultimate wisdom and justness of their condition.

But that’s not all the law is. The law is also memory; the…

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Fighting Fair: From Just Wars to Just Lawsuits

Fighting Fair: From Just Wars to Just Lawsuits

Litigation is like war. Easy to start. Hard to end. Difficult to know how it will turn out.

In Fighting Fair: Legal Ethics for an Adversarial Age, legal scholar Allan Hutchinson argues that military ethics should be applied to legal ethics. He points out that merely looking to the laws themselves is not enough for evaluating ethical behaviour. The laws take their shape because of lawyers. “The…

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Can Judges Blog Post-Appointment?

Controversy swirled around recent Supreme Court of Canada appointee Justice Brown. Prior to being appointed to the Supreme Court bench, Justice Brown contributed to the University of Alberta Faculty of Law’s Blog. As the first blogger appointed to the highest court in the land, questions abounded. People asked “Should blogging automatically disqualify someone from sitting on the bench?” The…

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Self-represented Litigants

At the Working with Self-represented Litigants Program hosted by the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice, Professor Noel Semple discussed the rise of self-represented litigants. He remarked that many people are lured into representing themselves by the apparent feasibility of litigation.  http://www.noelsemple.ca

Professor Semple states that the perception of feasibility leads…

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