The Ontario Bar Association (OBA) Health Law section hosted an event, Legal Issues in end-of-life decision making and critical care access ethical guidelines.

Speakers for the invent included:

• Joan Gilmour, Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School
• Harry Underwood, Partner, McCarthy Tétrault LLP
• Dr. Laura Hawryluck, Physician Lead, Ethical Issues of Access, Critical Care Strategy,  MOHLTC

Omar Ha-Redeye arranged for interested law students to attend the event.

Omar is the newly acclaimed President of the Health Law Club at UWO.

Every two weeks the Social Committee of the Student Legal Society holds a social event for the law students, affectionately called “Dennings,” after the late Lord Denning of the House of Lords.

This week’s event was hosted by Evans Philp LLP, a law firm in Hamilton, Ont.

Lawyers from the firm that graduated from Western Law were in attendance, and a special thanks is offered to Cara Boddy, Asif Lasani and Mark Giavedoni for their support.

The Mature Students Club co-sponsored an event where law students could participate in playing Mario Kart on Nintendo Wii.

The event provided an opportunity for students to socialize in a different environment than most law school events.

Omar Ha-Redeye is President of the Mature Students Club at Western.

During a reception in the student lounge Mr. Joe Liberman from Mathews Dinsdale LLP, spoke to a small group of students about labour law.

Omar asked about opportunities in labour law during tough economic times, and the component of health law in labour work in Canada.

Dr. Richard O’Reilly, Associate Professor at the Department of Psychiatry at UWO, and Director of
Research and Education at Regional Mental Health Care London/St. Thomas, spoke to the health law class today.

His topic was “Law and Psychiatry: always two solitudes?”

Omar raised a study from 2006, Understanding the Negative Effects of Legal Education on Law Students: A Longitudinal Test and Extension of Self-Determination Theory, which indicated that law school had a detrimental effect on the mental health of law students. The reason for this was lack of institutional supports.

The study was raised to indicate that mental health issues are not just something we might potentially see with our clients, but among our peers as well. Negative perceptions formed in law school often translated into similar challenges in a legal career.

Another article in the Times Online from earlier this month indicated that long hours and stress pushes lawyers to drink and do drugs more.  One lawyer was quoted in the article as saying,

The legal profession, unlike other classic professions such as medicine and teaching, does not give a damn, as long as you are profitable.

The place to address these issues is early though, in the law school.  This means that school administrators should be responsible for instituting support and counselling programs, and perhaps restructuring schools so that they are less competitive and more cooperative.

Omar published a podcast interview with Stephen Fine of Alternative Lawyer Jobs and Daniele Rossi of Stuttering is Cool.

The interview with Daniele was from the Podcaster Meetup in Toronto recently.  The interviews can be found on Law is Cool and DevinJohnston.ca.

George R. Carmody, PhD, Adjunct Research Professor, Carleton University, spoke today at the law school on “Forensic DNA in the Canadian criminal justice system: science and law.”

Forensic DNA has been useful in preventing wrongful convictions of accused criminals by demonstrating that they were not involved in a crime, even when all other circumstantial evidence would indicate otherwise.

The South Asian Law Students Association (SALSA) at UWO had a lunch at Massey’s today.

The Mature Students Club hosted a Dessert Crawl at Caffé Demetré.

The conversation took some interesting turns to the pros and cons of royalties versus government ownership in non-renewable resource enterprises.  The approach of Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams was contrasted to that of the former Premier of Alberta, Ralph Klein.

Omar Ha-Redeye is the President of the Mature Students Club at UWO.

Omar Ha-Redeye donated a brand new kettle to the law school.

The announcement went out with this message:

I hereby relinquish all interest in property in one (1) kettle, to be
placed in trust with the Student Legal Society (SLS) for the use of
the student body.
The SLS has no duty of care to monitor or investigate the purpose or
use of hot water by sleep-deprived law students.
As a peppercorn consideration for the kettle, I request the following:
1) Do not steal the kettle. In previous years kettles have
mysteriously become mobile. If you see one walking away, be sure to
guide it back to its original resting place.
2) Do not place anything except water inside the kettle. Seriously,
I’ve seen this happen.
3) Laugh at the inscription. This is mandatory.
This public statement also provides a defence of mistaken belief in
the likelihood that sniffer dogs come to our school, violate my s. 7
Charter rights, and identify the green leaves in my backpack and
locker as something other than tea.

Of course the question always is, well what does the inscription say?  One side just has the name and class year, but the reverse states,

Always in hot water