The Canadian Bar Association’s magazine, National, has an article in the December 2009 issue by Luigi Benetton on Canada’s Best Law Firm Websites.  A copy of the article can be found on Luigi’s website.

Law student and blogger Omar Ha-Redeye believes good bios are the exception today. He sees bios that vaunt lawyers instead of providing useful information to clients. “When looking for a lawyer, most clients could care less about the
things that lawyers care about, [like being a] Gold Medalist, or having clerked with so-and-so,” he says. “I would love to see social media linked from profiles (e.g., a lawyer’s blog), but this rarely if ever happens,” he adds.

The best sites listed in various categories were:

Ogilvy Renault LLP, Hyndman Law, Neff Law Office, Bull, Houser & Tupper LLP, Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP, Torys LLP, McInnes Cooper, Legault Joly Thiffault, Davis LLP,  Clark Wilson LLP, Hull & Hull LLP

Runners-up:

Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Clark Wilson LLP, Hicks Morley Hamilton Steward Storie LLP, McMillan LLP, Cox & Palmer, Bélanger Sauvé, Lavery, Torys LLP

Omar Ha-Redeye was also quoted for the multimedia award given to Hull & Hull LLP,

They’ve probably been doing it as long as anyone, and have fully integrated videos and podcasts into their practice. Experience with these formats has not only resulted in a highly polished product, but also content that is actually relevant to what they do.

See more on Slaw.

The working paper on SSRN, Hotter Heads May Prevail in Ontario Courts: The Use of SPECT Imaging for Evaluating Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), is one of the top ten most downloaded papers in the category of evidence and evidentiary procedure.

Blawg Review #244 is honouring all the contributors for 2009,

Blawg Review can be hosted on great blawgs by law students, like Omar Ha-Redeye, who hosted at Law is Cool, the law school blog and podcast from Canada. Barry Barnett, a Harvard Law graduate, returned to host Blawg Review on the anniversary of the death of John Harvard.

They are also hosting a Blawg Review of the Year 2009.  You can blog your nominations, or tweet them with the hashtag #BR2009.

Kathleen A. Bergin of the South Texas College of Law and Josie F. Brown of the University of South Carolina School of Law mentioned on the First Amendment Law Prof Blog a paper by Omar Ha-Redeye and Daniel Simard on SSRN, War-Time Propaganda: From Nazi Germany to Minorities in Canada Post 9/11.

An earlier version of the paper was originally presented by Omar Ha-Redeye on May 11, 2008 at conference at Huron College.

Does this look like a plan?

For a better solution, see a post on Slaw, and the companion paper on SSRN, A Trial to End All Terrorism: How the United States Could have Won the War on Terrorism Before it Even Began With the Trial of Only One Man.

Even Santa thinks we’ve been bad:

What does the Swiss minaret ban and the French burqa ban have in common?

Why the European judicial systems are ill-prepared to deal with these issues within a human rights and conflict of laws framework?

See the post on Slaw and the companion paper on SSRN, The Role of Islamic Shari’ah in Protecting Women’s Rights.

Dennis Kennedy has awarded Slaw the 2009 Blawggie for Best Overall Law-Related Blog.

Read more from Simmon Fodden.

Not only a top story for the year, but one that compromises patient health, and affects voactional security for licensed nuclear medicine technologists.

via Sam Solmon of Canadian Medicine:

The radioisotope shortage. The Chalk River nuclear plant, responsible for producing about half of the world’s supply of the technetium-99 isotope used in many diagnostic imaging exams, was shut down in May for the third time in 18 months over safety concerns after leaks were discovered and it was determined radioactive water was escaping into the Ottawa River. When the plant was shut down in 2007 for similar safety reasons, the government, worried about a world shortage of the isotope, held emergency sessions in the House of Commons and, concerned about the issued an order overriding the nation’s nuclear regulatory body’s decision to shut the plant down. But by 2009, the safety problems had become so serious that the plant’s operators had no choice but to shut down the plant, halting Canada’s production of technetium-99. Canada has no backup plan and no other nuclear reactors ready to begin production of the isotope anytime soon, since the construction of two MAPLE reactors was scrapped in 2008 after years of delays and difficulties. Foreign plants supplied Canada and the U.S. as best they could, but the shortage became so severe at times that physicians were threatening to postpone patients’ tests. In the summer, Chalk River was said to be ready to come back into service in late 2009. Late 2009 came and went. The latest estimate is that the reactor will come back on-line by the end of March. We’ll believe it when we see it. In the meantime, as nuclear medicine specialists raise alarms about their technetium-99 supply problems, Canada appears to still have no long-term plan to deal with the radioisotope shortage.

LAWPRO Magazine did an interview with Garry Wise, which mentioned OMG! Law Talk and Omar Ha-Redeye.  The issue focused on the use of social media by lawyers and law firms.

See more on Slaw.

The working paper, Hotter Heads May Prevail in Ontario Courts: The Use of SPECT Imaging for Evaluating Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), is now one of the most-viewed papers right now on SSRN. The paper is in the to 10 in the categories of Canadian Law – Public Law and Journal of Law & Neuroscience

Note that this paper is still under revision and has not been accepted for publication yet.