UWO Law hosted the 2009 BLG Client Counselling Competition. The winners this year were Andrea Yau and Jesse Mighton.
Finalists included Cassandra Tarrataca and Ryan Venables, Adam Somogyi and Mike Lickver, Kathryn Shani and Brittany Taylor and Ronald Fichter and Katie Sokol.
Omar Ha-Redeye played a client in the competition, which he won in 2007.
The Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers (FACL) held their 2009 annual conference at UofT.
After a welcome by Jason Leung, the FACL President and Conference Co-Chair, Professor Anita Anand of UofT Law provided some opening remarks.
A judiciary panel chaired by Justice Maryka Omatsu, and consisted of The Honourable Justice Russell Juriansz of Court of Appeal of Ontario; the Honourable Justice Shaun Nakatsuru of the Ontario Court of Justice; and the Honourable Justice Manjusha Pawagi of the Ontario Court of Justice. They addressed the subject of, “Is Justice (Colour) Blind?” They addressed issues raised previously on Law is Cool, such as by Bertha Wilson’s paper Will Women Judges Really Make a Difference?, and the study by Yahya and Stribopoulos, Does a Judge’s Party of Appointment or Gender Matter to Case Outcomes? An Empirical
The Keynote Address was delivered by the Honourable Frank Iacobucci, former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, on residential schools. A summary of the talk is found on Law is Cool and Slaw.
Honourable Frank Iacobucci, former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
The afternoon consisted of a series of workshops on legal updates, which included Visha Sukdeo, Roslyn Tsao, Kathy Laird, Professor Poonam Puri, Carolyn Chambers, Teresa Cheung, Ron Choudhury, Jason Leung, and Dee Rajpal.
A subsequent workshop focussed on Bay Street Initiatives on Diversity, chaired by Fred Gerra , featured
Tariq Remtulla of Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, May Cheng of Fasken Martineau Dumoulin LLP, Kate Broer of Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP, André Bacchus of Heenan Blaikie LLP, and Kevin O’Brien of Stikeman Elliott
LLP.
A concurrent panel, chaired by Deanna Santos, looked at the experiences of sole practitioners Jacqueline An, Ramon Andal, Peggy Chooi and Amer Mushtaq.
Omar Ha-Redeye participated in the 2009 Borden Ladner Gervais Labour and Employment Law moot and finished as a finalist, a second-place runner up in the competition.
This year’s competition addressed a hypothetical appeal of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Evans v. Teamsters Union No. 31, which centered around wrongful dismissal and the duty to mitigate damages by returning to work for an employer.
Canadian Constitution Foundation held its Third Annual Law Conference on Race, Religion, Equality and Freedom: Current Canadian Legal Controversies.
The first panel was titled, Is there a human right to be free from offence?
Debating the restrictions on free speech in human rights legislation
Grant Huscroft, University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law
Richard Moon, University of Windsor, Faculty of Law
Philippe Dufresne, Canadian Human Rights Commission, Ottawa
The second panel on Intellectual property law featured Howard Knopf of Macera & Jarzyna, and Richard Owens of Stikeman Elliot LLP.
The third panel addressed, The legal status of polygamy
Debating whether polygamy should be a Criminal Code offense
Martha Bailey, Queens University, Faculty of Law
Nicholas Bala, Queens University, Faculty of Law
Lorraine Weinrib, University of Toronto, Faculty of Law
Bradley Miller, University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law
Keynote speaker over the lunch was Supreme Court of Canada Justice Louis LeBel.
Justice Louis LeBel of the Supreme Court of Canada
An afternoon panel looked at the recent decision in R. v. Kapp, Racial equality, aboriginal rights, and Section 15
Dwight Newman, University of Saskatchewan, College of Law
Bryan Finlay, Weir Foulds LLP, Toronto
Craig Jones, Office of the Attorney General, British Columbia
Jonathan Kay, National Post, Toronto
The kenynote speaker over dinner was George Jonas of the National Post.
Justice Louis LeBel of the Supreme Court of Canada
The Online Schools blog listed Law is Cool as one of the Top 100 blogs internationally for law students:
Blogs from Law School Students
Peer experience is an important resource for any student. Law students rely on classmates for notes, projects and advice. Here are the best blogs for law students by law students.
- Life of a Law Student: This blog follows the efforts of a student trying to earn his law degree.
- Law Student: An amazing resource for law students, this blog has outlines and tips to help ease the burden excess studies cause.
- Reason and Liberty: A third year student at the University of Michigan, this law student blogs about topics relating to students.
- Full Metal Attorney: The posts offered by this Nebraska law student, range from clever article to adorable doodles.
- Lunching With Lions: A blog from a law student based in Austin, Texas, the posts on this site are funny and insightful.
- Law School for Dummies: This bloggers is a student at a southern law school writing about the obstacles trying to become a lawyer.
- Starting to Melt: A blog from a mom, this law school students must juggle family and studies.
- Legal Geekery: This bloggers is a third year law student at Penn State and writes about topics effecting the legal community.
- This Way Up: From a student at the University of Washington, Seattle, this blogger writers about being an advocate while still in school.
- So The Bear Says: This blog from a Baylor Law student muses on the value and future of his education.
- Butterfly: A blog from a law student juggling marriage, work and law school. Most posts deal with legal studies but many offer advice for dealing with life stress.
- Divine Angst: An entire career in law school is documented on this blog written by a clever, graduating student.
- Legan Numbness: This well-written blog details the pitfalls of first year law student.
- Lawschoolblogger: The posts on this blog aim to distract its author from the stress of being a law student. Check out his hilarious writing.
- Wish I Would Have Known: With advice and information from current and past law students, this blogs gives students all the advice they need to know.
- Law Is Cool: A fun, interesting blog for Canadian law students, this site has forums for discussion in addition to excellent articles.
- Catholic Student-at-Law: This blogger uses his articles to reconcile the differences between the legal practice and religious faith.
- Brown Boy Blog: A blogger based in Texas, this student writes about being a minority in law school.
- Eagleionline: A blog from Boston College law students, the posts on this site provide students an outlet for frustration.
- Legal Lane: A law student blogs the details of her life, follow the fun and excitement at this site.
- Law Ingenue: Follow the tales of this on-traditional law student as she rises through the legal ranks.
- Law School Funk: The chronicles of this law student are hilarious and fun to read. His musings on tests, class competition and summer internships have a lot of information in addition to being entertaining.
Law is Cool, the largest law school site in Canada, has been named one of the Top 25 Political Blogs in Canada by the A dime a dozen political blog.
The detailed results of the 2009 Davies LLP Corporate Securities Moot came in recently.
Omar Ha-Redeye was ranked as one of the top 15 oralists in the national competition, which typically attracts the best mooters and business law students in the country.
Colton Kaufman of the UWO Gazette covered the Patricia DeGuire Cup awarded at the 2nd Annual Koskie Minsky LLP Diversity Moot.
The Gazette is Western’s daily university newspaper. The article was on page 2 of the paper under News Briefs.
A pdf version of the article can be found here, and an html copy here.
From the Windsor Law website:
Second-year law student Omar Haredeye claimed the top oralist prize in the annual Koskie Minsky Moot Competition, heard by members of the judiciary, Justice Valerie Miller (Tax Court of Canada), Justice Corrine Sparks (Family Court of Nova Scotia) and Justice Jean Whalen (Provincial and Family Court of Nova Scotia).
Three Nova Scotia judges—Justice Valerie Miller (left), Justice Corrine Sparks (centre), and Justice Jean Whalen (right)—greet Windsor law students Qadira Jackson and Lily Tekle at the BLSAC national convention in Halifax.
Law is Cool Slaw Canadian Health Law
