Slaw, a collective blog of legal writers, recently cleaned up at the 2008 Canadian Law Blog Awards (CLawBies).

Slaw contributors and Slaw itself cleaned up this year, demonstrating the enormous impact the site has on legal commentary in Canada.

Law is Cool, another site Omar contributes to, was a recipient last year of the Legal Culture Award, and came in as a runner-up this year.

Here are all the entries where Slaw won a category or was a finalist:

1) Best Canadian Law Blog (or Blogger) Award: Law21 – Anyone that says it’s impossible to break into blogging these days needed to watch Jordan Furlong this past year. Wherever you went in 2008, Jordan’s thoughts were cited and more frequently revered.  Law21 received the most nominations, both from fellow bloggers and via email. But mostly, Jordan’s blog is the 2008 winner because it became a fixture for anyone trying to think critically about legal practice.  Runner up: Slaw – Once again a bridesmaid, though I do try to make up for it below. Not that Slaw can’t win, but solo blogging is a tough gig to do well, and in 2008 it simply felt right to let Jordan bask in the spotlight.

3) Legal Culture Award - Slaw evolved in 2008, drawing in more Canadian blogging talent (see Omar & the Daves!) and producing even more quality commentary.  Despite my own involvement, this year’s nomination process (and Blawggies award) support what I’ve always known: Slaw has become a beacon for what Canadian law blogs have to offer.   Runner ups: Law is Cool, Precedent.

6) EuroCan Connection Awards – This award was envisioned to recognize some of our European law blog friends who frequently highlight and link to Canadian law blogs. In 2008, Charon QC reached out to many Canadian law bloggers, myself included. The work he did late in the year creating a Canadian Law Blog Pageflake just sealed the deal.  Runner Up: Our 2007 winner Nick Holmes became an occasional contributor to Slaw in 2008, and earns a finalist nod this year for doing so.

9) Best Legal Technology Blog – (TIE) This may seem a bit odd, but this award is a tie between Slaw and the great big gap in Canadian legal technology blogs. We web-geeks may be plentiful over at Slaw, but what Canada really needs is a few Mac Lawyers or iPhone JDs.  Or even a run of the mill (but competent & unbiased) legal technologist.  So let it be known, the gauntlet has been dropped for 2009!

Dennis Kennedy’s annual Best of Law-related Blogging Awards, also known as the “Blawggies.,” have awarded Slaw the 2008 best overall law blog award.  Here is the entry:

1. Best Overall Law-Related Blog – SLAW

You will notice a distinctly Canadian theme to the Blawggies this year. SLAW joins previous winners, Sabrina Pacifici’s BeSpacific.com, Tom Mighell’s Inter Alia, Marty Schwimmer’s The Trademark Blog,/a>, and Tom Collins’ (now-retired) More Partner Income blog. SLAW (recent post) is a group blog written by a steadily growing list of the brightest minds in Canada on the subject of law practice management. Although there were almost too many worthy candidates for this award and the choice was difficult, SLAW was always one of my favorites throughout the year. I like the steady stream of high-quality, useful posts and the fact that they have been able to maintain a group blog for an extended period of time, something that I can attest is quite difficult to do. Simon Fodden is the SLAW administrator and there is a . The stated aim is “to share knowledge, offer advice and instruction, and occasionally provoke.” And they do an excellent job.

Runner-up – Tie: Bruce MacEwen’s Adam Smith, Esq. (must-reading in these troubled economic times) and Kevin O’Keefe’s Real Lawyers Have Blogs (great coverage of lawyers using the Internet – from blogs to Web 2.0 to Twitter and beyond).

When we first launched Law is Cool in 2007, we were pleasantly surprised to receive a Canadian Law Blog Award (CLawBie) only months after being online.

This year Steve Matthews is asking that we nominate blogs that we read.

1. Without question my top pick would be Jordan Furlong‘s Law21.  Jordan has years of experience in the field, and provides unique insights and perspectives that can’t find anywhere else online.  He’s also been an incredible support for us law students starting out, sending us notes and updates on a number of issues.
2. My next pick would be Garry Wise, of the Wise Law Blog.  His site is updated with amazing frequency for a guy who runs his own practice.  He’s also been instrumental in trying out some new initiatives like a video series (featuring me), and the Wise Law Reader.  Innovation is always great in a conservative field like law, and early adopters will always catch my attention.
3. One of my more recent top picks would be David Canton’s e-legal, a lawyer here in London that I have yet to meet in person (we have to change that David).  He regularly publishes articles in newspapers on tech related issues, and his site is a great way to keep track of what he’s up to.

Donna Seale also mentioned some of the difficulties of just picking three, so I’ll note some honourable mentions, including her site:  Connie Crosby, The Court, Rob Hyndman, Michael Geist, Legal Post, Stem Legal, UofA Faculty (despite their politics)

Steve also mentions that through the nomination process we automatically submit our own site.  Please don’t consider this site at all, it’s used for personal use only.  Do consider Slaw and Law Is Cool though, and I will disclose that Jordan and David are contributors at Slaw, and The Court has contributors at Law Is Cool.  It’s really tough avoiding conflict of interests here.

One of the sites Omar contribute to, Slaw.ca, has been nominated by the American Bar Association (ABA) as one of the Top 100 list, “by lawyers, for lawyers, as chosen by the editors of the ABA Journal,”

Moderated by Simon Fodden, professor emeritus at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Slaw was start­ed largely for the legal research and IT community in Canada, but it may soon transcend its tech designa­tion. The name Slaw was chosen in deference to Salon and Slate and “the notion that a cooperative weblog with many contributors is bound to consist of a great many (nutritious) small pieces in rather a jumble.” Despite its Canadian emphasis, Slaw’s topics are techno­-logi­cally universal and insightful.

Slaw has been Omar’s new home since moving there from Law is Cool, though he does frequent his hold haunt quite regularly.

Although the site is currently a front-runner in the process, you can help secure the win by voting here.

Voting ends Jan. 2, 2009.

Donna Seale, a human rights lawyer that was recently interviewed on Law is Cool, just republished the show notes from the episode.

Donna was a finalist in the 2007 Canadian Law Blog Awards (CLawBies).  Law is Cool won the 2007 CLawBie for Legal Culture.

Here’s what she said:

Recently, along with human rights lawyer Pearl Eliadis, I had the opportunity to be interviewed via podcast by Omar Ha-Redeye over at the Law Is Cool Blog and Podcast regarding recent media criticism of Human Rights Commissions across Canada.  Here’s a full reproduction of the blog post referencing the interview (I don’t usually do this but since they did such a good job setting things out, why reinvent the wheel?)…

If you’re interested in listening to the actual podcast, head over to the Law is Cool post and scroll to the bottom.  You’ll see the podcast there for download.

During the past week, Omar Ha-Redeye volunteered his time to play the role of a witness/client during law school competitions.

On Nov. 19, he played a witness for the finals in the Cherniak Cup.  Chief Justice Helen A. Rady of the Superior Court of Justice in n judged the competition, and mentioned to Omar during the reception that followed that based on his performance he should consider a career in acting.  Quite often though there is not much of a difference between a lawyer and an actor when they are advocating before the court.

On Nov. 20, he was a client for the BLG Client Counseling Competition, a role he played because he won the competition last year.  As a distraught client he broke down and cried three times for the finalists.  The last time he actually produced real tears.  The competition was won by Daliana Coban and Pamela Vlasic, who will represent UWO at the ABA Regional Competition in Feb. 2009.

Competition director Prof. Erika Chamberlain said,

This is a highly important practical skill – regardless of practice area. Lawyers must be able to interact with clients and make them feel confident that the lawyer will meet their needs.

One of the BLG lawyers that observed this also said later in the evening, with no foreknowledge of Rady J.’s statement the night before, that acting might be a promising option.

Could law school be the new prep school for actors?

Omar Ha-Redeye participated in the finals for the Lerners LLP Cup at the University of Western Ontario.

He was awarded the Mr. Justice CD Stewart Trophy for Appellate Advocacy.  The award is given to the team with the highest score during any of the preliminary rounds.  Omar shared shared the trophy with his partner Lawrence Gridin, who also writes on Law is Cool.

The winner of the Lerners LLP Cup this year was Christopher Crighton.

Lawrence Gridin, Leitch J, Kileen J (ret), O'Reilly J, Omar Ha-Redeye

Coverage of the event can be found on the UWO Law website.  A special thanks goes to Prof. Mysty Clapton and Lerners LLP for hosting the event.

Omar Ha-Redeye qualified as a finalist in the Torys LLP Negotiation Competition.

The University of Western Ontario describes the event,

In mid-September, interested students sign up (in teams of two) to participate in the competition. Teams are provided with a negotiation problem and a detailed outline of their fictitious clients’ interests, which they are able to study for a limited period prior to Preliminary Rounds. At the Preliminary Rounds, students negotiate with opposing teams while being observed by lawyers from Torys LLP, who assess the students’ negotiation strategies. The goal of these negotiation is to advance client interests while achieving outcomes that are acceptable to opposing counsel. The negotiations are largely “free form”, with very few rules governing student conduct.

Winners of the competition proceed to represent UWO at the ABA Negotiations Competition.

Omar Ha-Redeye competed this year with Amelia Phillips-Lewis.  He partnered with Amelia last year to win the Borden Ladner Gervais LLP Client Counselling Competition, and represented the school at the ABA Client Counseling Competition.

On Sept. 24, 2008, Omar Ha-Redeye participated in the Lerners LLP Cup.  The competition mimics an appellate court, where the issues of law are under dispute, rather than the facts of the case.

The competition discussed a theoretical review of the recent Supreme Court Case R. v. A.M., (2008) SCC 19, over the constitutionality of sniffer dogs in schools.  Omar had coincidentally met with Justice Binnie, who ruled with the majority in this case, and briefly spoke to him about the decision the previous week.

The University of Western Ontario describes the competition,

The Faculty runs an internal appellate advocacy competition called the Lerners LLP Cup. This voluntary competition gives upper-year students the opportunity to argue a hypothetical case before an appellate court. Judges, practicing lawyers and third-year students generously volunteer their time to act as judges for the competition. The top students advance to the final rounds to compete for the Lerners LLP Cup. Doing well in this competition is the gateway to qualifying to represent Western Law in one of several external advocacy competitions.

Omar was selected as one of 8 finalists from 66 competitors from among all upper year students at the school.  His partner in the competition, Lawrence Gridin of Law is Cool, was also selected as a finalist.

He will proceed to the final competitions next week,  which is actually judged by members of the bench from the Court of Appeal.  Although junior lawyers rarely speak at the Court of Appeal, these competitions (called moots) are a good indicator of comfort for the purpose of speaking to motions, a common task for many barristers.

Omar will also be eligible to represent UWO at one of the external moots during the January Term, 2009, which include:

Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, sponsored by McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Laskin Memorial Moot Court Competition (Administrative and Constitutional Law)
Wilson Moot (Constitutional Law on minority Issues)
Niagara International Moot Court Competition, sponsored by Lerners LLP
Gale Cup Appellate Moot Competition (Criminal Law and Charter issues)
Canadian Corporate/Securities Law Moot Court Competition

There’s a new addition to the sidebar under “Publications.”

This one is not something formally authored, but Join the Conversation: How to Engage Marketing-Weary Consumers with the Power of Community, Dialogue, and Partnership did use some of borrowed material in his book published last year, Join the Conversation: How to Engage Marketing-Weary Consumers with the Power of Community, Dialogue, and Partnership.

The source of the collaboration was a wiki entry a couple years ago on Constantin Basturea‘s The New PR entitled, What Should Every Company Be Monitoring?

Shel Holtz, Cameron Olthuis, Steve Rubel, and Jeremiah Owyang also had their hands in creating and edting the entry.

Nobody thought it would turn to print, but you never know what does these days. You can see a preview of it right around page 141.

As an interesting sidenote, you can now search “Omar Ha-Redeye” on Amazon and come up with this hit.

Similarly, Drs. Laurie Elit and Jean Chamberlain Froese (Editors) of McMaster University are added for their inclusion of a paper in their book, Women’s Health in the Majority World: Issues and Initiatives from Nova Publishers.

The paper was presented at the 8th Annual International Women’s and Children’s Health Symposium (IWCH) in Hamilton, Ontario on September 30, 2006. The theme of the conference was “Rebuilding Health Communities After Disaster and Displacement: Immigrant Refugee Women and Children in Canada and Abroad.”

A similar paper was previously presented in Dhaka, Bangaldesh at the 3rd International Conference on the Impact of Global Issues on Women & Children (2006). The conference was sponsored by McMaster University, and Omar Ha-Redeye received both the McMaster Graduate Student Association (GSA) Travel Grant and the Anne Hall Memorial Prize to help subsidize the costs of travel to present the paper there.

There will be a few more additions to the publications section in the coming weeks.