The Law Society of Upper Canada held the 5th Annual Solo and Small Firm Conference and Expo.

Speakers included:

Michele R.J. Allinotte, Allinotte Law Office

David J. Bilinsky, BSc., LL.B., MBA, The Law Society of B.C. Thoughtful Legal Management

Cettina Cornish, Law Society of Upper Canada

Colleen M. Cowan, BCom(Hons), CGA, Certified Independent Consultant for PCLaw, Colleen M. Cowan, BCom(Hons),

Pascale Daigneault, Fleck & Daigneault

Rodney S. Dowell, Esq., Director, Massachussets Law Office Practice Management Assistance

E. Susan Elliott, LSM

Paul Everett, CTDP, Corporate Training Specialist, Law Society of Upper Canada

Richard G. Ferguson, Lynass, Ferguson & Shoctor

Jordan Furlong, Senior Consultant, Stem Legal

Paul E. Harte, Paul Harte Professional Corporation

Dale Herceg, Lawyers’ Professional Indemnity Company (LawPRO)

Jacob Jesin, Rotenberg Shidlowski Jesin

Mike McArthur, C.S., Cline, Backus & Nightingale & McArthur

Amer Mushtaq

Donna S.M. Neff, T.E.P., Neff Law Office Professional Corporation

Daniel E. Pinnington, Lawyers’ Professional Indemnity Company (LawPro)

Richard Sage, Research Librarian

Michael Seto, General Counsel, edCetra Training Inc.

Victoria Starr, Starr Family Law

John G. Starzynski, Ontario Lawyers Assistance Program

David Whelan, The Law Society of Upper Canada

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.