Interviews include:

• Jordan Furlong of Edge International Consulting
• R. Scott Jolliffe of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP
• John Coleman of Norton Rose OR
• Bill Tuer of Macleod Dixon
• Paul Heldenbrand of Riverbend Group LLC
• Graeme Mew of Clyde & Co.
• Jack Newton of Clio
• Jamie Fox of D’Angela Fox Vanounou LLP

Year in Review – A year of boutiques and behemoths

The lawyers of Borden, Ladner, Gervais LLP are climbing up the mountain of Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro, for a charity project.

Listen to the podcast with Christopher Bredt on Law is Cool.

Chairs of the event were Malcolm J. MacKillop of Shields O’Donnell MacKillop LLP and Christine M. Thomlinson of Rubin Thomlinson LLP.

Speakers included:

The Honourable Madam Justice Susan G. Himel of the Superior Court of Justice

Sharan K. Basran, Legal Counsel, Manager of Legal Services, Human Rights Legal Support Centre

Scott D. Bergman, Cooper and Sandler LLP

Lauren M. Bernardi, Bernardi Human Resource Law

Matthew L.O. Certosimo, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

Richard J. Charney, C.S., Ogilvy Renault LLP

Mary Beth Currie, Bennett Jones LLP

Michael P. Fitzgibbon, Watershed LLP

Jeffrey Goodman, Heenan Blaikie LLP

M. Norman Grosman, Grosman, Grosman & Gale LLP

Michael F. Horvat, Ogilvy Renault LLP

Malcolm J. MacKillop of Shields O’Donnell MacKillop LLP

Dan Michaluk, Hicks Morley

Natasha A. V. Miklaucic, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

N. Nicole Nussbaum

Jim Patterson, Bennett Jones LLP

Michael E. Royce, Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP

Janice Rubin, Rubin Thomlinson LLP

Stuart E. Rudner, Miller Thomson LLP

Jason Squire, Lerners LLP

Christine M. Thomlinson, Rubin Thomlinson LLP

Elizabeth Traynor, Siskinds LLP

Michael D. Wright, Cavalluzzo Hayes Shilton McIntyre & Cornish LLP

John Yach, Shields / Hunt

Andrea York, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

Loreta Zubas, LLM, C.S., Zubas + Associates

Omar Ha-Redeye completed a training session at the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) on the Essentials of Governance for Public Sector Boards.

The session was conducted by Jim Mackay of the Berkley Consulting Group and Anne Corbett of Borden, Ladner, Gervais LLP.

An overview of the public sector landscape was provided, as well as the role that a board plays in an organization.  The legal obligations and duties of directors were covered, as well as how to effectively conduct board meetings and play a director role.

The training also included several role-playing scenarios, and an expert panel featuring: Linda Lamereux, a lawyer sitting on the Health Services and Appeal Review Board and the Health Professions Appeal & Review Board; John Bell, a partner at Shibley Righton LLP with considerable board experience in the public sector; and Helen Hayward, who currently sits on the Board of Governors for Seneca College.

Even law students are using the Twitter-blog combination to get their names out there and position themselves in the field. Omar Ha-Redeye, a second-year student at the University of Western Ontario law school, has garnered a lot of attention through his blog as well as through the web sites Law is Cool and Slaw, too, which he says is already benefiting him as he develops a reputation well before he graduates. “I have lots of informal mentorships with lots of lawyers practising in the field.”

The article also interviewed Erik Magraken of MacIsaac & Co, Deborah Glendinning of Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, Rick Powers of the Rotman School of Management, Simone Hughes at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Michael Rabinovici of AR Communications Inc, Dan Michaluk and Susan Carnevale of Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie LLP, Michael Rynowecer of BTI Consulting Group Inc., and David Diamond of Diamond & Diamond Lawyers.

A review of the piece by Omar Ha-Redeye can be found on Slaw.

BD BIG – Canadian Lawyer Magazine

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?

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.

The event featured a debate over the Ontario Hospital Association and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario’s report released in April, 2008, Guidebook for Managing Disruptive Physician Behaviour.

The report states,

Disruptive behaviour is demonstrated when inappropriate conduct, whether in words or action, interferes with, or has the potential to interfere with, quality health care delivery. Disruptive behaviour may, in rare circumstances, be demonstrated in a single egregious act (for example, a physical assault of a co-worker)1 but is more often composed of a pattern of behaviour. The gravity of disruptive behaviour depends on the nature of the behaviour, the context in which it arises, and the consequences flowing from it.

Four representatives from both sides of the issue, the physicians versus hospital administrators and medical directors, engaged in a debate on disputes that arise in healthcare settings.

The event was moderated by Dr. David Cameron a lawyer-physician of Cameron Health Law Consulting.

Participants included:

• John Morris, Borden Ladner Gervais, LLP
• Dr. Ken Melvin, UHN
• Tracey Tremayne-Lloyd, Gardiner Roberts LLP
• Lisa Constantine, McCarthy Tetrault LLP

Dr. Cameron provided a summary of the event on the OBA Health Matters newsletter.

Omar Ha-Redeye and Amelia Phillips-Lewis represented the University of Western Ontario as winners of the school’s Borden Ladner Gervais LLP Client Counselling Competition.

They were the top-seeded team through the preliminary rounds, with nearly 33% margin over second place, before being eliminated in the semi-finals.  Three Canadian teams made it to the regional semi-finals.

Canadian Competitors at Region 6: (From Left) Maria Barrett-Morris from Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP (UofO Coach), Ellie Persichilli and Jyll Hansen (UofO), Omar Ha-Redeye and Amelia Phillips-Lewis (UWO), Russ Groves and Danielle Bisnar (Osgoode).