Omar Ha-Redeye spoke to Yves Fagay of CBA National Magazine social media in the courtroom:
Quebec’s courts recently banned Twitter. Ontario’s Superior Court has allowed it only for lawyers and journalists. Omar Ha Redeye explains the competing interests behind the confusion.
Carol Neshevich of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA)’s National Magazine interviewed Omar Ha-Redeye in the 2012 Student Edition on the articling situation:
Omar Ha-Redeye, who articled in 2010-11 and now owns his own small full-service firm in Toronto called Fleet Street Law, thinks the system needs a major overhaul. In terms of the shortage, he believes law schools have an obligation to limit the number of students they accept. But he also suggests that the articling system seems biased against certain minority groups. Consider these statistics from LSUC: As of June 2011, 90 per cent of all 2010 licensing process candidates had secured an articling placement. But in terms of the 26.6 per cent of all 2010 candidates who identified themselves as being from an equity-seeking group (aboriginal, persons with a disability, francophone, gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered, or racialized community), only 86 per cent of those candidates had secured a placement by June.
Law firms often hire those who are “a good fit” with the firm’s culture, says Ha-Redeye, and someone from a minority group sometimes isn’t viewed as fitting the mould. This means it’s the students who have to change to fit in, he says: “It’s not the workplace changing to accommodate the different populations of Canada.” There’s also the issue of social connections that can help a student get an “in” into a firm. “Career services urge you to tap your social contacts,” says Ha-Redeye, but members of racialized communities frequently don’t have as many connections to tap. “If your parents are judges, it’s an entirely different situation than if your parents are immigrants and worked as labourers,” he explains.
Omar Ha-Redeye published an article in the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) National Magazine – Students 2012 edition, Put your career into high speed now.
Omar Ha-Redeye
After surveying the experts, including Marni Macleod, Allison Wolf, Connie Crosby, Carol Fitzwilliam, Warren Bongard, Jordan Furlong, and Omar Ha-Redeye, Luigi Benetton has compiled a list of the leading firms in Canada for digital marketing.
See a summary on Slaw, or read the complete article in the CBA’s National magazine.
The Best in Digital Marketing
The Canadian Bar Association hosted its annual Canadian Legal Conference and Expo in Niagara Falls.
Canadian Lawyer has a video of the speech by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin:
Opening ceremonies included statements from both the Attorney Generals of Ontario and Canada.
Omar Ha-Redeye with Hon. Christopher Bentley, Attorney-General of Ontario
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.
It’s hard to keep up with all the technological innovations in the workplace, especially if the computer didn’t exist when you first graduated from law school and you still prefer to the stacks to online legal databases.
But the Canadian Bar Association is suggesting that technical competence is an essential part of ethical practice.
See their new guidelines document and some of the highlights relevant to blogging lawyers.
Law is Cool Slaw Canadian Health Law
