The Ontario Bar Association (OBA) held its annual Awards Gala at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Toronto.

The OBA’s Award for Distinguished Service went to Steven F. Rosenhek of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Dianne Saxe of Dianne Saxe Professional Corporation, and Jonathan Speigel of Speigel Nichols Fox LLP.

The OBA’s Linda Adlam Manning Award went to Audrey P. Ramsay of Withrow & Associates.

The OBA’s President’s Award went to Hon. R. Roy McMurtry, OC, O.Ont, Q.C., of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP.

The Hon. Chris Bentley, Attorney General presented the Mundell Medal for Legal Writing to Professor Brenda Cossman of the University of Toronto and William Kaplan, Barrister & Solicitor.

For more photos and information about the awards, see the OBA website:

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.

Omar Ha-Redeye attended the 2009 World Conference on Disaster Management. He has attended this conference regularly for several years, and has spoken at it before.

Day 1

Eat Dessert First – Using Social Media Channels to implement Company or Community Recovery Faster workshop by Bill DelGrosso, Director of Emergency Management for Professional Organization for Women’s Enrichment (EMPOWER).

Best Practices in Crisis Communications by Boyd Neil, Senior Vice President, and Jane Shapiro, National Practice Director, at Hill & Knowlton Canada.

A write-up on the second workshop can be found on Slaw and Social Media Mafia

Day 2

John Merkovsky spoke on Building Resiliency in the Face of Global Risks, and Scot Phelps
of Southern Connecticut State University shared Ten easy, cheap, or fast technologies you should know about.

What Hackers Don’t Want You to Know about Identity Management was shared by Jeff Crume, while Graham Walsh of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP presented Business Continuity and Risk Management: A Legal Perspective.

Prof. Martin Rudner of Carleton University gave a provocative talk entitled Communication, Collaboration, and Co-operation in Countering Terrorist Threats to Critical National Infrastructure.  What the talk gained through sensationalism it lost in accuracy and substance, and it would have little use in mitigating future threats.

One of the final talks for the day was given by K.C. Rondello on EMOC: Emergency Management On Campus — Student Assistance in University Disasters.

Day 3

The third day started with a plenary session by James Lukaszewski on How to Avoid Career-Defining Moments in Crisis: Manage The Victim Dimension, followed by a break-out session with Jeannette Sutton on Warning Systems, Risk Communication, and New Social Media: How Technological Innovation is Changing the Landscape for Disaster Communications.

Dana Libby shared some New Mapping Tools Aid in Response to the 2008 Hurricane Season, and Dan Hefkey spoke on some First Nations programs with Culturally Appropriate Emergency Management Programming.

The afternoon continued with David Tickner on Pandemic Tipping Points – planning for and responding to the collateral impacts of failing critical infrastructure and Applying recent lessons from the Indian Ocean to improving tsunami warning along Canada’s West Coast by Peter Anderson

Day 4

An international panel, with Peter Powers, David Parsons, Nathaniel Forbes, John Stagl, and Raph Dunham gave A Global Perspective on Resilience.

Patrick Helm spoke on a Systems Approach to National Security Risks.

Amit Yorand presented Taking the Uncertainty and Doubt (But Not the Fear) Out of Information Risk Management.

The closing plenary was given by Warren Faidley, author of the bestselling book, Storm Chaser.