The CLawBies have become an institution in the Canadian blogging community, one which recognizes established and new legal blogs in our corner of the Internet.  But it also recognizes that we very much are a community, and that even though we live in the second largest country in the world many of us have gotten to know each other quite well through blogs and social media.  For example, I am able to introduce myself to Nicole Garton-Jones on the west coast and David T.S. Fraser from the east, and we instantly know all kinds of things about each other and have an affinity for one another.

Community building, in any community, is an arduous process.  The low barrier of entry for blogging means the community is inherently fluid, but also characteristically democratic.  There cannot be any formal hierarchies or official leadership for the Canadian blogging community.  But there can be leaders, and those behind the CLawBies such as Steve Matthews, Jordan Furlong, and Simon Fodden, have certainly have positioned themselves as some of those.

Group psychology and organization behaviour, some of my passions I carry over from my management background, are just as relevant when applied to social media in the legal community.  One of the more memorable quotes which reflects this principle was expressed by Brian Solis,

“Social Media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.” – Brain Solis #socialmedia #quote

— Allison_1001 (@Allison_1001) December 19, 2011

Despite being spread out from coast to coast, those of us in Toronto have tried to organize gatherings and meetups to get to know each other better in person.  We’ve met regularly, almost every month now, for quite some time.  Our gatherings have ranged from 4-5 people all the way to over 30, and almost always of varied composition.  In fact I think I can say that we have never had a blawger meetup with exactly the same people there twice, with people like Simon Fodden, Barry S. Sookman, and Dan Pinnington all making respective appearances.

One of the more permanent hallmarks of these gatherings has been Garry Wise, another clear leader whose involvement has been absolutely essential in rallying both novice and experienced blawgers around the table.  People attend to share expert tips, war stories, or just talk about current events, while other arrive with a curiousity about whether they should start blawgging at all.  Our newest addition is Sara Cohen’s Fertility Law Blog, with a single post to date, launched earlier this month as a result of a discussion between Garry and her at our last meetup.

For those of us who love social media, it’s the exchange of well thought-out substantive legal ideas that challenge us on a personal level in a respectful manner which keeps us coming back for more.  The addition of new members to this dialogue can only be a good thing.

Supporting the cultural norms and celebrating positive additions to the blawging community are the themes of my 2011 nominations:

1.  SQP jeunes avocats | virtual mentor for new lawyers by Lee Akazaki

I got to know Lee primarily through is previous role as Ontario Bar Association (OBA) President.  He executed his duties in that office amazingly, and was a huge support to younger members of the bar.  He has continued his mentorship with a new blog focusing on mentoring.   And he’s doing it in both official languages.  Although the site was just launched in mid-November, I again reference the criteria listed on the CLawBies website:

newer, unlisted blogs may be eligible if they demonstrate all the critical elements of a great blog: decent post frequency, audience engagement, topic originality, and blog-to-blog references or citations.

Lee’s posts are coming through at least weekly (sometimes daily), and is expressly intended to be interactive,

This Blog has to be interactive

This is more than a website.  There is a real live senior lawyer behind this wall, who in turn has a large network of lawyers to draw on for expertise.  The function of this blog is to be interactive, to provide new lawyers with help and value for your time in reading.  Please consider leaving a comment to any blog post you have read.  Provided they are constructive, comments will be approved for the benefit of all readers.  If you have a question or situation which you wish to share with the readership, send it to me and it will be considered for a future article.  If you have a question you wish to ask on a confidential basis, contact me directly.  Click on the ‘about lee / contact’ tab above and get in touch with me.

This is a great idea, and one which I feel the need to support through an endorsement with a CLawBie.  See also Chris Jaglowtiz’s nomination of this site.

 2.  Social Media for Law Firms by Samantha Collier

The vast majority of lawyers I encounter are interested in social media primarily as a business development tool.  My passion for it primarily stems from the ability to connect with other, exchange ideas, and build relationships that eventually grow into communities.  But there is nothing wrong with  lawyers who enter our space out of an interest to make themselves more visible to the public, and people like Samantha can help them do it in a classy way.  Professional marketing advice doesn’t cheapen the profession, it enhances it, especially when done properly.

Most of Samantha’s technical content is probably introductory for many online veterans, but as I note above there are a lot of lawyers who are consider entering the field.  Her site provides a form of mentoring on how to use social media, in the same way that Lee uses social media to discuss mentoring.  She was also listed in the Top 24 Social Media Influencers in Canada this year, a list with many familiar faces and names which includes some very important non-lawyers who have helped build this community (special mention for Connie Crosby, for example).

3.  Blawg Review by Ed. (Anonymous)

A 2010 CLawBie winner for Friends of the North, Blawg Review is an example of what the Canadian law blogging community could do for ourselves on a more regular basis.  Blawg Review is truly an astronomical project that rotates to different sites every week and compiles a roundup of law blogs around the world.  I would love to see Canadian blawgers comment more in a constructive manner on other blawgs, and for us to have an ongoing conversation about legal issues and cases.

Crowdsourcing complex legal questions discussing legal philosophy in a respectful and open exchange is a best case scenario for me because it would foster the greatest forms of creativity and collaboration, something we already see happening in the tech, communications and business sectors.  Unfortunately law schools and most legal practices don’t properly teach interpersonal skills or the importance of collaboration, which in my opinion is a lost opportunity for potential development.  Those of us who have tried to work more closely with each other have developed some rather revolutionary projects, including LawTechCamp (Monica Goyal, Sapna Mahboobani and Mitch Kowalski) and our sessions at the Law Society of Upper Canada (Mitch Kowalski, Bob Tarantino, Garry Wise and myself).  You can read more about our sessions on Garry’s CLawBies nomination page.  The materials not only reached over 5,000 lawyers in our jurisdiction, but have travelled far beyond and are already being used by lawyers in other provinces and countries.  If there was any question about how social media can bring the legal community together in a positive way, this program has demonstrated how it can happen.

We don’t necessarily have to have our own blogging carnival for lawyers out here in Canada.  But we could learn a lot about the spirit and attitude that makes Blawg Review work to help develop our own community.  And yes, even the anonymous editor of Blawg Review has attended our blawger meetups in Toronto.  It already has that kind of international pull.  How many “Friends of the North” can claim that?  If blawgers in other Canadian cities start hosting their own meetups we would see this community move forward to another level, and I can promise that at some point in the future I’ll make make the effort to attend them all myself – in person.

Omar Ha-Redeye’s column in the Lawyers Weekly covered the changing legal landscape in the year in review focus.

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

Jordan Furlong and Warren Smith named Omar Ha-Redeye as one of the top 12 social media influencers practicing law in Canada in the September 23, 2011 issue of The Lawyers Weekly.

The other influential lawyers included:

John Boscariol, McCarthy Tétrault LLP, Toronto. Twitter: @tradelawyer

David Canton, Harrison Pensa LLP, London Ont. Twitter: @davidcanton

Caroline Clapham, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Vancouver. Twitter: @carolineclapham

Michael Fitzgibbon, Watershed LLP, Oakville, Ont. Twitter: @managementlaw

David Fraser, McInnes Cooper LLP, Halifax. Twitter: @privacylawyer

Nicole Garton-Jones, Heritage Law Group, Vancouver. Twitter: @ngartonjones

Rob Hyndman, Hyndman Law, Toronto. Twitter: @rhh

Erik Magraken, MacIssac & Co., Victoria. Twitter: @erikmagraken

Stuart Rudner, Miller Thomson, Toronto. Twitter: @CanadianHRLaw

Barry Sookman, McCarthy Tétrault, Toronto. Twitter: @bsookman

Garry Wise, Wise Law Group, Toronto. Twitter: @wiselaw

Furlong and Smith also provided a list of a dozen non-practicing legal professionals who led the pack in social media influence:

David Bilinksy, Law Society of B.C., Vancouver. Twitter: @David_Bilinsky

Colin Cameron, Profits for Partners Management Consulting, Vancouver. Twitter: @colincameron

Samantha Collier, MBM Intellectual Property Law, Vancouver. Twitter: @samtaracollier

Connie Crosby, Crosby Group Consulting, Oakville, Ont. Twitter: @crosbygroup

David Eby, B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Vancouver. Twitter: @Dave_Eby

Simon Fodden, Slaw.ca, Toronto. Twitter: @fodden

Michael Geist, University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, Ottawa. Twitter: @mgeist

Dominic Jaar, KPMG, Montreal. Twitter: @dominicjaar

Steve Matthews, Stem Legal Web Enterprises, Vancouver. Twitter: @stevematthews

Shaunna Mireau, Field LLP, Edmonton. Twitter: @smireau

Dan Pinnington, LawPRO, Toronto. Twitter: @danpinnington

David Whelan, Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto.Twitter: @davidpwhelan

Canada’s Top Social Media Influencers

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 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

My nominations for the 2009 CLawBies Awards.

Despite being conflicted I have to start with Jordan Furlong, especially for posts like this:

Firms focus relentlessly on the students with the highest grades… even though these students can be one-dimensional performers with an affinity for the academic environment and no competing pressures outside the classroom. Contrast that with an older student, perhaps with a couple of kids and a part-time job, with or without a partner at home, who took an unorthodox route to law school and perhaps struggles to compete with the younger students — but who is still bright, hard-working, experienced and capable of being a standout lawyer. The firms never even look at graduates like that, and an opportunity is missed on both sides.

Then there’s always stories like this one which make the choices in a legal career really easy to make,

Nearly half of aboriginal and visible minority lawyers are associates, compared with one-third of white lawyers. And the minority groups are more likely to work as in-house lawyers, in government, in business or as sole practitioners.

As for pay, minority lawyers earned $40,000 less on average than did white lawyers… “This suggests the systemic exclusion of aboriginal and members of visible minorities from the most lucrative jobs.”

Instead, we make our own opportunities like getting involved in social media, becoming what Lawrence Gridin jokes as, “the most famous law student in Canada.”  The upside of my approach is that I get people like Dan Michaluk calling me “a fascinating guy.”

That’s not the reason why I’m nominating his site, All About Information, as one of my three, but it sure doesn’t hurt.  Instead, it stems out of my increasing interest in Internet and privacy law, despite never taking a single related course at law school, and my focus during articles in litigation.

Which leads me to my second nomination, also mentioned by Dan: Antonin Pribetic of The Trial Warrior.  Blogging really is my legal education outside of the classroom, and veterans like Pribetic are a gold mine of information.  You can get a better idea of his legal philosophy from a paper that explains the origin of the name of his blog.

Given the issues raised above, I would have to pick Donna Seale‘s Human Rights in the Workplace as my final pick.  In fact, Donna caught the above story about discrimination in her last episode of Twitter Talk.  Maybe we’ll get change in the Canadian workplace down the road.  Maybe we’ll even get change in the Canadian legal workplace too, eventually.  I’ll keep ClawBie’ing away along until it does.

I’m obviously conflicted out from Slaw, Law is Cool, and even Wise Law Blog, given the collaborative projects I’ve worked on with Garry.

Jordan Furlong of Law21 hosted Blawg Review #207, where he covered the topic of changes to the print media,

Newspapers are dying, right? We all know that — at least, all of us except the Associated Press, The Atlantic, and a few others. Jeff Jarvis at Buzz Machine and Scott Karp at Publishing 2.0 get it, and they’ve been trying to explain the new rules to the surviving members of the print publishing industry, but it’s a little like teaching dinosaurs to have warm blood. The legal press hasn’t yet succumbed as badly as its mainstream relations, but its day is coming soon: Omar Ha-Redeye at Law Is Cool (one of the many Canadian law blogs we’ll be featuring during what Michel-Adrien Sheppard of Library Boy reminds us is Law Week in Canada) explains how the internet is already changing legal media too.

The whole world’s attention was focused on the inauguration of President Barack Hussein Obama.

The Volokh Conspiracy provided an interesting and amusing piece on how Condoleeza Rice was actually the first black president for 1 min. between 12:00 and 12:01, from George W. Bush to Joe Biden.

Obama’s inaugural speech, the speculation of many prior to today, was highly praised.  But there was ample room for criticism as well, considering the global community has probably never paid such close attention to an American president.

Jordan Furlong picked this sentence as his favorite,

[To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that] we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

Furlong rightly noted that an important first step would be not propping “various dictators up.”

Canadians generally might have taken issue with these words:

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have travelled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

Let it be told to the future world … that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive … that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it).”

Those patriots were known as traitors in what is now Canada.  And that enemy, and the common danger…  well, that’s us.  These positions, which are probably to be expected of any American leader, are much more difficult to reconcile with his statements in the same speech calling for leadership and unity.  It does make it easy to relate to blanket characterizations of contemporary threats, because at one time we too were the threat..

Other Canadians have referred to the speech as a “cliched dud.”

But in a refreshing opening move, Obama announced as one of his first acts in office that prosecutions at Guantanamo Bay would be suspended for 120 days.  The world will be watching when the rest of his promises come through.

Change IS Here

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!

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.