♫ We are the champions
No time for losers
Cause we are the champions
of the world… ♫

Music and lyrics by Freddie Mercury, recorded and performed by Queen.

When thinking of the Olympics, an image of a breathless young person comes to mind who is standing on a podium, smiling the smile of a lifetime as someone places a ribbon-bound medal around his or her neck. While lawyering may not be an Olympic sport, there are no shortage of awards and recognition that lawyers and law firms may win in the international, national, provincial and community levels, aside from the coveted QC.

There is the Gruber Prize for Justice. The Gruber Foundation Justice Prize is presented to individuals or organizations for contributions that have advanced the cause of justice as delivered through the legal system. The award is intended to acknowledge individual efforts, as well as to encourage further advancements in the field and progress toward bringing about a fundamentally just world. In 2003, Madam Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella and Madam Justice Bertha Wilson, both of Canada, were recipients (okay, they are judges but they were lawyers at one point too).
Read the rest of this entry »

♫ The time is right to do it now
The greatest rock’n'roll swindle
The time is right to do it now…♫

Music and Lyrics by Steve Jones, paul Cook, Julien Temple, recorded by the Sex Pistols.

The ABA Journal reported on Feb. 22, 2010 that an email scam was targeted at 6 law firms in Honolulu and two of them fell for the scam, losing a total of $500,000.00.

In this case the clients, who only contacted the firm via electronic communications, “overpaid” the retainer by way of a cashier’s cheque. When informed about the ‘overpayment’, the clients requested a wire-transfer refund.

By the time the law firm realized the cashier’s cheque was counterfeit, the wire transfers were long gone…

The ABA Journal states:

“Law firms and other professional service providers are cautioned to be on high alert when dealing with clients who come forth via the Internet,” the FBI warns. Also, when dealing with wire transfers, firms should be sure the initial payment has fully cleared before issuing refunds.

Law firms should be instituting policies regarding ‘know your client’ as well as policies regarding ensuring that funds deposited to their trust accounts have fully cleared before forwarding these funds along. The swindlers are counting on the fact that there are lawyers out there who have not yet taken steps to follow these precautions; in which case the swindlers are saying….the time is right to do it now…

♫ What are you doing the rest of your life?
North and south
and east and west of your life? ♫

Lyrics and music by: Alan Bergman, Michel Legrand, Marilyn Bergman, recorded by Barbara Streisand.

Robert (Bob) Denney of Robert Denney Associates, Inc. has just released the February 2010 Communique on What Firm Leaders Should Focus on Now.

With Bob’s permission, here is his communique, which I think is excellent in terms of strategic planning and vision for the year to come:

The economy is recovering although not as rapidly or steadily as we would all like. It is already apparent that this recession will have a far greater impact on the legal profession than any previous recession. Now it is time for firm leaders to shift from survival management to recovery and strategic management. Firms face challenges they have never faced before and for which there are few, if any, precedents. These are some of the areas where these challenges will occur and where firm leaders should now focus their attention.

Leadership and Management: Managers have a short-range perspective. Leaders, on the other hand, need to have a long-range perspective and a vision. They also need to build consensus throughout the firm for achieving that vision. Leadership is different from management. Right now both are critical.

Firm and Practice Management structure: The Managing Partner/President/CEO should focus on strategic issues and external factors – especially clients. But, in BigLaw firms and in many MidLaw firms, this top level manager should focus solely on running the firm and should not have any personal client responsibilities. There should be a senior management team including an Executive Committee, a Chief Operating Officer (or co-Managing Partner) and Practice Group Leaders. All positions should have job descriptions and the partners in these positions need to be given sufficient non-billable time to fulfill their management responsibilities. Read the rest of this entry »

♫ Well, who are you?
Who are you? Who, who, who, who?
I really wanna know…♫

Music and Lyrics by Pete Townshend, recorded by The Who.

A new service has sprung up. It is entitled “Career Excuse.com” Its purpose is to allow you to create false career references for your resume. They state:

Lets say you are applying for a Retail position and have a 3 year gap in your resume you want to fill. CareerExcuse.com has a retail company already established with a 800 number, a real address, a real website, and a real contact person.

Not only do they allow you to ‘fill’ that 3 year gap, they can act as new former job references, complete with: ‘company name, address, “800″ number, company website/Email address , contact name, contact phone number, contact email address’.

You can create your own virtual company answered by a live receptionist, or direct any inquiries into voice mail limbo.

What if someone should happen to call the listed job reference?

When we receive a call inquiring about your references, they will be directed to our human resources dept. where they are instructed to fax, or e-mail, a Authorized Release Form and their Employment Verification Form to a contact person that we provided to you as your new job reference.

It seems their creativity knows no bottom:

Bankrupt companies make a great previous employer
We have created a management company with dozens of bankrupt companies that are ready to provide any inquirer your desired reference information.

Advising on ethics is just another part of their services:

Is misinformation on a resume illegal?
No, Since a resume is not a legal document, it is not illegal to misrepresent on a resume.

Course if the employer should happen to find out about this, ah, deception:

Can I get caught and fired?
We can’t guarantee that you wont and not liable if you do. If you get the job in the first place..we did our part. It’s up to you to act responsible after you get the job

After you get the job?

It would seem that an employer must do their own due diligence by checking #800’s and email addresses against valid sources to ensure that they are receiving valid reference checks.

It does seem that they are careful about privacy:

What about my privacy?
For your protection we do not collect or share any personal information about you, such as your name, mailing address or credit card number. All of your financial transactions are conducted through Paypal, our secure payment processor.

When it comes to hiring people these days, it seems that one needs to carefully ask: “Who are You…who who????” because we would like to know…

Hat tip to Pete Roberts for passing this site along!

♫ Everytime I turn around
Something don’t feel right
Just might be paranoid..♫

Lyrics and music by: Nicholas Jerry Jonas, Joseph Adam Jonas, Paul Kevin Jonas II, Cathy Dennis, John Fields, recorded by The Jonas Brothers.

I guess it was just a matter of time. IT World posted an article today by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (sjvn@vna1.com) entitled: “Can you trust Chinese computer equipment?”

While this may seem like the musings of a hyper-active Homeland Security Department, it is based on MI5’s report in The Times Online “China bugs and burgles Britain” that the Chinese Government has given British executives equipment with security holes.

The Times Online article contains a chilling paragraph in discussing a report on these incidents:

Written by MI5’s Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, the 14-page “restricted” report describes how China has attacked UK defence, energy, communications and manufacturing companies in a concerted hacking campaign.

The rest of this post can be found on: Feeling a Bit Paranoid??? on slaw.ca.

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♫ You see more than I
Daniel you’re a star in the face of the sky…♫

Lyrics by: Bernie Taupin, music and recorded by Elton John.

Subsequent to the early glimpse into WestlawNext that Thompson Reuters provided to a group of us in Eagan, Minnesota, many of that august group have now posted their views on WestlawNext on the web. So without any further ado, here is a look at what they, and others, have seen:

I hope I haven’t omitted anyone who has posted their early views and thoughts on the new WestlawNext. In the interests of fair disclosure, Thomson Reuters did pay expenses to travel to Eagan to see the preview (brrrr…it is cold there compared to warm Vancouver!).

By visiting these other sites hopefully you will gain perspective by reading the thoughts of other legal bloggers, writers and videographers who are stars in the face of the sky.

♫ Baby lovin’ you
Is how it’s meant to be
It’s something that is oh so natural to me
Natural…♫

Lyrics and music by: Cathy Dennis and A. Todd, recorded by S Club 7.

WestlawNext is about to be released. Courtesy of Thomson Reuters, I was given a sneak peak at this new legal research offering. So without further ado, here is Dave’s Top 10 list on WestlawNext:

WestlawNext has been designed under the hood to use the power of the West Key Number system along with other search algorithm improvements combined with human tweaks on how to improve search results. Not all improvements are in how WestlawNext functions. The way that WestlawNext displays its search results has also been tweaked based on customer insights, log analysis, eye tracking, design reviews, performance testing, usability testing, workflow observations and focus groups.

The people at Thompson Reuters state that WestlawNext works best using Google’s Chrome browser. If you don’t use Chrome, users are advised to upgrade to the latest versions of their browsers to attain the best results.

I do like the fact that all searches in WestlawNext are included in your existing plan; only viewing results comes at a charge. This feature that allows you to see the full extend of the resources available to you is a significant improvement, in my opinion.

WestlawNext is clearly aimed at those lawyers who are more familiar with a Google search than a traditional Westlaw search. The appeal of WestlawNext to me would be the efficiency/effectiveness gains in using WestlawNext as compared to traditional legal research. Another appeal would be WestlawNext’s ease of use.

In order to gain market share, a user would have to gain confidence that the results in WestlawNext are not just as good as, but in fact superior to, a traditional search; the people at Thomson Reuters confidently assured us that this is in fact the case.

Given Google Scholar, Westlaw has to raise the bar to beat the competition and justify their value-added services. It looks like they have a winner on their hands.

My only question is when is this coming to Canada? I am told it will be the last quarter of 2010 or the first quarter of 2011. Like most new technologies, those of us in the frozen white north will have to wait a bit before we see this in Westlaw Canada.

It is something that is oh so natural to me; it will be worth waiting for.

♫ Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run..♫

Lyrics and music by: Steve Miller, recorded by the Steve Miller Band.

A lawyer in BC has reported that the fraudsters have a new tactic in their attempts against lawyers and their trust accounts.

Past fraud attempts have aimed at trying to have a lawyer immediately forward funds to a client resulting from a ‘collection’ against a debtor that is paid by a forged certified financial instrument that is deposited into the lawyer’s trust account. Now the fraudsters have changed tactics.

Rather than try to convince the lawyer that he or she has just collected a large debt and he or she should send over large amounts of money forthwith, the fraudsters are now simply forging cheques that appear to be trust cheques drawn on the lawyer’s trust account. This way they bypass the lawyer and their firm controls entirely.

This is a straight cheque forgery. In one case that I am aware, a bank cashed one of these forged cheques, only to reverse the withdrawal shortly afterwards and restore the funds back into the lawyer’s trust account.

This behooves lawyers to go online and check their trust account activity on a daily basis…just to ensure that someone hasn’t taken the money and run….

♫ Time now to spread your wings
To take to flight
The life endeavor
Aim for the burning sun…♫

Lyrics and Music by: Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones recorded by Savage Garden.

Every so often, all of us are looking for a bit of inspiration – a few uplifting words to give flight to our ideas and our lives. Accordingly I was pleased to receive an email from a colleague Patricia Yevics pointing me to a graduation address by Steve Jobs at Stanford University on “How to Live before You Die”.

This particular video clip is hosted on: www.ted.com. I had visited TED before but this last visit brought home the full extent of the number of inspiring and truly great and inspirational clips on this site. TED calls itself: “Ideas Worth Spreading” and I couldn’t agree more. I like to think of TED as YouTube that has been moderated.

I hope that we can spread the word about TED to those who may be looking for an updraft when they are aiming for the stars.

♫ A moment of despair
That forces you to say that life’s unfair
It makes you scared of what tomorrow may bring
But don’t go giving into fear ..♫

Lyrics and music by: Stone, Greenberg, Daniel Pierre, recorded by Joss Stone.

This is a post on Slaw.ca today:

You may wonder what human rights has to do with Internet Explorer. Prior to the earthquake in Haiti, the news was filled with the cyber-attacks on Google. The latest attacks on Google’s network appear to have originated in China, reported ComputerWorld in a post dated Jan 12, 2010 and were directed at the Google accounts of human rights activists in China. ComputerWorld stated:

In a blog post Tuesday, David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, said that attacks have forced the company to “review the feasibility of our business operations in China.” Google, continued Drummond, is “no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all.”

Read more here: http://www.slaw.ca/2010/01/19/human-rights-google-and-internet-explorer/