RSS FeedOMG! Law Talk Episode 2
Law Blawgers Omar Ha-Redeye, Michael Carabash and Garry J. Wise return with Episode 2 of OMG! Law Talk.
THIS WEEK ON OMG! -
·Google Juice
·Law Firm Public Relations Strategies
·Getting Legal Information Online
·Blogging and the Election of George Bush
·Responding to Torture
·On Mark Steyn and Freedom of Speech in Canada and America
OMG! Law Talk is a weekly series, jointly presented by Wise Law Blog (www.wiselaw.blogspot.com) , Dynamic Lawyers (www.dynamiclawyers.com) and www.OmarHa-Redeye.com)
Luigi Benetton on Collaboration Systems
In his regular column for Lawyers Weekly Magazine, freelance technology writer Luigi Benetton has a piece in the Aug. 21, 2009 issue on drafting and editing documents in real-time.
He discusses real-time applications like NetMeeting, and asynchronous platforms like wikis and traditional DMS. He suggests the latter are more appropriate for lawyers who don’t collaborate as smoothly together.
I point out that the efficiencies created by collaboration tools help boost lawyer productivity, which can raise billable hours and improve work/life balance. The amount of time learning new technologies is minimal compared to the returns over time.
Fostering more collaboration can help avoid group-think, especially in highly hierarchical cultures like law firms.
Benetton also discusses why security fears may be unfounded, and the flexibility that these systems can provide to users.
Sick of Printed Ontario Reports Yet?
Michael Carabash of Dynamic Lawyers has this skit on why we need to go digital.
Michel-Adrien Sheppard, also known as Library Boy, agrees – and says it applies equally to other provinces.
Canadian / US Law Outline Wiki
A new Wikipedia-type site for law outlines has been created by law students at Queen’s University.
Law students across Canada and the USA can post to the wiki, which works just like Wikipedia; anybody can post, and anybody can edit.
The hope is that it will be used to help students collaborate and share ideas.
There are already a few outlines on the site. The tricky part is formatting them so they look good in wikipedia language.
Students are encouraged to convert their outlines to text using a .doc to .txt converter and post them on the site for others to edit. Anybody can then fix up the formatting and correct any mistakes.
Articles should be named using the following method: “School-Course” or “School-Course-Professor”.
For example, an outline for Queen’s University’s Commercial Law outline is named “Queen’s Commercial Law”. Students can also create outlines that are not specific to a school or a professor by simply naming the article by its course name.
Most law schools have a database of outlines, but nobody checks them for accuracy, and they’re usually out-dated. Now everybody will be able to help keep them up to date, and anybody with a computer will able to access the information for free.
It’s Official: E-Laws Printouts are Good Law!
Mr. Wisdom has pointed out how reliant we soon-to-be-lawyers are on technology. I, like him, cannot imagine living without CanLII, electronic library catalogs, and e-laws.
However, there has always been an undercurrent of resistance to technology from the old school bar that somehow – incredibly in my eyes – manages to get by just fine without electronic legal resources. For a long time, printouts of electronic case law and legislation have not been acceptable for use in court.
The general rule was that printouts are unacceptable or at least frowned-upon, especially in Superior Court proceedings, though some leeway was occasionally granted in the interests of expedience.
I am extremely happy today to report that the general rule is changing.
Ontario was the first province to begin publishing its laws online. That happened back in 2001 with the launch of e-laws. That was a progressive move to help make the law more accessible to the public, and indeed, to help keep lawyers up to date on changes that could take time to get published in print.
As of November 30, 2008, the government has gone a step further.
According to a MAG press release, copies of regulations and statutes published on e-laws will now be an official source of law.
Both of the following are official:
- An on-screen display of a statute or regulation viewed on, or downloaded from, the e-Laws website
- A printout of a statute or regulation viewed on, or downloaded from, the e-Laws website.
According to Ontario’s Attorney General, Chris Bentley (a fellow Londoner):
“E-Laws provides Ontarians with easy access to Ontario’s laws. Making e-Laws an official source of law recognizes the reality of today’s modern technological environment. Eliminating our reliance on printed publications not only makes the law more accessible but does so in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way.”
These changes were made pursuant to a new regulation under the Legislation Act, 2006, [S.O. 2006, c. 21, Sch. F].
Ironically, the regulation (presumably under s. 41(1)) is too new to have been published on the E-Laws website just yet. I haven’t been able to find it!
Twist Law Wiki for Case Summaries
My name is Costa Ragas and I’m starting my third year at McGill. Last year I developed a website called Twistlaw.ca. It’s a case summary wiki!
Here’s how it works:
Step 1: Register & Login
When you register, make sure to select your law school.
Step 2: Profile
Go to your profile, and add your classes. In some cases, one of your classes may already be registered on Twistlaw – you can simply add the class.
Step 3: Search / Browse / Add a summary!
Really, step 3 is up to you. You can choose to search for a summary by entering a keyword. Or you can browse for a summary by class. If you can’t find the summary you’re looking for, add one (the link will be at the bottom of the page)!
And if ever you need to double check anything about this process, you can always try this link here: http://www.twistlaw.ca/learn.php
Who should use Twistlaw?
Twistlaw was designed to be used by any law student in any year of law school. The point is that each summary is organic, changing and improving over time, as more and more people read it and edit it.
Twistlaw is also ideal for study groups. Get everyone in your study group registered on the site, make sure you add the same class (you can even add “study group X” after the class name to differentiate it, if you prefer). Then each member of the study group can view/edit/print the cases, and work on them together.
Case Summary Features
- Each summary can be edited by logged in, registered users. Each time a change is made, the old version is archived and a link is created.
- If you’re using the same case in another class, you can “tag” it for that class by using the drop-down menu when viewing the case summary.
- If the case mentions a particular statute, you can tag that statute as well. (Make sure you’ve added the statute first, though…)
- To print the case summary, click on the Print button… Don’t use “File, Print” from your browser, as it won’t be printer friendly.
- Have something to say about a case that doesn’t belong in the summary? You can add a comment at the bottom of the summary page.
Casebook Features
- First things first, there are RSS feeds to each one of your classes in your casebook. So if a case summary is added for the class, you can decide if you’d like to add that case to your case summary. This is important. Just because you’ve added a class, doesn’t mean you’ve added all the cases that go with that class. The summaries you elect to have in your casebook are entirely up to you!
- Another feature for logged in, registered users is the ability to print out an entire class casebook (others have to do it one-by-one). Click on the print button, and the next page will give you a list of all the case summaries for that class which are in your casebook. Each time you view a printer-friendly page, all of the case names will be in “Heading 2.” For those of you using document styles in Word or Mac Pages, this means that it’s easier to select all the summaries and create a table of contents, selecting just Heading 2 items and adding some page numbers.
Statute Features
- This is one of the latest additions to Twistlaw – a statute wiki! Add a statute by including the name, citation, jurisdiction, and optional description or url. Then you can add a comment about the statute. Or tag the statute for a class in your casebook.
- If there’s a specific section of the legislation you think is important, you can add that as well, and make comments on the sections.
Blawgs
Let me know if you want your law blog added to the list on Twistlaw.
Main News Feed
Sign-up and stay on top of all the latest updates to the site.
Almost done…
So basically, Twistlaw will not function without collaboration. I created it because I think law students all do the same thing over and over and over again (read and summarize cases…), and this can help eliminate some of the redundancies and tease out the issues which we can sometimes overlook.
Many thanks to everyone over at Lawiscool.com for letting me spread the word about Twistlaw.ca.
UofO Law Students File Against Facebook
We’ve talked about how litigious law students can be, but these four Canadians from the University of Ottawa recently filed a complaint against Facebook to the Federal Privacy Commissioner.
One of the students, Harley Finkelstein, is quoted as saying,
There’s definitely some significant shortcomings with Facebook’s privacy settings and with their ability to protect users.
What’s interesting is how the complaint was raised.
According to Philippa Lawson, Director of Canada’s only technology law clinic, the students were reviewing Facebook as part of their winter term when they identified 22 potential violations of Canadian law.
The complaint was filed on behalf of the Canadian Interest and Public Policy Clinic (CIPPC), and can be viewed online.
The points of interest include failures to:
- Identify all the purposes for which it collects Users’ personal information
- Obtain informed consent from Users and non-Users to all uses and disclosures of their
personal information - Allow Users to use its service without consenting to supply unnecessary personal
information - Obtain express consent to share Users’ sensitive information
- Allow Users who have deactivated their accounts to easily withdraw consent to share
information - Limit the collection of personal information to that which is necessary for its stated
purposes - Be upfront about its advertisers’ use of personal information and the level of Users’
control over their privacy settings - Destroy personal information of Users who terminate their use of Facebook services
- Safeguard Users’ personal information from unauthorized access
- Explain policies and procedures on the range of personal information that is disclosed to
third party advertisers and application developers
Updates
Harley Finkelstein writes in to Law is Cool, and shares this news release.
Docstoc for Online Collaboration
Although law school is highly competitive (mostly for marks), those that collaborate usually do get ahead.
Online and Internet technologies are greatly facilitating collaborative learning in law. This site, which draws from first-year students at several different universities across Canada, is also an example of online learning.
Some lawyers are drawing on their experiences to help future students get ahead too.
We spoke to Jason Nazar about his company, Docstoc, and what it can do for law students:
I’m a recent law school grad and one of the reasons we created docstoc was to help law school students exchange outlines, briefs, papers, and study aids more easily. We have a category set aside for law school – and we have hundreds of documents in there already.
We’re also coming out with a new feature soon that will allow law school students to create their own groups.
LawIsCool has tried to provide some centralized summary resources, but Docstoc has the capability to host the actual documents.
Blawgers might find Docstoc useful as well, because they allow embedding documents directly on your site.
We’ll try this feature out in the future, and you can let us know what you think.
Statute Citator on LexisNexis Canada
LexisNexis has a new feature, QuickCITE™, which will help interpreting statutes.
See the announcement here.
Thanks to Steve Matthews for the heads up.
2007 International Privacy Ranking
Privacy International and Electronic Privacy Information Center recently published their 2007 privacy rankings of the state of surveillance and privacy protection in 70 countries.
Prof. Simon Fodden of Osgoode Hall comments on Slaw,
Clearly intended to shock, the report now puts the United States into the worst possible category, that of an “endemic surveillance society.”
There is some level of irony here, with the vanguard of open societies claiming to be bringing freedom to the rest of the world having the same respect for privacy as many of the countries they denigrate.
Canada continues to be one of the highest ranked countries for protection of privacy, well above even the U.S.
Key findings are as follows:
- The 2007 rankings indicate an overall worsening of privacy protection across the world, reflecting an increase in surveillance and a declining performance o privacy safeguards.
- Concern over immigration and border control dominated the world agenda in 2007. Countries have moved swiftly to implement database, identity and fingerprinting systems, often without regard to the privacy implications for their own citizens
- The 2007 rankings show an increasing trend amongst governments to archive data on the geographic, communications and financial records of all their citizens and residents. This trend leads to the conclusion that all citizens, regardless of legal status, are under suspicion.
- The privacy trends have been fueled by the emergence of a profitable surveillance industry dominated by global IT companies and the creation of numerous international treaties that frequently operate outside judicial or democratic processes.
- Despite political shifts in the US Congress, surveillance initiatives in the US continue to expand, affecting visitors and citizens alike.
- Surveillance initiatives initiated by Brussels have caused a substantial decline in privacy across Europe, eroding protections even in those countries that have shown a traditionally high regard for privacy.
- The privacy performance of older democracies in Europe is generally failing, while the performance of newer democracies is becoming generally stronger.
- The lowest ranking countries in the survey continue to be Malaysia, Russia and China. The highest-ranking countries in 2007 are Greece, Romania and Canada.
- The 2006 leader, Germany, slipped significantly in the 2007 rankings, dropping from 1st to 7th place behind Portugal and Slovenia.
- In terms of statutory protections and privacy enforcement, the US is the worst ranking country in the democratic world. In terms of overall privacy protection the United States has performed very poorly, being out-ranked by both India and the Philippines and falling into the “black” category, denoting endemic surveillance.
- The worst ranking EU country is the United Kingdom, which again fell into the “black” category along with Russia and Singapore. However for the first time Scotland has been given its own ranking score and performed significantly better than England & Wales.
- Argentina scored higher than 18 of the 27 EU countries.
- Australia ranks higher than Slovakia but lower than South Africa and New Zealand.
Minorities in the Legal Ivory Tower
Some Positive Signs
Prof. Jeffrey Harrison of the University of Florida College of Law asked almost exactly a year ago whether Race, Class and Diversity adversely affects the possibility of tenure for minorities in law.
Prof. Tom W. Bell of Chapman University School of Law responded soon after, providing some refreshing data from the American Association of Law Schools’ (AALS) report, Statistical Report on Law School Faculty and Candidates for Law Faculty Positions (2005-06).
(Although the data is American, there are no comparable figures in Canada).
This chart, using data from Table 13B of the Statistical Report, shows how well women have fared relative to men at landing jobs via the AALS faculty recruitment process:
This chart, using data from Table 13C, shows how well minorities have fared relative to non-minorities:
He then cites the data in Table 13E:
| Candidate Type | Success Rate (%) |
| Minority Women | 18.5 |
| Minority Men | 17.5 |
| Non-Minority Women | 15.0 |
| Non-Minority Men | 11.3 |
Overall, it would appear as if minorities are not discriminated and may even have an advantage in the application process.
The Rest of the Picture
Christine Garton, former student at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, provides an alternate interpretation in the Legal Times,
According to the Association of American Law Schools Statistical Report on Law School Faculty for 2002-2003, fully tenured female law professors make up 25.2 percent of law faculties nationwide and 34.2 percent of the total law faculty count. That’s certainly progress from the 13 percent of female law school professors in 1991. But with that rate of growth — roughly 1 percent a year — it will take another 25 years for women to reach the 50-percent mark.
The trend in recent years of law schools hiring more contract and adjunct faculty has another interesting side-effect: an over-representation of women in non-tenured staff.
Ann Farmer describes this process in The Rocky Road to the Ivory Tower as creating a “pink ghetto.”
She quotes Laura T. Kessler, associate professor at the S.J. Quinney College
of Law at the University of Utah, who describes two types of professors in law:
Good Jobs:
- tenured or tenure-track
- deans, full professors, associate professors, and assistant professors
- prestige, good salaries, job security, power, and greater autonomy
Less Desirable Jobs:
- nontenure-track, contractual positions
- full-time legal writing instructors, clinical professors, and academic support
- lower salaries, less security, less prestige, and less overall job trimmings
Farmer cites statistics that seem to demonstrate that women are disproportionately found in what would be considered “less desirable jobs”:
- 25% of tenured full professors
- 46% of tenure-track assistant professors
- 66% of lecturers and instructors
- 54% of associate deans without professional titles
- 68% of assistant deans without professional titles
Kessler says,
When you look around the room, you see that the ones who don’t get to vote are disproportionately female.
If this is true, minorities may still be getting the job, but not the right kinds. They may also be most susceptible to another trend in legal academia, lateral hiring, when in-house opportunities fail to avail themselves.
Jessie of UCLA Law shares her thoughts on Ms. JD,
Women are filling labor intensive posts in law schools as writing professors and clinical instructors, without the eventual rewards of security and prestige that tenure promises.
… I think this data confirms some negative truths about academic legal hiring: as a women approaching a competitive job market my gender is a blessing only if I exploit it to my advantage by distinguishing myself not just with my work but with my gender.
Garton also quotes Lisa Lerman, a Catholic University Law Professor, on other hiring factors,
Some of the faculty members on the faculty appointments committee are buddies with judges. Instead of looking to the conference for new hires, they’ll ask these judges who are ‘good academic material’ — meaning those that are serving as clerks. In the end, women are at a significant disadvantage because it’s a documented fact that fewer women attain these prestigious clerkships. More and more women are coming into the process without knowing anyone.
Class more important than Race or Gender?
But Harrison complicates the situation even further. He asks whether class-ism is a more important distinguishing factor than race or gender,
…the elitists who control legal education have little interest in actual contact with the world outside their own. White and African American candidates who attended elite schools; can drop the right names; have educated parents; are able to discuss the best restaurants in L.A., New York or Boston; and who can pass a political litmus test will he hired over an African American candidate who cannot check off everything on this list. In seeking diversity the search is on for what seems to be the least diverse candidates possible.
If so, any diversity that does exist would appear superficial; adequate to demonstrate physical inclusiveness, but failing to incorporate divergent perspectives and viewpoints from a broad strata of society.
ABA Blawg Directory
The American Bar Association (ABA) Journal has a directory of blawgs in the U.S.
Although the listings are obviously with an American focus, they do have some valuable resources.
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