Over 800 legal marketers and business developers, more than 50 of them from Canada, descended on the Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center March 10 to 12 for the 2010 Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference.

When I was growing up, I didn’t know any lawyers. They were fictional characters in three-piece suits on television, saving the day, protecting the public from wrongdoers, and engaging in super-secret business transactions. Being a lawyer was not something I aspired to, it didn’t seem like something “someone like me” could accomplish.

 

Franchise law has undergone important changes in the past decade which affect the way lawyers must approach the task of advising a client on the purchase of a franchise. While it is not necessary to be a specialist in franchise law to advise a potential purchaser, it is necessary to have a basic understanding of the law and to be on the lookout for red flags that could prejudice the client and lead to a negligence claim against the reviewing lawyer.

 

Bryan D. Palmer is a labour historian — one of Canada’s finest — who teaches at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont. He holds the Canada Research Chair in the department of Canadian studies.

 

Will gamers of the future become social pariahs like smokers? Resorting to hiding in corners and in their cars, just to get one quick fix?

 

Try building a dry-stacked stone wall and you will find:

 

Ask any construction lawyer what the hottest construction case is and you’ll get the same response: Tercon Contractors Ltd. v. British Columbia (Transportation and Highways).

 

The aphorism “Where you stand is where you sit” means that one’s philosophy and opinions are necessarily shaped by one’s job or profession, which fits well within the ongoing debate over the proper role of lawyers in the adversarial system.

 

In January, some members of the board of directors of Rights & Democracy published an opinion letter in both the National Post and Le Devoir defending the majority position of the board on the crisis surrounding the organization.

 

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” — Universal Declaration of Human Rights