Items filtered by date: Monday, 09 April 2012

Tuesday, 10 April 2012 10:23

Cassels Brock’s got talent

The semi-finalists for Canada’s Got Talent chose Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP to represent them during their post-show contract negotiations.

One of the show’s finalists FRESHH, a seven-member teen dance group from Vancouver.

For the musical acts, the team negotiated potential recording contracts and for the performance-based acts the contracts were more video based. Also, touring agreements were made for after the conclusion of the show.

“You know, Canada does have talent,” said Len Glickman, a partner in Cassels Brock’s entertainment law group. “And I think this show is really showcasing that.”

The firm was hired about a month ago and negotiations for all 37 semi-finalists concluded before the airing of the live shows on April 2. The legal team consisted of lawyers Jessica Fingerhut, and Colin Pendrith along with Glickman. They were also aided by articling student Gillian Carter.

In order to choose their law firm, the contestants from across the country listened to presentations from three firms during a conference call.

The three firms were chosen by the producers of the show who wanted, according to Glickman, to “give the contestants options, just so that the contestants don’t feel like they are being told who to retain, that they are given the opportunity to hear from different people.”

Then the contestants voted for who they wanted to represent them and Cassels Brock came out on top.

This process is typical for how the American talent shows work, according to Glickman.

In working with the contestants, the legal team had to accommodate many different types of artists including those that were francophone and those who were minors. For their French speaking clients, the team called in their bilingual colleagues and for the contestants under 18, parents had to be involved and have agreements of their own.

Glickman says all of the parents for this show were “a pleasure to work with. All of the parents that we dealt with here were great. There have been other situations with other clients where you have parents who are intervening and sometimes not always acting in their children’s best interests, but there was none of that here.”

The project was a lot of work but Glickman says it was fun.

“What’s great about our practice is you work with clients and then you see them, whether its watching a concert or going to a play, or watching a show. So after you’ve negotiated hard for a whole bunch of clients then you sit down Monday night and you watch the show, and you go ‘hey, those are our clients.’ You really find yourself pulling for them.”

Any contracts negotiated by Cassels Brock are not listed as official prizes of the show. The winner is given $100,000, a new Nissan Nissan GT-R, and the opportunity to perform at Citytv’s 2013 New Years Eve Bash. The winner may also have the opportunity to perform in Las Vegas, but that is not guaranteed and the venue has not been confirmed.

Ian Binnie joins Lenczner Slaght

After much speculation as to where he would land, former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ian Binnie will be joining Toronto litigation boutique of Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP as counsel. Binnie will provide strategic and practical advice, as well as dispute resolution expertise, to his colleagues and the firm’s clients.

Former SCC justice Ian Binnie is joining Toronto litigation firm Lenczner Slaght. (Photo: Glenn Kauth)

“Lenczner Slaght has great people and great work,” said Binnie, “and for me there is the added bonus of being able to practise again with many of the same talented people I worked with before going on the bench.”

Binnie, who in 1998 was appointed to the SCC bench directly from the bar, was a top commercial litigator before joining the court.

“Ian Binnie was widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading litigators while in practice and after that one of our finest judges,” said Peter Griffin, managing partner of Lenczner Slaght. “We are delighted to have him join us. We, and our clients, look forward to benefiting from his unique expertise.”

In nearly 14 years on the bench, Binnie authored 170 opinions, many in significant cases involving intellectual property, defamation, and constitutional and administrative law. His landmark judgments enlarged the fair comment defence in defamation cases, established privilege for journalists’ confidential sources and led to a framework for the courts to use in analyzing when to override liability-limitation clauses in contracts.

Binnie practised for three decades in courtrooms across the country and in the mid-1980s, served for four years as Canada’s Associate Deputy Minister of Justice. He was later appointed special parliamentary counsel to the joint committee of the Senate and the House of Commons on the Meech Lake Accord. He has an LLB and LLM from the University of Cambridge and an LLB from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He was called to the bar of England in 1966, the Ontario bar in 1967, and the Yukon Bar in 1985.

In addition to acting as counsel at Lenczner Slaght, Mr. Binnie will be a resident arbitrator at newly formed Arbitration Place in Toronto.