By definition, parody involves the imitation of someone else’s work. So how do you square that notion with copyright laws that by their nature restrict such mimicking?

New rules harmonizing Canadian securities laws are either a “major achievement” or simply a mirror of the existing system that does little to reduce fragmentation in capital markets. It’s really all up to whom you ask.

 

A self-described policy wonk, Jason Alcorn knew from participating in moot competitions in law school that the “highly conflictual environment” of litigation likely wasn’t for him. “Just my personality type, I didn’t think it would be something that I would enjoy,” says Alcorn.

A lawyer representing a company in a contract dispute, Jennifer Smith wanted an international arbitration panel to allow a deposition from one of her client’s former employees. The worker was involved in her company’s decision to terminate a construction contract, so Smith, a lawyer from Houston, Texas, argued her testimony was crucial, especially since the woman was unwilling either to travel to the arbitration hearing or submit her evidence in writing.

 

It was, in many ways, a chance encounter that took Robert Petit on a career path spanning Rwanda to Cambodia. 

 

In the last 12 years, Roger Kerans has resolved disputes worth more than $1 billion, either through mediation or arbitration.

A lawyer with a small Victoria firm, Erik Magraken doesn’t have the luxury of a business development department to help him drum up clients. His firm still does lots of marketing, but Magraken has also taken it upon himself to do some of the work on his own, much of it from home. “What I’ve done is I try to commit one to two hours a day, usually in the evening, for business development and law firm marketing,” says Magraken, a 32-year-old partner practising personal injury law at MacIsaac & Co.

If you work for the City of Toronto and you’re not in a union, you can likely forget about much of a pay increase this year. In April, city council considered whether to scrap planned raises for cost of living and performance for its non-unionized staff.

 

It’s a pain, but Jennifer Stoddart is quite happy to put a password on her BlackBerry. Of course, she’s the same person who keeps a shredder in her bedroom. And retailers beware: Forget asking Stoddart for her phone number at the cash register. “Giving out my home phone number in order to buy a tube of lipstick, I’ll push back because this all goes into making your marketing profile, which is often based on telephone numbers. It’s not a legal requirement to give your telephone number to purchase anything.”

Climate change may be a new frontier in Canadian law, but for Canadian businesses the lingering uncertainty about what governments will do about greenhouse gas regulations is starting to get old. “The problem that we have here is that we’re in a regulatory Wild West,” says Adam Chamberlain, the head of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP’s national climate change group in Toronto.