Our Take On Things
The Buffet "Rule" on Due Diligence
I was watching a documentary about Warren Buffet the other day and at one point they were reviewing the details of one of his more recent financial deals. They noted that in his purchase of some multimillion dollar business or other, he did not retain legal counsel to...
Making law school less stressful ?
I was sure it was a late April Fool's joke when I heard the news yesterday that UofT law school is considering changing its marking system to a less stressful one. Even crazier was the yoga, dog petting & foot massages that the students were receiving on the eve of...
Use it or Lose it™
So you’ve gone to all the time and expense of developing a brand, establishing goodwill in the marketplace and even registering your trade-mark – now what? Just like the title says, use it or lose it. The rights and responsibilities that come along with trade-mark...
Lessons from the Den
The sixth season of CBC’s Dragons’ Den came to an end last week ( www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/) and I will confess to being a big fan. The show is not just entertaining (who doesn’t love Mr. Wonderful & his “money is the only thing of value attitude” … unless he’s on his...
The Business of Brothels
Well, yesterday’s Ontario Court of Appeal decision certainly has generated a lot of discussion. You know, the one where Brothels are now legal, well they will be in a year if the Supreme Court of Canada doesn’t disagree. In our office the talk was not of the morality...
Summer Workers
It’s summertime (not really) and our thoughts naturally turn (again not really) to summer students, interns and other temporary employees. Some of these indentured servants, er, temporary workers, will return to their studies in the fall, some will wander off to other...
Joint and Several Liability in Contracting
We’ve touched on the area of guarantors before – those parties who literally guarantee the performance of some aspect of a legal agreement – and the exposure to liability that a guarantor can have in the event of a default or breach of the agreement. But I don’t think...
Disclosure of Confidential Information in Litigation
Inga and I came across an interesting development recently that has me thinking. In the course of reviewing a statement of claim, we noted that the particulars disclosed various confidential clauses of an agreement that clients of ours had recently entered into. That...
The way the internet has changed the business of law.
What a difference 15 years can make. I am hardly long in the tooth in my legal career, but the change in the way legal services can be provided due to the massive expansion of internet services has been dramatic over that period of time. When I first started practice,...
Courthouse Problems
This week The Honourable Mr. Justice Corbett made a "landmark" ruling. Sadly, the ruling was to allocate two parking spots to defence laywers in a murder trial who otherwise would not be able to find parking at the Brampton Courthouse. The general public likely will...
Twitter Law – a new speciality for lawyers?
What a week it has been for Twitter in the Canadian Legal World – the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada weighed in on tweeting from the Court Room and Vik Toews’ divorce pleadings began trending on twitter. The most interesting part of the divorce pleadings...
Business Wills for Business Owners
In the general estate advice we give to business owners, multiple Wills are almost always brought up. Even in this blog, we've often recommended that you speak with your lawyer about the idea of drafting a separate Will for corporate assets. But lately we've had an...
Ontario Court of Appeal Privacy Ruling
Almost a decade and a half after invasion of privacy was touted to be the tort of the 21st century, and after almost a century and a half of debate, Ontario got its first civil award for damages in a privacy breach this week. Calling it “intrusion upon seclusion”, the...
Think before you sign or lose the right to whine, part II
In November I wrote a blog entry advocating the need to challenge a document before signing, not after. I recently successfully argued this very principal in the Ontario Superior Court. The issue was whether a release signed by the plaintiff should be upheld, or...
New Years Resolutions for Business
Tomorrow is New Year's Eve - time to promise to workout more, eat less & be kinder to everyone (except the Kardashians, well, maybe even them). As many people find personal resolutions hard to keep, I'm happy to propose a few business resolutions which should be...
Changing it up for December
Tis' the season to be jolly and well, really busy with end of year litigation and transactions .... which is NOT the reason the Blog has not been updated recently. Rather than our wonderful weekly dose of blogging, our firm is tweeting a "Business Law Advent Calendar"...
Twas the week before Holiday Decorations
Twas the week before Holiday Decorations, when all through the firm, The excitement was building, cheerful voices were heard. People were discussing at the top of their lungs, what type of items would appear in this blog? Would we Occupy this or Evict that? Would we...
Think before you sign or lose the right to whine
LawPro is the insurance company for most of the lawyers in Ontario and they recently released the results of a survey they took regarding what Canadians understood the impact of a Home Equity Line of Credit was on their legal situation. Not surprisingly, well over ½...
Remembrance Day – Thank-you Veterans
Tomorrow we pause at 11 a.m. to remember those who have given their lives to ensure the freedom of our country. I've written before about the personal impact that the Canadian Veterans have on our law firm - but for liberating Holland at the end of WWII, there would...
Movember
When we’re not spending our time advocating on our client’s behalf, or otherwise, fighting for their rights, lawyers can be a downright generous lot. Besides the pro bono work that we do when we use our legal skills on behalf of those who would otherwise have little...
The Andriessen Document Advantage
One of the many positives to being a small law firm is the close interaction between the litigation and non-litigation sides of the firm. We meet together on a regular basis to discuss files from both perspectives (how to avoid litigation and what strategy to pursue...