The Canadian Universities Reciprocal Insurance Exchange (CURIE) is an insurer for universities in Canada. CURIE provides universities with insurance coverage, risk management services, and essential knowledge sharing and insight. Coverage includes legal liability and defence costs.[1] Universities are covered for professional liability, which is a sophisticated way of saying they have insurance for legal claims…
There is no typical lawyer. With specialization there are substantial differences in workload, client interaction, work environment, compensation and overall quality of life. In addition, the legal profession and economy has changed substantially even since I was called to the Bar in 1990. There are no guarantees today to a successful practice, a job, or…
A career as a lawyer is an extraordinary calling, and to become a lawyer is an enormous undertaking in terms of personal commitment and financial investment. So why do we become lawyers? “A good many reasons why we became lawyers can be seen every day in [our society]: When people get on a bus and…
Having a strong litigation bar that has the knowledge and desire to take on appropriate cases and see them through to their resolution is critical to clients, and critical to the vitality of our dispute resolution system of justice. Understanding not only the pressures and responsibilities that arise in the trial context, but also how…
Mandatory arbitration clauses often appear as pre-dispute provisions in standard form contracts and generally are not negotiable by consumers. From a public policy perspective, the question is whether powerful corporations should be permitted to be able to force individual citizens, with limited financial and legal resources, to submit to mandatory arbitration after a dispute arises…
Trial or Courtroom advocacy is that field concerned with making trial lawyers more effective in trial proceedings and administrative hearings. Simply put, trial advocacy is the ability for a trial lawyer to exhibit the essential skills in advocating for their clients in civil and criminal courtrooms, and before administrative tribunals. To be clear and convincing…
5. “We are more casual about qualifying the people we allow to act as advocates in the courtroom than we are about licensing electricians.” – Warren E. Burger 4. “You never know with juries. I’d take a judge every time, unless of course I was guilty.” – Kenneth Eade, Unreasonable Force 3. “This…
