Once again….the naughty goat.

Swamped with articling.  Seriously.  Sorry I haven’t written sooner, but then perhaps you will accept my apology.

On my radar

A new legal blog on my reading list.  It’s called What about Clients? Check it out.  Particularly their post on whether new associates and articling students should pay their firms during the first couple of years.  They suggest that student’s get more out for the first couple of years than they put in.  I’ve heard that argument before in another form:  new associates are a liability not a benefit to the firm.  I’m not so sure it’s true.  Particularly after  I saw a client bill the other day at work…student work does get billed to clients.

The problem with partners

I’ll officially be done by first month of articling tomorrow.  I think things are going okay so far.  I’ve gotten interesting work.  Done the best work I can.  Tried to remain sane will doing it.

This past week I’ve been having some problems with a partner at work.  Well, maybe they aren’t problems maybe it’s just my neuroses.  That’s part of the problem.  I can’t tell if there is a problem.

Let me tell you the story.  Last summer I did a lot of work for this partner–let’s call him or her X.  X seemed to like the work I did and gave me a lot of it.  At the end of the summer X and I worked on a project that I know I put less in that I could have on.  Honestly I was bagged and I had a bigger assignment pressing me.  I didn’t completely crap out but I certainly didn’t excel.

Fast forward to articling.  I see X in the hall.  X says he or she is happy to see me.  X, via a third party, assigns a large and important project to me.  I haul ass on the project.  Get it in done way ahead of schedule and better than that same project was done last year–this particular project recurs, you see.  Anyhow,  X has been feeding all of his or her other work to other students.  X has made snide comments about the number of drafts that I did on the written portion of the project.  When editing that portion of the project X wrote a couple of snide comments in the margins.  In short, X seems to be being a bit of a jerk.  It’s causing me some problems.  I really like X.  He or she is one of my favourite partners at the firm but I feel like he or she is made at me for some reason.  I don’t want to go talk to X until I’m sure there is a problem otherwise I will come off as a nut job.

What’s a student to do?  Thoughts?

Aren’t I a naughty little goat?

Sorry I haven’t written sooner.  Things have been a bit crazy lately.

I’ve survived the first three weeks of articling.  The firm has been insanely busy.  I mean INSANELY busy.  We’re talking 12-14 hour a day, 7 days a week.  And that was while the firm still had 17 summer students at the firm.  Including articling students there were 29 of us to do work.  The summer students left on Friday so one of two things will happen.  Either we will receive a mass influx of work or things will not change since most of the work has been redirected to us already.  I hope it’s the latter. I’m not sure I have much more capacity…although I did wrap up a couple of projects on Thursday.

Well I should go…a busy week at work means that there are a lot of things left undone for the weekend….le sigh.  I’ll write again this week.  Promise.

Definitely not Mensa Material…

Today Stockwell Day announced a pilot project that would require high-risk parolees to wear electronic monitoring ankle bracelets during their parole.  The theory is that the bracelets could be used to monitor offenders to ensure that they comply with the terms of their release for instance staying away from parks.  I wonder how well these things will work.  Will they print out automated reports that an offender has violated there parole or will they be monitored live?  Will these reports be used as proof by the National Parole Board that the offender has violated his or her parole?  If the devices are monitored live what about the privacy implications of tracking a person all the time?  Yes, in my opinion, parolees have a right to privacy–prisoners do too.  They ought not to be subject to this kind of monitoring.

Maybe the pilot program will turn out to be a good thing and my fears will be unfounded.  Then again it is a Conservative government.

On my Night-table

I find the big-box bookstores overwhelming.  There’s too much choice.  For someone who tends to be a little indecisive too much choice is like…well, I can’t think of an inoffensive simile so…something bad for me.  I need a jumping off point. So I am always interested in what other people are reading.  I may not end up reading it but it gives me a place to start looking.

What’s on my night-table right now?

• Bernice Morgan’s Cloud of Bone – three novellas really masquerading as a novel.  The novellas are tied together by themes on loss and memory.
• Ken Follett’s World Without End – the sequel to the massively successful Pillars of the Earth.
• The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in New Brunswick (Human Rights Commission) v. Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc., 2008 SCC 45 – dealing with mandatory retirement under the terms of a bona fide pension plan under Nova Scotia’s Human Rights Act, and the proper intepretation of human rights legislation.

Friday Links

• 6 to 2, the ayes have it:  Police refusing to hire a women because of a pardoned conviction for theft infringes the Quebec Charter of Rights. [Montreal Gazette]
• Perhaps a bit of overkill (no pun intended):  Alberta man charged with 8 charges, including 2 x attempted murder after hitting a police officer with his car.  [CTV.ca]
• Good lord:  Man stabbed multiple times then decapitated on bus.  [National Post]
• Another good reason to leave your laptop at home:  digital devices you carry across the border may be held and analyzed for months by Homeland Security.  [Washington Post]  [The actual Homeland Security Policy is here].

Blawging on Bay

I originally started this blog to chronicle my articling experience on Bay Street but as the beginning of my articles approaches–I start on Tuesday–I find myself feeling a little more anxious about blawging on Bay.

There are many blawgs by lawyers.  Two of my favourites are labour lawyer, Dan Michaluk’s “All About Information” and privacy lawyer, David Fraser’s “Privacy Lawyer“.  There are even firm blawgs:  Davis LLP’s “Video Game Law Blog” springs to mind.   However, I can’t find an articling student blawg.  The closest I could come is Cassels, Brock, and Blackwell’s summer student blawg titled “Cassels Brock and Blogwell.”  It’s not substantive and it very rarely talks about the law, which I suppose is understandable.

As I approach articling, I can’t help but wonder: am I the only articling student blawging on Bay Street?

No new law schools

In my last year of law school, rumour had it that several new law schools were set to open.  It appears the provincial government heard the same rumour and they didn’t like it:  they’ve written to the four schools that were planning to open law schools and told them they will receive no funding from the province.  It’s probably a wise move.  I know a number of my classmates had difficulties finding articling jobs after school and I know that with the recent economic slow down many who found articling jobs will have difficulties finding associate jobs.

It’s true that many people can’t get the legal help they need, but  it’s not because of a lack of lawyers rather it’s because legal services have been priced beyond their means.  What we really need, in my opinion, is a re-haul of the legal aid system.  One that provides a living-wage to lawyers who choose to accept legal aid certificates thereby encouraging more lawyers to accept them, and a relaxing of the criteria to qualify for legal aid.

More on the province’s decision here.

Crime and Punishment

Interesting feature in the Toronto Star on Crime and Punishment.  Of particular interest:

• an article on the failure of mandatory minimum sentences in Michigan in light of the Conservative governments tough on crime agenda that includes minimum sentences;
• an article on crime in overcrowded prisons featuring an interview with the new federal Correctional Investigator, if you recall his predecessor Ronald Stewart was ousted after some questionable practices; and,
• an article on the root of crime, which I think echoes the work done at the Better Beginnings, Better Futures research project.