Nearly a decade after co-founding Cyberjustice Laboratory, a unique hub that analyses the impact of technologies on justice while developing concrete technological tools that are adapted to the reality of justice systems, Karim Benyekhlef and Fabien Gélinas have set their sights on artificial intelligence.
Legal business
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Blockchain operationalization
The federal government is cautiously wading in. Enticed by the promise of blockchain to simplify the management of trusted information in a secure fashion, the Canada Border Services Agency and the Port of Montreal, the country’s second-biggest port, are now testing a blockchain-enabled digital solution to see if it will streamline freight shipping. Several provincial governments too are swayed by the prospect of being able to better deliver government digital services, beginning with the British Columbia which launched OrgBook BC, a new blockchain-powered online search tool that allows users to verify if businesses and organizations are legally incorporated in the province.
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Administrative adjudicators can be removed from cases in deliberation, rules court
In an unusually public and legal tiff between two arbiters of Quebec’s disciplinary process, Quebec Superior Court ruled that the chair of Quebec’s disciplinary council of presidents has the power to remove cases, even in deliberation, from administrative adjudicators who take too long to render judgment.
The precedent-setting ruling, the first that examined the scope of powers in the hands of the chair, follows in the footsteps of a pan-Canadian trend by the courts to hold that the long-standing principle that adjudicators decide must give way to timely decision-making to ensure access to justice, respect for natural justice and the protection of the public, according to disciplinary law experts.
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Committee recommends raising Quebec Crown prosecutors’ salary by 14% over four years
The Quebec government’s resolve to establish harmonious labour relations with its Crown prosecutors will be put to the test after the National Assembly received a report by a special committee that made a slew of recommendations to improve their labour conditions.
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Procedural bijuralism pilot project to be launched by federal courts this fall
An ambitious pilot project by the federal courts that will allow for the application of the Quebec Code of Civil Procedure is being lauded by Quebec practitioners as a welcome initiative that may prompt more of them to avail themselves of the federal judicial bodies. -
Workplace investigations: Elephant in the room
Kenneth Jull has done them. So has Paul Klasios and Philippe Dufort-Langlois. All are or were at one time in-house counsel who have conducted internal investigations, an unpleasant exercise described by a lawyer as being a bit of a dark art that presents unique challenges. Nearly every general counsel too will sooner or later face the need to conduct an internal investigation into events at an organization. At a time of greater scrutiny by regulators, stakeholders and the general public, organizations of all sizes and across all sectors are dealing with growing calls demanding greater disclosure and transparency.Tags: workplace investigations -
Quebec Court of Appeal overturns labour tribunal’s interpretation of litigation privilege
A ruling by the Quebec Administrative Labour Tribunal that held that litigation privilege applies only in civil matters and in adversarial proceedings but not in an administrative law context before a quasi-judicial tribunal with powers of inquiry was overturned by the Quebec Court of Appeal. -
Litigation funding gaining traction
Litigation funding is taking off. Endowment and hedge funds, private equity and other savvy investors are pouring billions of dollars to funds that invest in litigation, enticed by ostensibly attractive returns. It’s also an area that is evolving quickly, and the market is experimenting with a variety of different types of funding arrangements. Litigation funding is no longer solely intended for funding class actions or personal injury suits. Corporate and insolvency litigation, international arbitration, and whistleblower suits are growing areas for litigation funding. -
Quebec lawyers and notaries lose battle against title insurers
American-based title insurers do not practise law or provide legal opinions when drawing up, registering and discharging refinanced mortgages, the Quebec Court of Appeal held in a legal battle that pitted the insurers against the governing bodies of the Quebec legal and notary professions.Tags: title insurance -
Murder clauses
The list of private and public sector organizations that are trying to rewrite the rules and pass on risks to architects seems to be literally growing by the day. The City of Burlington in Ontario tried to do it, with its Request for Proposal (RFP) for the design of a new pavilion building. So too did the City of Kingston when it issued an RFP for a community centre. Educational institutions such as Ryerson University and the Colliers Project Leaders in Fort Frances had a go at it as did the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. And that’s apart from the biggest culprit, Infrastructure Ontario, a Crown Agency that has been the subject of untold spirited discussions among the architectural community. All told, the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) issued half a dozen warnings over the past year to its 4,000 strong members about RFPs that were plagued with inappropriate, unfair and unreasonable conditions and expectations that unnecessarily subjected architects to unacceptable and uninsurable contract conditions. -
Sexual assault conviction does not, in itself, justify dismissal
A string of recent decisions by the Quebec administrative labour tribunal should give pause to employers – and employees too for that matter.
Sexual assault convictions do not, in itself, justify the dismissal of an employee because of constitutional protections against discrimination based on criminal records, held two recent but separate decisions by the Quebec administrative labour tribunal.
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Female general counsel earn less than male counterparts
The differences are starkest at the top echelons of leadership.
But there are encouraging signs that gender pay disparities may be shrinking, according to a recent survey by the Association of Corporate Counsel, a global legal association representing more than 43,000 members in 85 countries.
At the chief legal officer and general counsel level, median total compensation for women is US$210,000, or 78 per cent of the median total compensation earned by men, US$270,000. The pay gap peaks for lawyers who have 11 to 20 years of in-house tenure, with female in-house lawyers earning 69 per cent of their male counterparts’ compensation.
“Yet we are optimistic that the gap appears to shrink for newer generations of corporate counsel leaders and hope the data in the survey will yield more transparency,” noted said Veta Richardson, ACC’s president & chief executive officer.
That’s because the disparity in median compensation among general counsels who received a law degree after 2010 is less than half of the gap among general counsels who graduated law school prior to 2000.
On top of that, other positions in the corporate law department featured smaller gaps in compensation. , Female directors of compliance were almost on par with their male counterparts, with 95 per cent gender compensation parity while heads of legal operations were on an equal footing, the only job category without pay disparity. The median total compensation for head of legal operations is US$189,063 while the median total compensation for manager of legal operations is US$120,000. The top five per cent of heads of legal operations earn at least US$464,000 while legal operations managers make a minimum of US$275,000. More female than male respondents serve as heads of legal operations, and half of all survey respondents said their companies have a distinct legal operations function, according to the survey.
The highest-earning general counsel work in biotechnology and life sciences as well as technical R&D. While the top five per cent earn at least US$3.3 million, the median compensation for biotech general counsel is US$346,000 and US$265,000 for general counsels in technical R&D.
In-house counsel, not surprisingly, earn more in public companies than privately owned firms. The median base salary for all in-house legal positions is nearly US$25,000 higher in public companies compared to private ones. The median total compensation for general counsels in public companies stands at US$399,000 compared to US$225,000 in private companies.
In-house counsel specializing in capital markets, securities and finance are top earning practice areas for both men and women, with a median total compensation at US$280,000. That represents 37 per cent more than the median of all respondents.
Last year overall compensation increased for 75 per cent of all respondents, a trend expected to continue this year. Among those who received a raise, 25 per cent reported an increase of less than three per cent, 24 per cent said compensation increased between three and five per cent, and 24 per cent stated they received an increase of more than five per cent.
More than three-quarters of in-house counsel expect a pay hike this year. General counsel have the “greatest expectation” for salary growth across all job categories, with 26 per cent expecting an increase of at least five per cent, according to the survey.
“This is likely because more senior positions often receive stock options and restricted shares, which on average have a potential growth value that is higher than one’s base salary,” noted the survey.
Elsewhere in the world, the largest gender pay gaps are in Latin America and the Middle East and Africa, where women in-house lawyers made between 38 and 45 per cent of what their male colleagues earned, respectively. The United States, Canada, and Australia, had the smallest gaps (85, 83, and 81 per cent, respectively).
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Managing workplace sexual harassment
The series of revelations over the past year that sparked a seismic shift in public awareness of sexual misconduct by powerful men has also cast a harsh spotlight on workplace sexual harassment. Emboldened by the groundbreaking #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, growing numbers of women are speaking out — and that’s making organizations skittish, more so because they are under growing pressure to take a zero-tolerance approach to unacceptable comportment in the workplace.
Yet workplace sexual harassment is hardly a new issue. It has been on the legal radar since at least 1989 when the Supreme Court of Canada held in the landmark case of Janzen v. Platy Enterprises that sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination and violates human rights legislation. Fifteen years later, Quebec became the first jurisdiction in North America to ban non-discriminatory workplace harassment, a move followed by Ontario in 2009, and in the ensuing years other provinces followed suit.
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Some U.S. law firms use forced arbitration on summer associates
Some major U.S. law firms require their summer associates to sign “forced” arbitration agreements and related nondisclosure agreements related to workplace misconduct, including sexual harassment, according to a survey by top American law schools.
More tellingly, nearly half of the 400 U.S. law firms and legal organizations who received the survey chose not to respond to the survey.
“Almost half of the firms who received the survey – nearly 200 – have decided to hide behind a wall of secrecy,” said Molly Coleman, a second-year law at Harvard Law School and one of the organizers of the survey. “Especially in the #MeToo era, we are disheartened that they are unwilling to take a simple step to engage on this important issue.”
The survey, issued by 50 American law schools, was launched in response to student concerns about discrimination, including sexual harassment, in summer and post-graduate jobs.
The issue came to the fore this spring after Harvard Law School lecturer Ian Samuel tweeted that a major law required summer associates to agree to sign a “a very unusual agreement,” which he described as “plainly calculated” to shield the law firm from harassment claims.
In the wake of the controversy, the top tier law firm backed down, announcing that it will not require mandatory arbitration provisions and related nondisclosure agreements for its summer associates. Other law firms also reversed course.
American law students are now petitioning their schools to require all employers recruiting on campus to drop forced arbitration agreements.
“The legal practice is very, very quiet when it comes to things that are happening in legal workplaces,” told me a labour lawyer who deals extensively with workplace harassment. “As lawyers, especially when you are just starting and when you may be particularly vulnerable to harassment, there is such a power imbalance in law firms. You depend so much on your reputation and other people’s word of mouth on your reputation that there are very significant barriers to people speaking out about sexual harassment.”
The labour lawyer expects that law firms too will face their #MeToo day of reckoning but that it will “probably be not in such a public way.”
The results of the survey, which include the names of U.S. law firms and legal organizations, can be downloaded here:
Employer 2018 Survey Regarding Arbitration Agreements – Law firms & Legal Organizations
Categories: Legal business
