Canada

DLA Piper and Canadian law firm vote to merge

DLA Piper and Canadian law firm Davis have agreed to a merger. The Vancouver Sun and the Am Law Daily (sub. req.) have news of the deal, approved by Davis last Wednesday and by DLA Piper the prior week. Davis has about 260 lawyers, including about 112 partners, in six…

Mar 2, 2015 7:11 AM CST

Court filing says attorney took up to $15M or more from clients, seeks freeze on bank accounts

A well-known lawyer may have improperly taken $15 million or more from clients over a several-year period, the Law Society of Upper Canada says. In a Thursday filing in Toronto’s superior court, the group seeks a freeze on Claudio Martini’s client trust-account funds and bank accounts related to his law…

Dec 18, 2014 12:45 PM CST

Judge to end case over nude photos posted online by her husband by retiring from bench

As a 10-day hearing was set to begin Monday in a legal ethics case over nude photos of a senior Canadian judge, a lawyer for the Manitoba jurist asked that the case be dropped because her client plans to retire in May. Although the graphic photos were posted on the…

Nov 24, 2014 2:07 PM CST

Police at court for unrelated reasons spot suspect in theft case they’re investigating

Police officers called to investigate a Nov. 2 shoplifting at a Canadian grocery store didn’t have to put in a lot of legwork to find their suspect after obtaining a surveillance photo. As they were at work in the Barrie Courthouse on Friday, they spotted him. He was wearing the…

Nov 14, 2014 3:55 PM CST

Lawyer is reportedly missing, along with over $3 million in trust account

A Canadian real estate attorney is missing, along with all but about $89,000, in U.S. dollars, of over $3 million in mortgage funds from institutional lenders that had been held in a trust account at the sole practitioner’s law firm, according to the The Law Society of Upper Canada. Credit…

Nov 3, 2014 8:05 AM CST

Money, sex, madness and murder at fictional Bay Street law firm is focus of ex-partner’s new novel

In the wake of a best-selling nonfiction book about lawyers behaving badly, a former law school dean and ex-partner at one of Canada’s elite law firms has turned to fiction. In his self-published legal thriller Bay Street, Philip Slayton writes of money, sex, madness and murder, the Globe and Mail…

Oct 24, 2014 4:30 PM CDT

Dozens of shots fired in Canada’s parliament building; Soldier killed at nearby war memorial

Most of downtown Ottawa, Ontario, is in lockdown—though restrictions have been eased as the day has gone on, the Guardian reports—after a gunman entered Canada’s main parliament building Wednesday, where witnesses said 30 to 50 shots were fired. The showdown there followed the shooting of a Canadian Armed Forces solider…

Oct 22, 2014 11:20 AM CDT

Fax from Toronto lawyer helped police find victim’s head

A faxed note from a Toronto lawyer helped police find the dismembered head of a murder victim, a Montreal detective testified on Wednesday at the murder trial for the suspect. Montreal detective Antonio Paradiso testified that the fax was from the office of lawyer Raphael Feldstein and contained his initials,…

Oct 16, 2014 9:00 AM CDT

Does government owe moose-vehicle crash victims? Lawyer vows appeal after losing class action

More than 100 years ago, Canadian officials introduced moose on the island of Newfoundland, intending to provide a source of food. However, the moose population got out of control and is now the cause of hundreds of vehicle accidents annually as the nearly 1,000-pound, top-heavy animals suddenly sprint across roadways…

Sep 23, 2014 1:55 PM CDT

Canada’s Colin Lachance is blazing a ‘new frontier for free legal information’

The Canadian Legal Information Institute was already a smashing success—and the envy of many in the free law movement—even before Colin Lachance took over as president in April 2011. Founded in 2001, CanLII is the largest free legal database in the country. As Lachance explains, the concept for CanLII came…

Sep 16, 2014 8:30 AM CDT

New trouble for Justin Bieber, charged in ATV accident and fight

What was supposed to be a quiet vacation for actor Justin Bieber in the Canadian community in which he grew up has resulted in new trouble for the popular singer. Bieber, 20, was released on his own recognizance after being charged in a Friday traffic accident and subsequent altercation in…

Sep 2, 2014 4:55 PM CDT

OK nonlawyer ownership of firms, says Canadian bar

In a report published Thursday, the Globe & Mail reports, the Canadian Bar Association recommended that nonlawyers be able to own law firms. The suggestions were detailed in Futures: Transforming the Delivery of Legal Services in Canada (PDF). The CBA is a voluntary group, and the Canadian legal profession is…

Aug 14, 2014 9:10 PM CDT

Woman is convicted of causing 2 deaths by stopping for ducklings on highway, faces maximum of life

A jury in Montreal convicted a Canadian woman on Friday of causing two deaths when she stopped her car in a highway traffic lane in 2010 to rescue a family of half a dozen ducklings. Although Emma Czornobaj, 25, lacked criminal intent, she nonetheless faces a maximum life prison term…

Jun 23, 2014 10:25 PM CDT

Canada grants asylum to US woman sentenced to 30 years for having sex with teen

A mortgage broker who fled Florida with her family after being criminally convicted in 2008 for having sex with a 16-year-old boy on her son’s baseball team has been granted asylum in Canada. Denise Harvey, 47, won the rare permission to apply for permanent residency because her 30-year sentence was…

Jun 10, 2014 9:40 PM CDT

Top corporate lawyer suspended for comments that led to ‘Scud Stud a Dud’ election article

Updated: One of Canada’s top corporate lawyers has been suspended from practice for four months for her role in a negative 2008 news column about a former NBC war correspondent running for a seat on the Alberta legislature. Kristine Robidoux admitted Monday that she had been one of the sources…

May 28, 2014 2:02 PM CDT