Diversity
Potential claims related to serving Indigenous clients
We hope that January 2016 issue of LAWPRO Magazine has contributed to your understanding of the incredible breadth and complexity of “Aboriginal law.” We would not be fulfilling our risk management mandate, however, if we didn’t contribute our own perspective as claims prevention specialists. To avoid claims, lawyers need to know how they develop. What… Read More »
Categories: Communication Errors, Risk Management Strategies, DiversityProviding high quality service to Indigenous clients
Lawyers who take on the work of representing Indigenous people have a special opportunity to…support the progress of Indigenous families and communities toward self-determination and a better standard of living. The January 2016 issue of LAWPRO Magazine is devoted to serving Indigenous clients. It features a comprehensive article by Nora Rock that provides an overview… Read More »
Categories: Communication Errors, DiversityMy favourite tips from the FACL 9th Annual Conference
This past Saturday, the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers (FACL) held its 9th annual conference in Toronto. We closed the conference with the first-ever “60 tips in 60 minutes” session, a popular format borrowed from our American neighbours. I squeezed in with the heavy hitting 60 tips panel including Lorne Sossin, Osgoode Hall Dean; Jeffrey… Read More »
Categories: Communication Errors, Civil Litigation, Career Management, Wellness and Balance, Law Practice Management, Corporate Law, Diversity, Risk Management & Claims PreventionInside the Lawyer’s Mind Part 6 (Conclusion): Managing Our Traits
We have seen in this 6-part series that we, as lawyers, exhibit a number of traits that help us in the practice of law but hurt us in the management and business of a law firm. Lawyers tend to score high on measurements of skepticism, autonomy, and urgency, while scoring low on measurements of sociability… Read More »
Categories: Risk Management Strategies, Career Management, Law Practice Management, DiversityInside the Lawyer’s Mind Part 3: Urgency
In our previous two posts we learned that good lawyers score in the top 10th percentile on measures of skepticism and autonomy. A third trait that lawyers score high on is urgency, which measures a lawyer’s need to get things done and degree of impatience. Consultant Dr. Larry Richard states in his LAWPRO article that… Read More »
Categories: Risk Management Strategies, Career Management, Law Practice Management, DiversityInside the Lawyer’s Mind Part 2: Autonomy
Following up on my previous post on lawyers’ personality traits, we discuss autonomy, a trait that helps lawyers do their job but makes them poor bedfellows in a law firm environment. Dr. Larry Richard states in our LAWPRO magazine article “Herding Cats: The Lawyer Personality Revealed” that studies suggest high achieving lawyers score in the 89th… Read More »
Categories: Risk Management Strategies, Practice Aids, Career Management, Wellness and Balance, Law Practice Management, DiversityThe Average Lawyer Is 90% More Skeptical Than Everyone Else: what this means for your clients, your colleagues, and your firm.
A skeptical lawyer is a good lawyer. He scrutinizes every line in a contract. He questions the opposing party’s arguments. He looks for hidden motives. He looks at the law with a critical eye. His legal decisions are guided by a healthy pessimism, which helps him guard against mistakes. At the same time, a skeptical… Read More »
Categories: Fraud Prevention, Practice Aids, Career Management, Wellness and Balance, Law Practice Management, DiversityWhen taking instructions isn’t taking instructions
How does a diverse population and profession affect our ability as lawyers to settle files, facilitate the purchase of homes, and help businesses grow? It turns out that a number of claims have arisen in recent years where either lawyers have made bad assumptions about their racialized clients, or where racialized lawyers have been taken… Read More »
Categories: Risk Management Strategies, Civil Litigation, Diversity