BarTalk June 2004
Volume 16, Number 3

CBA Advertising Campaigns 2004

Spotlight on the role of lawyers in community and business
The Canadian Bar Association has two advertising campaigns underway throughout the Spring of 2004. First, the national television and print ad featuring lawyer Ritu Banerjee and highlighting the contributions that lawyers make to society. This campaign was developed in response to identification of “image of the profession” as the single issue of most importance to CBA members. The ad campaign is being featured in television programs across the country, as well as local newspapers and magazines.

The second ad campaign is specific to B.C., directed squarely at the business community. It features information about two important pieces of legislation – the B.C. Business Corporations Act and the Personal Information Protection Act – and promotes the role of lawyers in assisting businesses both with ensuring compliance and realizing benefits from the new legislation. This ad is being run in B.C. Business magazine and in all daily newspapers in the province, including the business sections of the Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province and Victoria Times-Colonist.

   

CLE Wins National Acclaim

Congratulations to B.C.’s CLE Society, which has received national acclaim for its innovation and partnership with Microsoft in publishing online CLE materials.

Seeking to ”revolutionize legal research”, the CLE Society wanted to develop a system that would make its massive reference books easily searchable and extensively hyperlinked, so that users could instantly click through to related information. Thus a lawyer could click directly from a chapter in CLE's online "practice manual" to every other pertinent reference in the book, to relevant precedents, to a decision on a court Web site, or to the relevant legislation on a government site.

As a result of their work, six of CLE’s most popular manuals will soon be available online (Real Estate Practice, Family Law Practice, Family Law Sourcebook, Company Law Practice, Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Practice, and Probate and Estate Administration Practice). Watch for an announcement from CLE.

PracticeLink: Finding the Perfect Laptop

Sandra Schulz’s popular “Packing My Own ’Chute” series continues with helpful hints and useful advice on buying the perfect laptop for your home office. PracticeLink has an ever-evolving collection of quick tips, covering topics such as client services, finances, technology; it’s worth checking often.

View the “Packing My Own ‘Chute” series and much more at www.cba.org/practicelink.

OBA Trip Delights Bar Members

Margaret Ostrowski, QC just returned from an OBA trip to southern India and Sri Lanka. This is a brief account of the trip.

The sun was hot, the five-star hotel rooms were cool and our fellow travelers became our friends. My husband and I recently returned from an 18-day convention organized by the Canadian Bar Association, Ontario Branch (OBA), in southern India and Sri Lanka. We highly recommend the trip to all members of the bar. It was a great group – 63 travelers in all – including 40 lawyers and three members of the judiciary – the youngest traveler was 14 and the oldest was an 82-year-old practising lawyer!

Our first stop was one of eight cities we visited on the convention and tour. After a 20-hour plane ride from Vancouver, we landed in Chennai and were whisked off in air-conditioned buses to a beach resort where we were greeted with flower lais and cold drinks. We were treated to an Indian buffet, a swimming pool on the Bay of Bengal, and an introduction to Indian history and culture.

The next day, we traveled to the World Heritage Site of the shore temples of Mamallapuram, and then to a reception and dinner with guests from the Madras Bar Association. This was one of many stops that included receptions and dinners with members of the bar in each city, panel discussions, a tour of the High Court of Kandy and Mumbai, visits to botanical gardens, temples, shrines, a synagogue in Goa, Mysore Palace, elephant orphanage, tea plantation, spice garden, small village, train ride and of course, shopping for silks, carpets, gems, wooden elephants, and anything else you can think of. We all came back loaded down, and many had goods following by post.

This is the 17th annual trip that the OBA has organized to diverse areas of the world; many members go every year. We are all invited – and their planning committee has already commenced work on the trip to South Africa in 2005. For those wondering about the value of bar associations, join us next time – you will be truly amazed and delighted in meeting and learning about the countries and culture of our fellow bar association members.

The Electronic Courthouse: ADR Online

With the click of a mouse, CBA members can access expert online dispute resolution services. A CBA member service provider, The Electronic Courthouse combines the necessary tools to move from dispute to resolution – right from your desktop. Their service includes a roster of experts and resolution professionals drawn from top North American law firms and trading nations around the world.

The Electronic Courthouse guides parties and counsel through an eight-step process that mirrors conventional dispute resolution, but that incorporates forms, templates, model clauses, negotiation support tools, online meeting rooms, translation services, and credit reports – for an attractive flat fee. Services include mediation, arbitration, expert evaluation and negotiation support.

To learn more, please contact Andrew Putman at 416-506-0456, or aputman@electroniccourthouse.com or please visit www.electroniccourthouse.com.

These articles were published in the June 2004 issue of BarTalk and are subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2004, all rights reserved.