Law Firm Names in the Age of Google – Tony Wilson (Vol. 19, No. 5)
Great article (as always Tony).

Happily I don’t need any such help or any more celebrity than I have already. Most Monday mornings I arrive in the office to three or four voicemail messages from a variety of accused individuals, intended for another lawyer, Sheldon Goldberg. These callers rarely identify themselves by name or leave any return phone numbers, and if their messages are intelligible they usually go something like this, “Sheldon, you got to get me out. I need bail now, man.” Or, “Hi Sheldon. They busted me again. They got nothing. Come get me.”

If only I practised criminal law.

– Lindsay D. Goldberg, Partner, Lang Michener LLP


RE: Legal Services Society Act Amendments
I am writing to clarify some potentially misleading comments in recent issues of BarTalk regarding the Legal Services Society Act amendments. Far from posing a threat to adequate services for low-income people, the changes, in fact, strengthen B.C.’s legal aid plan.

Passed in the spring sitting of the legislature, the amendments broaden the society’s mandate while ensuring low-income people will still have priority for legal aid. Although the changes do not fully restore the pre-2002 LSS mandate, in particular with respect to providing civil law services, they do take us part of the way there, and that is cause for celebration.

LSS can now be more flexible in providing services to people in need by, for example, doing much more for people who fall just outside the financial eligibility guidelines. Before, LSS were restricted in the help LSS could offer them, and it left some very deserving people in quite dire situations with no legal recourse.

The changes also pave the way for some exciting work ahead as LSS move forward with ensuring legal aid provides more client-centred services in a broad social context.

– Mark Benton, Executive Director, LSS

These letters were published in the December 2007 issue of BarTalk.