A few of my friends and associates have already left law as a career. Most of them aren't sure if they will ever come back. That got me to thinking, what would I do if I wasn't practicing law. It is a difficult thought, now that I am deep into a personal legal practice. The idea of throwing away those three years of law school, that year of articling, that year of preparing for law school. Many, that would be hard. But, there are those out there who are desperate to get out of this career. Believe me, it is not for everyone. Here are some resources that I have recently come across:
1. www.leavingthelaw.com. "You can find meaningful, engaging work outside of the law and make a good living. Together we help you discover the alternative career you were meant to have and make your career transition with joy and ease.
A former miserable practicing lawyer, I’ve developed a variety of unique products and services that empower you to find fulfilling work.
Become someone you never thought you could be—a lawyer who looks forward to going to work."
2. The Unhappy Lawyer: A Roadmap to Finding Meaningful Work Outside of the Law (Paperback) by Monica Parker (Author)
3. Running from the Law: Why Good Lawyers Are Getting Out of the Legal Profession (Paperback) by Deborah Arron (Author)
4. What Can You Do With a Law Degree?: A Lawyer's Guide to Career Alternatives Inside, Outside & Around the Law (Paperback) by Deborah Arron (Author)
5. Nonlegal Careers for Lawyers, Fifth Edition (Paperback) by Gary A. Munneke (Author)
6. Alternative Careers for Lawyers (Princeton Review Series) (Paperback) by Hillary Mantis (Author)
7. Beyond L.A. Law: Inspiring Stories of People Who've Done Fascinating Things with a Law Degree (Paperback) by National Association for Law Placement (Author)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Women In Law: Bucci serves community and piles up accomplishments
By Robert Todd | Publication Date: Monday, 14 July 2008 - Law Times
Small towns in Ontario fighting to keep legal services may want to give Kristen Bucci a call for advice on luring law grads.
Read this inspiring article here.
Small towns in Ontario fighting to keep legal services may want to give Kristen Bucci a call for advice on luring law grads.
Read this inspiring article here.
The Attorney Multipass
July 2008 Issue
By Jill Schachner Chanen
ABA Journal
From his office at Butzel Long’s Detroit headquarters, lawyer Richard Rassel can watch the massive 18-wheel trucks driving across the Ambassador Bridge from Michigan into Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Most of those trucks started their long journey north to Canada from Mexico, crossing through three countries with three distinct legal systems, observes Rassel, the firm’s past chairman and current director of global client relations.
In some ways that journey is a fitting metaphor for the needs of most businesses these days.
As foreign trade becomes more common for even the smallest of businesses, a need for lawyers versed in multiple legal systems has emerged. And now the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law is stepping forward to help fill this need.
Earlier this year the law school launched a dual-degree program with Mexico’s Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, a private law school in the Mexican state of Nuevo León. The program is modeled after UDM’s 8-year-old dual-degree program with the University of Windsor Faculty of Law in Ontario, which allows law students to obtain combined J.D./LLB degrees in three years.
That program has had a total of 120 students studying in both countries since its inception. And its dual-degree grads have found their way to big law firms in Toronto, New York City and Chicago, among other cities, where they have put their international legal and language skills to work, says UDM law school dean Mark C. Gordon.
Read the whole article here.
By Jill Schachner Chanen
ABA Journal
From his office at Butzel Long’s Detroit headquarters, lawyer Richard Rassel can watch the massive 18-wheel trucks driving across the Ambassador Bridge from Michigan into Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Most of those trucks started their long journey north to Canada from Mexico, crossing through three countries with three distinct legal systems, observes Rassel, the firm’s past chairman and current director of global client relations.
In some ways that journey is a fitting metaphor for the needs of most businesses these days.
As foreign trade becomes more common for even the smallest of businesses, a need for lawyers versed in multiple legal systems has emerged. And now the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law is stepping forward to help fill this need.
Earlier this year the law school launched a dual-degree program with Mexico’s Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, a private law school in the Mexican state of Nuevo León. The program is modeled after UDM’s 8-year-old dual-degree program with the University of Windsor Faculty of Law in Ontario, which allows law students to obtain combined J.D./LLB degrees in three years.
That program has had a total of 120 students studying in both countries since its inception. And its dual-degree grads have found their way to big law firms in Toronto, New York City and Chicago, among other cities, where they have put their international legal and language skills to work, says UDM law school dean Mark C. Gordon.
Read the whole article here.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Goodbye to Robin Penker
A really good friend of mine died last week in a mountain climbing accident. I am really saddened by the loss of Robin Penker. He was one of the first people that I met in law school. He was an outstanding law student and lawyer. He was on the editorial board of the Alberta Law Review when I was Editor in Chief, and he always did excellent work.
I hiked with Robin and did some scrambles with him. He died doing a scramble by himself in Kananaskis. We will probably never know what happened. He was on Mt. Kidd. They had a hard time finding him because he didn't tell anyone where he was going.
Robin was a lawyer at FMC, and then in a firm in the Maritimes. He then went to work in-house, and was recently on a sabbatical. He traveled to South America and Europe.
He was just an outstanding person, and I am going to miss him very, very much.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Friends of Kananaskis Country (www.kananaskis.org).
I have information about memorial services if you know Robin and would like to attend.
I hiked with Robin and did some scrambles with him. He died doing a scramble by himself in Kananaskis. We will probably never know what happened. He was on Mt. Kidd. They had a hard time finding him because he didn't tell anyone where he was going.
Robin was a lawyer at FMC, and then in a firm in the Maritimes. He then went to work in-house, and was recently on a sabbatical. He traveled to South America and Europe.
He was just an outstanding person, and I am going to miss him very, very much.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Friends of Kananaskis Country (www.kananaskis.org).
I have information about memorial services if you know Robin and would like to attend.
Hands off LSAT students' fingers
Mon, July 7, 2008
By DAVID CANTON, FREELANCE WRITER - London Free Press
A recent decision by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada found that taking finger/thumb prints from those writing the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is a privacy breach and must be stopped.
Read the whole article here.
That's some good news. Surely there are other ways that they can reduce cheating on this test.
By DAVID CANTON, FREELANCE WRITER - London Free Press
A recent decision by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada found that taking finger/thumb prints from those writing the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is a privacy breach and must be stopped.
Read the whole article here.
That's some good news. Surely there are other ways that they can reduce cheating on this test.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
An update on my life
I haven't written a personal post in some time. Here's the scoop:
I am a sole practitioner right now, searching desperately for a partner. I do not like working alone. At all. It's boring. Want to be my partner? I'm really fun to work with. Really.
I sold my publishing house. Now I can just be a lawyer. And an author. I am supposed to write another book soon. It's title is a secret. But, it should be good. It's non-fiction again. I'm also slowly working on a fiction book. That's a lot of fun, when I can get in the right mood.
I'm also supposed to be working on a book called A Practical Guide to Canadian Law Schools with another author. However, he might write the whole thing...we'll see how he does. It will be a great complement to my book. It will look specifically at each law school. It's a ton of work, I'm sure.
I'm helping my wife coach our girl's swimming team. I came up with a logo for it yesterday. I think it looks kind of cool. Being a swim coach is a lot more fun than being a lawyer, which means being a swim coach is really, really fun. (smile)
I am trying to stay away from my office as much as possible this summer, but it is hard because it is busy. Summer is always the busiest real estate time, and my firm does a lot of that work.
I miss law school. I miss taking off from life whenever I wanted to go run a few miles, hit the gym, or go swimming. But, I'm trying to do that as much as I can this summer. My assistants probably hate me for that. I am hoping to take some holidays in September.
I am a sole practitioner right now, searching desperately for a partner. I do not like working alone. At all. It's boring. Want to be my partner? I'm really fun to work with. Really.
I sold my publishing house. Now I can just be a lawyer. And an author. I am supposed to write another book soon. It's title is a secret. But, it should be good. It's non-fiction again. I'm also slowly working on a fiction book. That's a lot of fun, when I can get in the right mood.
I'm also supposed to be working on a book called A Practical Guide to Canadian Law Schools with another author. However, he might write the whole thing...we'll see how he does. It will be a great complement to my book. It will look specifically at each law school. It's a ton of work, I'm sure.
I'm helping my wife coach our girl's swimming team. I came up with a logo for it yesterday. I think it looks kind of cool. Being a swim coach is a lot more fun than being a lawyer, which means being a swim coach is really, really fun. (smile)I am trying to stay away from my office as much as possible this summer, but it is hard because it is busy. Summer is always the busiest real estate time, and my firm does a lot of that work.
I miss law school. I miss taking off from life whenever I wanted to go run a few miles, hit the gym, or go swimming. But, I'm trying to do that as much as I can this summer. My assistants probably hate me for that. I am hoping to take some holidays in September.
Blasphemy law should be repealed
Jul 06, 2008 04:30 AM
Be the first to comment on this article...
- TheStar.comLast month, after a long debate, England abolished the ancient common law offence of blasphemous libel.
Historically, the crime of blasphemy was committed whenever "contemptuous," "reviling," or "scurrilous" statements were made about God, Jesus Christ or the Church of England.
The offence had been the basis for hundreds of prosecutions throughout the 18th and 19th centuries before falling into a period of dormancy after 1922.
Surprisingly, however, the offence was suddenly resurrected as the basis of a successful private prosecution against a gay newspaper in 1977.
Subsequent private prosecutions against Salman Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses in the late 1980s and against the musical Jerry Springer: The Opera just last year were unsuccessful but equally disturbing to modern proponents of free speech.
What most Canadians (even most lawyers) don't realize is that our own Criminal Code also prohibits blasphemous libel and sets a penalty of up to two years in prison.
I had no idea this was part of our Criminal Code? I don't remember discussing this in Criminal Law class at Law School. What do you think? Should it be repealed?
Ontario schools compete for law faculties
Three Ontario universities are jockeying to be the first to open a law school in Canada in nearly 30 years, setting the stage for a battle of ambitions as they compete for government funding and approvals from the legal community, as well as the prestige that a new faculty would bring.
Plans for the new schools, in various stages of development, come from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo and most recently Sudbury's Laurentian University, which last month announced it was conducting a feasibility study on a new law faculty.
Also in the works are plans for a graduate law program at the new Balsillie School of International Affairs, which would involve the University of Waterloo and could be linked to the Laurier proposal.
Read the whole story here.
Lots of you have indicated that you don't think we need another law school. How about three???
Friday, June 20, 2008
Ottawa law students file complaint over Facebook
Josh Visser, CTV.ca News Staff
A group of University of Ottawa law students have filed a complaint with the privacy commissioner of Canada against the social networking website Facebook.
The 35-page complaint alleges 22 separate violations of Canadian privacy laws by the California-based company under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
"To boil it down simply, it's an issue of honesty and an issue of consent," Lisa Feinberg, a University of Ottawa law student who has just completed her first year, told CTV.ca. "Facebook isn't being completely honest with its users. It presents itself as a social utility site . . . but they are actually involved in a lot of commercial activities."
Feinberg is part of a team of University of Ottawa law students who filed the complaint as part of a project developed while they were interns with the university's Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, led by Philippa Lawson.
Good on these guys. I happen to hate Facebook. I'm on it, due to some distinct family pressure, and an innate desire to track down some specific friends, but I always worry about people knowing a bit too much about me and my family.
Billions of dollars hang on Canada court's BCE hearing
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's top court has the potential on Tuesday to create several billion dollars in shareholder value for investors of BCE Inc. (BCE.TO: Quote, Profile, Research)(BCE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) when it considers whether to let the world's largest leveraged buyout proceed.
I would just love to be a junior lawyer in this case. It would be fascinating, I'm sure.
I would just love to be a junior lawyer in this case. It would be fascinating, I'm sure.
Queen's law grads to receive new designation
Bachelor of Laws degree will no longer be issued by the university
Posted By BY JANE SWITZER, FOR THE WHIG-STANDARD
What's in a name? that's what students and alumni of the Queen's Faculty of Law are asking themselves.This April marked the last graduating class of students from the Queen's Faculty of Law who had a choice between choosing a Bachelor of Laws (LL. B) or a Juris Doctor (JD) designation on their diploma.
Controversy surrounding the change in designation has been building since William Flanagan, dean of the Queen's Faculty of Law, made the announcement that all future graduating classes in the Faculty of Law will have their LL. B designations replaced with JD designations in 2007.
Read this informative article here, and post your comments on this blog.
Monday, June 16, 2008
LLB VS. JD - As it Happens - CBC
| LLB VS. JD | Duration: 00:05:23 | |||
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Law grad goes the distance
Read this nice story about the Gold Medalist at UVic Law School (Meagan Lang). Nice! Way to go Meagan! I especially like the part about running a marathon!
Doctoral student bestowed with award from Trudeau Foundation
Irvin Studin’s gamble to leave a lucrative career as a foreign policy specialist with the Privy Council office to become a doctoral student at Osgoode Hall Law School has paid off in dividends. Read more here.
This guy sounds like he's priming up for the office of PM!
I couldn't understand whether he was a lawyer or not. Perhaps just an academic? Why would you get a PhD in law if you hadn't received a law degree or Master of Laws?
This guy sounds like he's priming up for the office of PM!
I couldn't understand whether he was a lawyer or not. Perhaps just an academic? Why would you get a PhD in law if you hadn't received a law degree or Master of Laws?
Laurentian studies law school
Laurentian University is examining the potential of a Northern Ontario law school in an attempt to attract students and professionals north. Read more here.
Career shift offers fresh start for federal prosecuter
This is a nice little story about New Peterborough federal prosecutor Mauro DiCarlo, whose legal career does not fit the usual mold.
Isaac Lidsky to Become First Blind Supreme Court Law Clerk
I tried to get to this article, but no such luck. Isaac Lidsky to Become First Blind Supreme Court Law Clerk. It sounds really inspirational, so if you know where I can find the article, please let me know.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
UBC and HKU forge law school alliance
From Financial Post - Legal Post:
May 28, 2008
Earlier this month the University of British Columbia and the University of Hong Kong established a new joint legal education program. The Faculties of Law at UBC and HKU will each accept up to five students per year, starting in 2009. All students enrolled in the program will be able to earn the law degrees required -- subject to admission and completion of the professional course requirements -- for law practice in both jurisdictions.
Read the whole article here.
This sounds like a really cool program. Wow!
May 28, 2008
Earlier this month the University of British Columbia and the University of Hong Kong established a new joint legal education program. The Faculties of Law at UBC and HKU will each accept up to five students per year, starting in 2009. All students enrolled in the program will be able to earn the law degrees required -- subject to admission and completion of the professional course requirements -- for law practice in both jurisdictions.
Read the whole article here.
This sounds like a really cool program. Wow!
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
I really liked reading the last few posts on the Canadian law school blog, Lawyer Like
It's interesting to hear the emotion the poster has about finally getting through law school. Good for you!!!
It's interesting to hear the emotion the poster has about finally getting through law school. Good for you!!!
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