The troika of artificial intelligence, pricing, and talent transience has been with us for some time now. As a result, traditional pyramid-structured law firms grappling with these bet-the-business juggernauts are at an inflection point. I propose a flatter way forward.

I have been writing and talking about this issue for many years, most recently as part of my ‘The Law Firm’ series: Pyramid Rollover, Private Equity Puzzle, Disappearing Act, Foundational Rebuild, and now this one, Inflection Point.

My argument throughout this series is that traditional law firm pyramid structures will not hold against AI, pricing, and . . . [more]

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award­-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from more than 80 recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. BC Estate Litigation Blog 2. Administrative Law Matters 3. Equilawbrium 4. Civil Resolution Tribunal blog 5. Labour Pains

BC Estate Litigation Blog
What I’m Reading: Interesting Estate Articles for May 2026

The following is a round-up of noteworthy articles published this month on estate litigation issues: Eric . . . [more]

Earlier this year, a motion at the Ontario Superior Court paused while everyone in the room went looking for a quotation. The factum on one side quoted a decision of the Court of Appeal, and opposing counsel could not find the quoted words anywhere in that decision. He suspected the factum had been drafted with AI. The judge called a short recess, so the party who filed it could go and find the passage.[1]

The citation was correct, and anyone who looked it up would have found exactly the case named. In this instance, AI produced a fake quotation . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : Serge Audette est reconnu coupable de l’homicide involontaire d’une jeune femme qui a disparu 30 ans plus tôt et dont le corps n’a jamais été trouvé.

Intitulé : R. c. Audette, 2026 QCCQ 2478 *
Juridiction : Cour du Québec, Chambre criminelle et pénale (C.Q.), Montréal
Décision . . . [more]

As a supplement to our Sunday Summary each month, Supreme Advocacy LLP in Ottawa presents Supreme One-Liners, a super-short descriptive guide to the most recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers its more comprehensive weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, summarizing all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted.

Appeal

Criminal Law: Police Misconduct Disclosure
Edmonton (Police Service) v. McKee, 2026 SCC 24 (41110)

Multiple disclosure issues re prior police misconduct.

Leave to Appeal Granted

Torts: Future Care Needs; Deductibility of Provincial Payments
H.D v. British Columbia (Ministry of Children and Family Development), . . . [more]

In a previous article, I wrote about the benefits of simulations in jump-starting learning. In this article, I want to focus on one specific aspect of simulation: the use of simulated clients.

Medicine has long used simulated patients to help students develop practical skills and bedside manner. The use of simulated clients to support law student learning is a more recent development. Through the pioneering work of Paul Maharg and others, simulated clients have become an important educational tool in legal education in Canada and around the world.

Rather than discussing the history of simulated clients or the training they . . . [more]

Research libraries are integral to scholarship, scientific discovery and economic innovation. A foundational element of this support is providing access to extensive collections of scholarly content — peer-reviewed journals and monographs, databases, archives and primary source materials — that enable current research methodologies. Of increasing concern is how libraries can fulfill these obligations when access to much of the essential research corpus is through digital access and governed by contracts that often explicitly or implicitly prohibit certain uses, including AI-driven research methodologies.

AI, cloud computing and increased processing power have accelerated the growth of computational research methodologies and scholars from . . . [more]

I watch a lot of hockey – but mostly on television. This year I attended a playoff game of the PWHL’s Ottawa Charge at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa. It was an exciting game, but for me there was one concerning moment, when I heard thousands of people chanting, “Refs, you suck!”, after a call on the ice against the home team. As a hockey fan, I too did not like some of their calls, or non-calls, but there is a critical difference between attacking a decision and attacking the person who made the decision.

Before the game started, . . . [more]

Not all mystery cases are caused by a mistyped citation or AI hallucination. Sometimes people remember only the vague details of a case (“it was an employment case involving someone who insisted on dressing up as a clown at work”) but not the names of the parties. While they may have a vague idea of when it happened, people tend to remember events as being more recent than they actually were.

If you’re missing crucial information about a case and can’t seem to track it down with the information that you have been given, it can be helpful to check . . . [more]

Each Monday we present brief excerpts of recent posts from five of Canada’s award­-winning legal blogs chosen at random* from more than 80 recent Clawbie winners. In this way we hope to promote their work, with their permission, to as wide an audience as possible.

This week the randomly selected blogs are 1. Sport Law Blog 2. Slaw 3. Lash Condo Law 4. Vincent Gautrais 5. SOQUIJ | Le Blogue

Sport Law Blog
Beyond Cultural Intelligence: Why Highly Relational Teams Will Help Sport Thrive

I’ve been writing about better ways of leading, coaching, and competing for over three decades. And . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : La juge de première instance n’a pas erré en concluant que l’Unité permanente anticorruption et le poursuivant avaient transgressé de manière délibérée des principes jurisprudentiels connus en matière de communication de la preuve ni en ordonnant l’arrêt des procédures contre les intimés, lesquels faisaient l’objet de sérieuses . . . [more]

This past CBA National Immigration conference in Ottawa marked the 20th year I have attended this rendezvous. Every year, the conference is packed with updates from IRCC and brainstorming with colleagues from across Canada. After each conference, I meet with my team to review new programs and innovations from other law firms.

AI issues started to creep into the conference in 2023. A friend and colleague, Will Tao, did excellent work at that time reporting on the use of Chinook at IRCC and he published the article, AI statecraft heating-up: the automation of governance through Canada’s Chinook case study.  Back . . . [more]