As I sit down to write, expectations are that British confectionary icon Cadbury PLC will be swallowed whole by Kraft Foods Inc. in an acquisition worth $19.3 billion despite Kraft’s top shareholder Warren Buffett calling the takeover a “bad deal.”

 

 

Providing legal opinions is an everyday occurrence, but what part should ethics play in the form and function of such opinions?

 

The weather outside may be frightful but everyone’s outlook seems to be a lot more delightful than it was at this time last year.  Heading into the first quarter of 2010 there appears to be a lot less malaise, trepidation, worry, anxiety, fretting — you get the picture — than there was 12 months ago. At that time, not only were we hearing from law firms about their concerns over the economy, we also felt the tightening of belts as an organization that services the legal community.

 

Canada’s trade with China has never been bigger, and it’s never grown faster. According to the latest statistics, we now exchange $53 billion in goods and services with them each year, making China our second-largest trading partner after the United States.

In this issue, we present our annual Canadian Lawyer corporate counsel survey. The results generally mirror other polls of in-house counsel that have been done by various organizations in North America and abroad.

Recently, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart found Facebook violated federal privacy law and had failed to implement corrective measures with respect to four major privacy gaps. Curiously absent from the decision and media coverage was any mention of enforcement action resulting from such findings. Instead, the media reported the privacy commissioner and Facebook were “at odds” but (thank goodness) were “pledging co-operation” and “continuing dialogue.”

After working on last year’s special report on women in law, I was looking for a similar issue to focus on for 2009 and decided to examine diversity in the legal profession.

 

Be it the tiger, the dragon, or even the camel, the nations of Asia are a hot market for Canadian legal business. Throughout this issue of Canadian Lawyer, we  look at the opportunities presented by the nations of Asia. The Earth’s largest continent boasts such a variety of markets, economies, and, quite simply, people, that in this globalized economy it can’t be ignored.

 

The Supreme Court recently put a foot badly wrong. With one clumsy step, it raised doubts about its commitment to transparency and openness. To boot, it puzzled and annoyed — in some cases, even offended — many of the most knowledgeable and friendly observers of the court and its workings.

In this issue, both Legal Ethics columnist Philip Slayton and incoming Canadian Bar Association president Kevin Carroll touch on the explosive issue of police and prosecutors doing background checks on potential jurors. At least two mistrials in Ontario were declared once the irregular, perhaps even illegal, practice came to light.