Illustration: Matthew Billington

Lawyers on the go are increasingly exploring options for accessing information from offsite locations. This trend promises to continue as more and more portable digital platforms are developed and enter the market. Smartphones, an array of tablets, along with the old laptop computer, allow us to take a phenomenal amount of technology just about anywhere. Combined with emerging services like cloud computing we can also have access to the office, complete with software and reference material.

Last November, Matthew Whalley posted on the LinkedIn discussion group Knowledge Management for Legal Professionals a presentation he authored with Ian Rodwell entitled “Valuing Value-Add,” in which they compare the respective perceptions of clients and lawyers of the “value-added” services lawyers provide their clients. Among the observations Whalley and Rodwell draw are, first, the divergence between clients and their lawyers with respect to the efficiencies generated for clients by “value-added” services (lawyers believed the potential efficiencies to be much greater than the clients) and, second, the need for a better understanding by lawyers of the value of the services they deliver outside legal advice.

Illustration: Jacqui Oakley

When two Iranian medical doctors married in a civil ceremony in London, England in 1991 — and again in an Islamic marriage ceremony in Berlin two years later — the wife had no reason to think the terms of her marriage contract would be questioned in Canada, where the couple later settled and then separated after 13 years.

I often use this column to answer questions I am asked in my practice. So it’s time to tackle the most common question I hear: “Why does this e-discovery cost so much?” Many can’t stomach e-discovery because it’s inscrutable, leaves little measurable benefit, and simply costs a lot.

Photo: Sandra Strangemore

Newly elected deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, James Stewart, has not led an everyday life. Although he was educated like many other Canadian lawyers, having earned a BA from Queen’s University, a master’s from Université de Laval, and a law degree from the University of Toronto, Stewart knew early on being a cookie-cutter lawyer was not for him. He wanted to be elsewhere — and he found what he was looking for in Tanzania and The Hague. “I was never interested in the business of law,” says Stewart. “I was interested in travel and the wider world. I read history. I worked in the West Indies after my first degree. I travelled to Europe right after my call to the bar in 1977. I was always drawn to things outside my immediate experience.”

Among the various knowledge management conferences and seminars I attended in the last year, two in particular exemplify some of the divergent preoccupations of the field.

E-discovery is commonly associated with large files, often those involving tens of thousands (or more) of documents. As such, there is a perception that significant e-discovery lies solely within the purview of large firms.

Image: Dushan Milic

What do you have to do to get yourself thrown out of a condominium? What if you are caught on a video surveillance camera pulling a neighbour’s hair, breaking her glasses, and punching her in the face? And what if you are also accused of assaulting two other neighbours — including an 80-year-old woman — and you leave a voicemail message saying, “you fucking bitch, I’ll get you” for one of the witnesses?

Photo: Grant Romancia

As a young boy growing up in Unity, Sask., Tom Gauley knew exactly what direction he wanted his life to take: “I only had one thought in my mind — that I wanted to be a lawyer.” Eight decades later, with a long list of accolades and achievements to his name, including the Order of Canada, he still goes to the office every day. He has no plans to step down from the helm of McDougall Gauley anytime soon. “Not as long as I have my health — health is everything and I’m thankful for it. When you consider I couldn’t pass the medical when I tried to enlist in the army. In retrospect, thank goodness, I probably wouldn’t be here.”