Pulse
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January 15, 2026
Eric Block joins Law Foundation of Ontario’s class proceedings committee
The Law Foundation of Ontario has appointed Eric S. Block to its class proceedings committee.
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January 15, 2026
Dentons adds Martin Abadi as partner, Raymond Ashurov as counsel
Dentons Canada has announced the arrival of Martin Abadi as a partner in its regulatory and transportation groups and Raymond Ashurov as counsel in its regulatory group. According to the firm, both lawyers join Dentons from BLG.
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January 15, 2026
Law Firm Owner Success Guide: Escape the Operator Trap — Elevate yourself to strategic law firm CEO
Most law firm leaders find themselves trapped in what can be termed the “Operator Trap.” This phenomenon occurs when managing partners and firm leaders become heavily involved in daily operations, leaving little time for strategic thinking and long-term planning.
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January 15, 2026
The case for in-person appearances, part two
I have taught professionalism for years, starting at the old Bar Admission course, at two law schools and on an ad hoc basis to articling students and juniors. I tell all of them same thing on the first day: everything you need to know about professional responsibility can be summed up in two sentences.
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January 15, 2026
The new definition of artwork: Being human, being protected
In September 2025, the Italian parliament enacted a landmark reform that definitively reshaped the boundaries of intellectual property in the age of algorithms. Through Law No. 132 of Sept. 23, 2025, the Italian legislature amended Article 1 of the Italian Copyright Act (ICL), marking a decisive “anthropocentric” turn. This reformation does not merely update the law; it establishes a fundamental ontological boundary: for an artwork to be protected, it must be human.
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January 15, 2026
A few words on prison lawyers
In response to Kurt Suss’s column Prison lawyers: Contraband smugglers or misunderstood advocates? and as a prison lawyer since 1975, let me add the following observations:
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January 15, 2026
Macro marvellous, micro miserable
Bob told me about his law firm exit interview with Joan from HR. When Bob said he was leaving due to the unreasonable workload, Joan was curious, because Bob was one of several associates who had left his department for the same reason. What surprised Joan was that in other departments, the associates were working many more hours, but no one was complaining, let alone quitting.
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January 14, 2026
DLA Piper names Russel Drew managing partner in Canada
DLA Piper has named Russel Drew as its managing partner for Canada, effective Jan. 1, 2026.
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January 14, 2026
Eric Stachecki joins Dentons as partner in Montreal
Dentons has welcomed Eric Stachecki as a partner in its restructuring, insolvency and bankruptcy group in Montreal.
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January 14, 2026
Scrapping the bar exam won’t fix Ontario’s licensing problem
The Law Society of Ontario is considering removing the written barrister and solicitor examinations as part of the lawyer licensing process. They published a report on the subject and asked members of the legal community to comment. While I agree that the licensing process and especially the examinations require modernization (and I’ve written about this at length before), I disagree that completely replacing standard written examinations will accomplish this goal but rather will be costly and will lower the standards for entry into the profession.