Congratulations to the following lawyers elected to the 2022-2023 OBA Section Executives
Carol Dirks will be on the Condo Legal Roundup panel at this year’s CAI Condo Conference. This informative session will look at some of the pitfalls that are associated with condominium litigation, and how to avoid them in your condo community. Small decisions can have big consequences, and the panel will provide some practical tips and solutions to avoid litigation and contentious situations in your condo.
Karen Rosen presented at the OBA’s Secured Transaction Essentials for Business Lawyers on the topic of “Negotiating and Issuing Transaction Opinions”.
Back by popular demand, this foundational program provided essential and practical advice on how to approach aspects of secured financing transactions and personal property security law in Ontario, as well as how they have been impacted by the global pandemic.
Bill Taggert will co-chair this annual OBA Aboriginal Law Program on June 22, 2022
Join the OBA at their annual conference and get up to speed on the emerging issues and latest substantive developments that are impacting the practice of Aboriginal law in Ontario and Canada. With a particular focus on the changing legal scenery in Aboriginal title and rights, our exceptional faculty will walk you through the most important recent cases and provide valuable insights to implement in your practice. Learn more about the interpretation of treaty rights in a modern context as well as practical strategies for pursuing treaty annuity claims. In addition, join Honourable Justice Sébastien Grammond of the Federal Court for a thought-provoking discussion about recognizing Indigenous law.
Interested in learning more about our 2L Summer Program?
Join Myriah Graves, Director of Professional Development, on Wednesday June 15th, as we open our doors virtually to 2L law students, Register today and find out what makes Fogler, Rubinoff LLP such a great place to work.
RSVP to Madeline Jennings at [email protected]
Congratulations to Myriah Graves, Director of Professional Development, on being the recipient of a NALP Service Excellence Award.
The award recognize volunteers who go above and beyond making notable contributions to the organization and its members. According to NALP’s Board of Directors “Myriah adds tremendous value to everything in which she is involved. NALP, its members, and the students and attorneys we serve have all benefited from Myriah’s thoughtful and effective leadership in helping to refine and develop programming that effectively serves NALP and the legal profession.”
Myriah was recognized for her exceptional leadership as the Chair of NALP’s Canadian Section in 2020-2021, Co-Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Work Group in 2021, and for taking the lead in developing NALP’s Canadian Winter Meeting in December 2021.
Ontario’s competitive iGaming market went “live” on April 4.
It is expected that the competitive market will have 30 to 40 operators – both grey market operators who are transitioning to the Ontario-regulated market and new entrants, some of whom are based in Ontario and other parts of Canada. While not all will be launching on April 4, most will launch over the next several weeks. With their launch will come marketing of iGaming products and the operator brands – some well-known, others less known, and others new to the space.
Don Bourgeois, Chair of the Canadian Marketing Association’s Internet Gaming Committee outlines what it means for iGaming operators and their advertising activities in this highly regulated industry.
Read about it in the CMA article Countdown to launch of iGaming in Ontario
Last week, Fogler, Rubinoff’s annual meal sponsorship to Lawyers Feed the Hungry, provided 250 people with a much-needed warm meal. Although we were unable to be there in person, we were glad to support this important program in our community.
Katherine Hensel was a guest speaker at the Law Society of Ontario’s International Women’s Day event where women leaders shared their experiences and barriers that they overcame to sustain their legal careers.
According to Katherine, who was one of ten featured speakers, “Senior counsel are obligated to address the challenges mothers face in the profession and call out any undue new barriers that make it even harder to carry out their legal practice.” To read the Law Times article, click here.
We sat down with Micheline Gray-Smith, who volunteers her time at the Ryerson Law & Business Clinic. The Law & Business Clinic provides free legal services in a variety of business law matters to entrepreneurs and small businesses that cannot afford to retain a lawyer. Micheline shared with us her experience and the mentorship opportunities she has been able to provide.
Micheline, tell us how you got involved with the Ryerson Business & Law Clinic?
I was first introduced to the organization as a first-year Associate by Rick Moscone. Seeing a Partner with a full practice make the Clinic a priority, tells you that it’s something important. His commitment inspired me to stay involved with the Clinic and my role has evolved over time. At the beginning, I was working with one group of students and I would supervise their work, provide them with precedents, give them instructions on how to communicate with clients, and coach them through the process of advising clients. Now, in addition to providing that guidance, I have taken on a mentorship role to coach our first-year Associates alongside the group of volunteer Ryerson students and I supervise the whole process – answering any questions and guiding the our Associates, the student volunteers and the Clinic’s clients through the program. The reason I stay involved in the program is twofold: one it’s helping under-served individuals and businesses who need legal services and potentially don’t have the resources to pay for them and secondly, it is being able to provide students with exposure to the practice of law, which can help them decide whether they want to pursue attending law school. I have mentored four cohorts of students and being able to stay in touch with them over LinkedIn and see what they’ve done with their careers after graduating from the Ryerson Law & Business Program is really interesting – especially when they decide to go to law school in part because of conversations and experiences I’ve shared with them.
What advice would you give to a new lawyer who is looking for more opportunity to give back to their own community?
I would say the most important thing is finding something that is rewarding for you personally because that will give you that extra boost in your contribution. For example, when I was in law school, I was involved in a similar law clinic program. It’s something that I really enjoyed as a law student. Now that I’m participating in this program as a lawyer, I remember what it was like as a law student – not really knowing what my career would look like; not knowing what practice area I would pursue; and discovering that along the way. It’s really rewarding for me to see students discovering what they want to do and how they want their careers to unfold. It gives me energy, a sense of purpose, and encourages me to dedicate the time because I know what it was like, especially having graduated so recently.
Does this experience give you a different perspective, which you can bring to your law practice?
Helping the businesses in this program is really interesting because you get to see their growth from a start-up stage as they figure out how to structure their business. After three years, I can look back at the companies we helped initially and see how the decisions that we made together impacted the trajectory of the business.
The experience has even helped me when working with our firm clients, whose businesses are more established, because I now understand why their entity is set up the way it is and what challenges they might have faced early on. Seeing the whole evolution and working with entrepreneurs is inspiring. I can understand how they got to where they are now and what types of decisions they had to make at a really early stage that led them to where they are. Sometimes it is about what legal advice they should have gotten — but didn’t, and how we fix that at the point when they seek our advice. The reason I stay involved in the program is twofold: one it’s helping under-served individuals who need legal services and potentially don’t have the resources to pay for them and secondly, it’s being able to provide students with exposure to the practice of law, which can help them decide whether they want to pursue attending law school.
What has been the most rewarding aspect about volunteering with the Clinic? Do you have an anecdote about an experience that really moved you?
Firstly, it’s a great opportunity to grow as a lawyer. Particularly as a young lawyer, it was a chance to interact closely with clients and be their main point of reference. Secondly, being able to give back to the legal community because we were all in that position at one point. Wondering whether we should go to law school and whether it was the right path for us and looking for someone who can give you that kind of guidance and mentorship. If you can be that for a student, it’s very rewarding. Thirdly, I enjoy seeing the impact that some of the services and advice the students provide have on the Clinic’s clients. We work with entrepreneurs who are taking a risk in starting something new, who are looking to pursue what is often a lifelong vision and start their business. Being able to contribute to that dream, even in a small way, is really rewarding.
To learn more about Ryerson Business Law Clinic visit: https://www.ryerson.ca/tedrogersschool/lawbusinessclinic/
