It’s that time of year again when the legal community takes stock of the law blogs out there to nominate those that have offered, and continue to offer, outstanding and insightful commentary on the law. The Clawbies, or “Canadian Law Blog Awards”, were started in 2006 with the goal of highlighting and promoting exemplary blogs published by the Canadian legal industry.
This year, Davis LLP would like to recognize three top blogs that continue to keep the legal profession abreast of recent developments in a variety of different practice areas.
Our first nomination is the University of Calgary’s “ABlawg”. ABlawg is perhaps best known for the contributions of Professors Nigel Bankes and Shaun Fluker, who break down and analyze the most recent developments in natural resources, environmental and regulatory law within the Province of Alberta and beyond. Professor Bankes is a frequent contributor to the blog and is known for his ability to digest complex decisions issued by the courts and regulators in Alberta, while providing readers with concise, relevant and thoughtful commentaries on those decisions. However, ABlawg’s reputation and collection goes far beyond natural resources and environmental law and extends into the areas of lawyers’ ethics, labour, employment, privacy and human rights. Keep an eye out for the contributions of Professors Alice Woolley, Linda McKay-Panos and Jennifer Koshan.
Our second nomination is Canada’s Online Legal magazine, “Slaw”. Slaw is best known for keeping readers up to date with general trends in the law but also practice points for practitioners. For example, Slaw offers ‘Tips Tuesday’, a quick reference blog posting on technology, research and practice for lawyers. Slaw provides readers with standard summaries of substantive law, but also recognizing the importance of professional development through a number of different blogs under the heading the ‘Practice of Law’. Some of the topics discussed under the ‘Practice of Law’ include: the future of practice, marketing and practice management.
Our third nomination is Osgoode Hall’s “The Court”. The Court provides readers with comprehensive and in-depth analysis of recent Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) decisions. The Court also provides insightful commentary into a variety of other local issues and developments in public law. The Court has a reputation for providing incisive commentary on complex topics that come before the Supreme Court of Canada. For example, the Court’s February 6, 2013 coverage of Sun Indalex decision provided readers with a coherent and short summary of a fairly complicated case. Consequently, this blog is a weekly, or bi-weekly, must-read for practitioners seeking to keep abreast of legal developments that may have an impact across the country.
As usual, this was a tough decision with many strong contenders. The Davis LLP Litigation Blog would like to recognize the above blogs as a representation of the varied use of blogs in the profession, whether as a venue for summarizing court decisions, providing concise academic commentary on new jurisprudence, and for assisting legal professionals with the development of their practices.
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