Half-Day symposium. Registration and details at http://www.aspercentre.ca/events/calendar/7and15symposium.htm 

Please join us on Thursday, March 12 at 4:10 pm in Vic 101 for the Faculty's premiere academic event:  The Wright Lecture.  This year the Wright will be delivered by legal historian Professor Robert W. Gordon.  His address is titled,

"“Caesar” Wright’s Legacy:  The Necessarily Uneasy Relation Between Legal Education and Legal Practice."

 In 1957 C.A. (“Caesar”) Wright and his colleagues won the fight they had waged for decades to take control of educating lawyers from the benchers of the Law Society and to relocate it in university-based law schools staffed by full-time academics.  The issues apparently settled in that fight have recently been reopened, as the downturn in the legal job market has caused many lawyers to question whether law schools adequately prepare their graduates for practice, and to urge the schools to do more vocational training and less academic research.  These are valid concerns; and the schools should respond (as most are now doing) by paying more attention to practice, but in ways that preserve the schools’ distinctive missions to understand how the legal system works and to help the profession serve its ultimate goals of achieving justice and realizing the public purposes of law.    

LAW & ECONOMICS WORKSHOP 

presents

William Hubbard
University of Chicago Law School

A General Model of Nuisance Suits

Tuesday, February 24, 2015
4:10 – 5:45
Solarium (room FA2), Falconer Hall
84 Queen’s Park

This paper develops a simple but general model of negative-expected-value (NEV) suit and settlement given symmetric information. It accounts for the roles of the merits, litigation costs, and bargaining power; incorporates complaints and answers for which parties' investments in pleading detail are endogenously determined; permits strategic default by the defendant; and nests several existing models of NEV litigation as special cases. It generates testable, counterintuitive, empirical predictions and facilitates normative analysis. For example, the model predicts that plausibility pleading standards will have modest effects in deterring low-merit suits but may be harmful to plaintiffs and defendants settling stronger cases. 

William H. J. Hubbard received his JD with high honors from the Law School in 2000, where he was executive editor of the Law Review. He clerked for the Hon. Patrick E. Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. From 2001 to 2006, he practiced law as a litigation associate at Mayer Brown LLP in Chicago, where he specialized in commercial litigation, electronic discovery, and appellate practice. From 2006 to 2011, he completed the PhD program in Economics at the University of Chicago. Before joining the faculty in 2011, he was a Kauffman Legal Research Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the Law School.  Professor Hubbard currently serves as an editor of the Journal of Legal Studies. He teaches courses in civil procedure and organizes the Law and Economics Workshop. His current research primarily involves economic analysis of litigation, courts, and civil procedure. Other research interests include family, education, and labor economics. 

For more workshop information, please contact Nadia Gulezko at n.gulezko@utoronto.ca.

hubbard-headnotes_18feb15.pdf

Coffee House: Monday, February 23rd, 5:45 - 7:45 pm!

Come out to Alumni Hall in Old Vic on Monday, Feb 23rd for coffee, tea, snacks and the showcasing of your classmates' incredible talents!

Doors open at 5:30, performances from 5:45 - 7:45.

Send any inquiries regarding this event to Sam Kim at samkimsam.kim@mail.utoronto.ca

The Litigation Association is proud to introduce our upcoming "Strategies Behind the Cases" Discussion held on February 25th, 12:30-2:00pm in VIC 215.

Have you ever wondered how litigators prepare for trial, manage cases, and develop a theory of a case? Come to the Strategy Behind the Cases panel hosted by the Litigation Association to find out the answer to these questions and more!

A FREE lunch will be served!

There will be 2 amazing litigators from Fasken Martineau: Nicholas Robar and Kim Potter

See you there!

The Litigation Association

The Centre for Innovation Law and Policy is excited to welcome Joshua Death, Associate Vice President, Legal, Intellectual Property and Patentable Innovation at TD Bank, as part of its Canadian Innovation series.  Mr. Death established and manages TD’s enterprise-wide Intellectual Property Office, Office of Patentable Innovation, and TD Legal’s Cost Recovery Program.

The Canadian Innovation Series is a series of lunch talks about the intellectual property issues faced by iconic Canadian companies. Recent speakers have included representatives of Blackberry Inc., Bombardier Aersospace, and Roots Canada.

March 19, 2015

12:30 pm - 2 pm

Falconer Hall, Room 3 (FA3)

Lunch will be provided.

For more information, please contact centre.ilp@utoronto.ca.

Professor Stern is looking for a Research Assistant for the summer (20-30 hours a week). The projects include research on eighteenth-century English obscenity law, the history of the “Beyond Reasonable Doubt” standard in eighteenth-century English law, proofreading for the forthcoming Oxford UP edition of Blackstone’s Commentaries; and probably some other research involving eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English and American law. A background in history or English—and familiarity with databases like Eighteenth-Century Collections Online, Early English Books Online, the English-Short Title Catalogue, and HeinOnline, as well as the usual legal research engines—would be useful, but not required.  Please submit an application (including a cover letter and transcript) by February 27. You may send the materials electronically to nancy.bueler@utoronto.ca .

WORK IN JAPAN PROGRAM

This is a call for students interested in the Work in Japan program to submit an application by Monday, March 2, 2015 for placement during the 2015-2016 year.

The Work in Japan Program at the University of Toronto was established in 1991. This program is of interest to those seriously interested in Japan and the possibilities of a legal career involving the Pacific Rim. A one year editor position generally starts in June/July. Our program partner Nishimura & Asahi will consider students who have completed their second or final year of studies. Students who will return to complete their program of study are given a leave of absence for the year. Graduating students who are accepted have the responsibility to make inquiries, from the law society of the province where you intend to be called to the Bar, to determine the effect, if any, of delaying your admission to the bar.

Selected students will be interviewed for the position by the firm.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Nishimura & Asahi is one of Japan’s premier law firms located in Akasaka, Tokyo and is now accepting applications for the position of English-language legal editor to start June 2015.

This is a full-time position, with working days of Monday to Friday, 2:30 pm to 11:00 pm.  The successful candidate will be expected to make a minimum one year commitment to the firm.

Although editors are occasionally asked to assist with due diligence and research, the work involves mainly editing, rewriting and reviewing legal documents and correspondence.  The position requires the ability to convey ideas and information effectively and concisely, in clear and professional written English. Nevertheless, the position will provide an opportunity for the successful candidate to experience what it is like to work at a major Japanese law firm and to work on high profile and complex legal matters.

A law degree is preferred, but consideration will also be given to students still completing their law studies (so long as they hold another degree). Preference will also be given to candidates with editing or legal experience and a desire for exposure to international law and business. The position will be offered to a native English speaker. No Japanese language ability is required.

The successful applicant will join a staff that includes over 450 Japanese attorneys, and several attorneys and editors from countries such as the U.S., Canada, the U.K., NZ and Australia. Compensation will be commensurate with background and experience.

Information about the firm may be found at: www.jurists.co.jp/en/

If you are interested in applying to the Work in Japan Program, please submit the following:

• a letter, explaining why you wish to work in Japan as well as any other pertinent information  (i.e. do you speak/read/write Japanese; have you worked in Japan previously).
• your résumé
• a copy of your grades                                                     

All applications must be submitted by e-mail to sara.hubbard@utoronto.ca by Monday, March 2, 2015.

Please find attached a list of the 1L, 2L and 3L/4L employment opportunities which are currently available onwww.utlawcareers.ca.

For more information on these postings, please contact ann.vuletin@utoronto.ca

this_week_on_utlc.pdf

The Indigenous Law Journal is now accepting applications for Senior Editorial Board members for the 2015-2016 academic year. Incoming 2L, 3L, and graduate students are welcome to apply, and may choose to get academic credit for participation with the ILJ. To apply, please send your resume and cover letter to indiglaw.journal@gmail.com with the subject line "SEB Application” by February 23, 2015. Feel free to contact us at the same address with any questions about the positions or application process.

The co-Editors-in-Chief will be hired first (see separate Headnotes announcement) and they, in turn, will hire next year's Senior Editors.

General Duties For All SEB Members Include:

• Leading two cell group meetings (one per semester)
• Meeting with the SEB to review papers passed up from the cell group level (once per semester)
• Working with authors to finalize papers 
• Taking charge of an SEB portfolio

SE portfolios may change from year to year based on the needs of the journal, and based on how the new EICs decide to structure the SEB. If you are applying for an SEB position, you may indicate which portfolio(s) you would prefer should you have a preference. You are more than welcome to apply for multiple positions.

Examples of possible SEB portfolios include:

• Associate Editor Recruitment
• Business Manager - Ensures bills are paid on time, facilitates reimbursements, organizes mail, works/communicates with our office assistant on any business-related matters. 
• Web/Communications Coordinator - Ensures the ILJ website is up-to-date, and the email accounts are checked regularly. SEs in this position may also work on updating email lists. 
• Events Coordinator – Plans the retreat and launch party.
• External Review (likely x 2) - Solicits professionals and academics to review all papers that have been passed up to the SEB.
• Rejection letter and Cell Group Coordinator – Assigns the SEs and AEs cell groups, receives submissions from the Submissions Manager, assigns the submissions that the groups will review, collects rejection letters and gives them a quick edit for content and grammar before passing the letters along to the Submissions Manager.
• Community Voices - This section of the Journal is designed to allow Indigenous people and communities to speak for themselves about the issues that touch directly on their lives. An SE who takes on this position may work throughout the year (and possibly summer) with an Indigenous community or individual that is chosen by them and the EICs to draft a submission to the journal.
• Submission and Subscription - Contacts individuals and institutions to promote the journal and increase subscription and submission numbers.
• Submissions Manager – Collects the submissions, scrubs them then sends them to the SEB member with the cell groups and rejection letters portfolio. Afterwards, he or she sends the Rejection Letters to the authors, and provides timeline and process updates to authors whose papers are passed forward, before those authors' identities are revealed to the SEB. Note, the Submissions Manager does not participate in the submission review process.

You are invited to hear the experiences of a team of University of Toronto students who came first in the Toronto round of the IBM Watson Challenge in December.

Since then, the U of T team are building their product into a Canadian startup called ROSS Intelligence -- known as a digital legal research assistant -- and turning it into a commercial product with support from IBM. 

Find out more.