Keep Current A review of provincial Section meetings.

by Fran Hodgkins

Section News: New Sections for 2009-2010
The Work Life Balance Section, formerly a committee, and SOGIC (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Conference) join the list of currently active B.C. Branch Sections available to CBA members. Check your Section enrolment form circulated in June and get ready to attend meetings in September. Misplaced yours? Print an enrolment form from our website www.cba.org/bc or call the Branch office at 604-687-3404 or toll free at 1-888-687-3404.

For enrolled CBA members, more detailed information and available minutes from the Section meetings are online at www.cba.org/bc in Sections under Professional Development.

Chatter with Chairs Bryan Gibbons Insolvency Law Chair 08/09 Sections are a valuable resource to stay current in any given practice area. Through Sections, lawyers receive the opportunity to meet their fellow practitioners and exchange ideas which are of particular importance to younger calls. Through periodic Section meetings, lawyers can stay on top of their area of expertise while earning valuable CPD credit. In addition, Sections build collegiality within the profession.

Criminal Justice-Vancouver Meeting: June 17, 2009 Speaker: The Honourable Craig Watkins, District Attorney Topic: The Role of the Prosecutor		Class Action Meeting: June 11, 2009 Speakers: Luciana Brasil, Branch McMaster & Shane Strukoff, Gowling, Lafleur, Henderson LLP Topic: Carriage Motions in National or Multi-Jurisdictional Class Actions
Family Law-Victoria Meeting: June 19, 2009 Speaker: Peter Golden Topic: Immigration & Family Law Issues		Intellectual Property and Technology Law Meeting: June 23, 2009 Speakers: Cappone D’Angelo & Byron Allen, Research in Motion Limited Topic: Changing Role of Counsel When Acting for IP/Tech Clients

Criminal Justice-Vancouver
In his keynote address to Section members, District Attorney, Craig Watkins, spoke of his experiences in the days running up to his election as the first African-American District Attorney in Dallas County, Texas. He described some of the challenges he faced in his first year as the lead prosecutor in the County, including the perception that he was a liberal-minded defence attorney, who may not be able to aggressively prosecute big cases. He discussed his personal struggle with the public and professional obligations to seek the death penalty in appropriate cases involving heinous murders. DA Watkins offered an honest and insightful look into how politics and prosecutions intersect in the Southern United States. He also talked about the initiatives he put in place to address the issue of wrongful convictions, including his efforts to create a Conviction Integrity Unit in the DA’s office. He mentioned that there had been approximately 20 exonerations based on forensic DNA testing in his County since he took office. At the conclusion of his speech, DA Watkins fielded several challenging questions from a very engaged audience. The primary focus of the questions was on the huge prison population in Texas and what could be done to change the politics surrounding crime and punishment in his County and his State.

Class Action
Ms. Brasil’s and Mr. Strukoff’s presentation on the subject of carriage motions was accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation. The presenters described the legislative background for such motions; the need for such applications; the history and development of the law governing carriage motions in B.C. and elsewhere; and practical considerations. At a very practical level, there are several reasons why such an order is necessary in the context of a class action: to avoid inconsistent verdicts; to avoid judicial inefficiency; to avoid class member confusion; to minimize costs for class members; to streamline class members’ access to information; and to avoid putting defendants through multiple actions over the same cause of action. Given the consequences of a positive or negative outcome, carriage motions often are hotly contested.

Family Law-Victoria
Mr. Golden presented an overview of how Immigration and Family Law intersects when spouses get together and when they split up. A Canadian has the right to sponsor a spouse or common law spouse and signs a three-year undertaking agreement with the Government of Canada to support the spouse and any children. Sponsors cannot be on income assistance, an undeclared bankrupt or convicted of sex offences. An overseas application process is generally speedier. An inland application has no appeal rights. When spouses split up, breakdown issues are different depending on whether the spouse has permanent resident status or not. If the spouse has no status and no basis for an application when the relationship is over, the usual remedy is to apply under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). Where there is an overlap between Immigration Law and Family Law principles, generally, Family Law principles will prevail.

Intellectual Property and Technology Law
Members at this well-attended lunch meeting heard an excellent presentation by Cappone D’Angelo and Byron Allen, both of whom are in-house counsel at Research in Motion Limited. They discussed the changing roles of external and in-house counsel for technology companies, offering specific suggestions to outside counsel to help them make their legal services more effective and valuable. They provided examples of emerging issues to which outside counsel should be sensitive. For example, Mr. D’Angelo and Mr. Allen spoke about the need for outside counsel to understand why they are retained (does the company lack the expertise, lack the capacity, or just require a second opinion?) and to understand the business environment in which a technology company is operating in order to be able to provide useful legal advice. Mr. D’Angelo and Mr. Allen also commented on the daily pressures in-house counsel face.

This article was published in the August 2009 issue of BarTalk. © 2009 The Canadian Bar Association. All rights reserved.