All Our Tips
A Step a Day to Leverage LinkedIn
How long have you been on LinkedIn? A few years? More? Have you added or changed anything since that time? Your headshot? Your profile? The type of content you post?
If it’s been more than a few years and not much has changed, now is the time to do just that! Even if you start with a single, small step.
Choose something easy…
- How about updating your headshot, so that it is current and engaging?
- Simpler? You can change your title, so it’s not just accurate… it’s interesting.
- Too much? Simply install the LinkedIn app on your smart phone and check your feed once a week. You can read what your connections post and jump into a conversation when you see something that matters to you.
Yes, it will take more than this first step to become a LinkedIn warrior. But once you start seeing the results of your efforts, you may find that you are surprised at just how motivated you are to keep going!
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For more related reading, see these past articles on Slaw:
Also, see the following related articles by Sandra Bekhor at Toronto Marketing Blog:
- LinkedIn books for lawyers: An interview with author Marc Halpert (videos)
- LinkedIn for lawyers: What’s next? (13 pros chime in!)
- Legal marketing – what’s next? (42 legal marketing pros chime in!)
Some Additional Apostrophe Catastrophes
This was the headline of a recent LinkedIn post: Cryptocurrency do’s, don’ts and dangers. Think before you use the apostrophe and you’ll do it correctly: Dos, don’ts and dangers. At least it wasn’t danger’s in the original.
And, without catastrophic apostrophes, it is No ifs, ands or buts.
The possessive forms of women, children and men also seems to cause problems, because they take ‘s (which is more usually attached to a singular noun, not a plural one). As a result, women’s hockey, children’s toys and men’s room.
The compounds menswear, womenswear and childrenswear are rather ugly compressed versions of two-word forms with proper apostrophes (men’s wear etc.), but a trip to a local department store will probably confirm that one-word, apostrophe-less compounds have become the norm. (Although on the computer screen, only menswear appears without a squiggly red line of warning under it.)
It was (almost) certainly a one-off, or at least an idiosyncratic error, but I’ve encountered ‘though. No: it’s though or although.
Find Articling/Summer Students With the CPLED Student Resume Directory
CPLED is now hosting a Student Resume Directory on its website to assist students who are seeking articles. Students can create profiles here, indicating the type of position they are looking for, the location where they would like to work (Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan), and upload a copy of their resume. Employers can browse the student profiles and reach out to suitable candidates for opportunities in their organization using the Contact Form with each student’s profile. The Directory is free and available to law students seeking summer or articling positions.
[This tip originally appeared on the Law Society of Saskatchewan Library’s Legal Sourcery Blog.]
Titles
Not of books, but of dignitaries.
Judges
Stephen Waddams observes in Introduction to the Study of Law (my edition is 1992) that it is not proper to refer to a judge as Your Honour (or My Lord/Lady, where that is still used) outside the courtroom. He advocates just plain Mr Wagner or Ms Karakatsanis, or failing that the old-fashioned Judge (without the person’s surname) when you encounter one in a social setting. Most Canadian lawyers will probably say Justice So-and-so at a cocktail party, if they are not on first-name terms, and this also has the sanction of historical usage.
As pointed out previously, it’s Madam [emphasis on the first syllable] Justice not Madame Justice. In England, it’s Mrs (or less commonly Ms, occasionally Miss) Justice for female High Court judges. (Canada did a better job of capturing the dignity of the bench with Madam…) In the Court of Appeal for England and Wales, it is Lord or Lady Justice Who’s-it; in the UK Supreme Court, Lord or Baroness [or Lady, depending on preference] What’s-it.
Retired judges in Canada and England are often still referred to by their former judicial titles, as a courtesy, but it is not wrong to call the former Justice Binnie just plain Mr Binnie now that he is back in private practice. Beverley McLachlin, though retired from the Supreme Court of Canada, is still Justice McLachlin (although not Chief Justice) because she now sits on Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal. And an envelope addressed to her would not have Ms Beverley McLachlin on it; she is The Rt Hon Beverley McLachlin – and in writing Mr Binnie gets The Hon Ian Binnie.
Government officials
Ministers of the Crown are now referred to as Minister Freeland or Minister Elliott— and, mutatis mutandis, so are mayors, police chiefs, dog-catchers, what have you. This is an unfortunate American habit. In the good old days in our loved Dominion, the Minister of Whatever was simply called Minister to her or his face and referred to as Mr, Ms etc., as the case might be. Somewhere along the way (and I think it was in the 1980s), we began imitating the US convention of calling officials in the executive branch Secretary Baker and Assistant Under-Secretary Butcher.
Another weird thing (among many) that Americans do is to keep calling former office-holders by the title they used to hold. In Canada and the UK, a former prime minister goes back to private life and relinquishes all the trappings of office, including the title (although, in the UK, he or she might get a peerage or knighthood, like Baroness Thatcher or Sir John Major). It’s Ms Kim Campbell and Mr David Cameron (although both are, more formally, The Rt Hon). Whereas south of the 49th parallel, President Carter, President Bush (times two), President Clinton and President Obama are still kicking around. As well as that orange person.
And while we’re on the subject, Amurricans still say Mr President, Ms Secretary, etc. We dropped the M-preamble long ago: it’s just How do you do, Prime Minister? when you meet our head of government, not Mr or Ms Prime Minister.
Royalty
The person represented on the coinage isn’t Queen Elizabeth: that was her mother, Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. It is simply The Queen or Her Majesty on your quarter.
Prince Charles is what we call the heir to the Canadian throne colloquially, but he is properly The Prince of Wales (in Scotland, though, he is The Duke of Rothesay and Lord of the Isles). His first wife was never (correctly) Princess Diana; she started her married life as The Princess of Wales and, after her divorce, became Diana, Princess of Wales. Wife number two is not Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, which would imply she is a widow or a divorcée. Just The Duchess of Cornwall; same deal with her step-daughters-in-law.
If their husbands had not been created royal dukes, Kate and Meghan would be respectively Princess William of Wales and Princess Harry of Wales. If that sounds odd, think of the old-fashioned way of addressing a married lady: Mrs John Smith (and of Princess Michael of Kent, whose first name is Marie-Christine). In any event, never Princess (or Duchess) Kate or Princess (or Duchess) Meghan, even though they are both princesses (and duchesses) by virtue of marriage.
Note, by the way, those official upper-case Ts in the titles of senior royals. And you should stick HRH before the title of a prince or princess, HM for the Boss.
Use Keyword Alerts on Quickscribe
My apologies to readers: this search tip is very BC-specific!
Quickscribe has recently added a useful new feature that allows you to set up an alert to notify you when a specific word or phrase is used in a bill, an order, or Hansard in British Columbia. For example, you could set up an alert to see any Orders that refer to the University Act or an alert to see any references in Hansard to the B.C. Utilities Commission.
To set up an alert, you will need to have access to Quickscribe and have set up a Personal Login. Once you’re logged in, go to My Alerts, then Keyword Alerts, and follow the instructions.
My Favourite Apps – Part V
Passwords. The bane of most people’s existence. So many to remember!
I know a few people who swear they have figured it all out – using some kind of mnemonic to remember all of their passwords. Apparently, I am not that clever. So I recently turned to LastPass. You remember one password and LastPass stores the rest.
What I like about LastPass:
- Once you’ve entered your master password, it will auto complete all the rest of your passwords for you. No need to go and look them up in a separate password keeper.
- It syncs across my Mac, iphone and iPad.
- LastPass offers the option of a security review, which will identify passwords that are weak or used more than once.
- With the Google Chrome extension, you can set LastPass to automatically log out after you have not used your browser for a specified period of time or upon closing it. This essentially logs you out of all your password protected sites in one go.
- You can also add images (e.g., a Passport), credit cards and other financial information.
- The free version seems to have all the bells and whistles I need.
- And, of course, all of the data is encrypted. It is only decrypted at the device level, which means that the passwords are not sent to LastPass’ servers.
As with all password keepers, there is some risk associated with keeping your passwords in an online database. However, if you’re comfortable with this and looking for a solution to the password conundrum, check it out.
Lesha Van Der Bij (@LVanDerBij) is CEO & Founder of Optimize Legal – keeping law firms and businesses up-to-date on changes to the law.
Free Access to Early Canadian Historical/legal Documents on Canadiana
Canadiana Online’s unparalleled online collection of historical materials is now free to access. The collection, available at no charge at Canadiana.ca, contains more than 60 million digitized pages of books, periodicals, and government publications from early Canadian history.
Why should lawyers and legal researchers take note of this thrilling development? Canadiana Online features an outstanding collection of historical statutes, bills, legal journals, and law reports. Some examples include:
Legal researchers should take advantage of the wealth of legal resources available freely online here. Canadian Online offers a simple search interface with search tips. Search results can be narrowed by multiple search filters and subject headings.
Sources Cited
Ross, R. (2018, November 15). Over 60 Million Pages of Digitized Canadian Documentary Heritage Soon To Be Available At No Charge. Retrieved from: https://www.crkn-rcdr.ca/en/over-60-million-pages-digitized-canadian-documentary-heritage-soon-be-available-no-charge
[This tip by Alan Kilpatrick originally appeared on the Law Society of Saskatchewan Library’s Legal Sourcery Blog.]
‘Those Pesky Millennials!’
Grumpy Baby-boomers will oft have cause to make exclamations like this (but they may phrase it in less polite language). Or they may have no cause at all, but exclaim anyway.
One thing that is sure to raise the ire of older professionals is casual language in e-mails.
On this point, the Boomers are not wrong: and certainly the very casual style of the text message has no place in professional correspondence, even when it’s digital. Srsly.
That said, at least two of the abbreviations beloved of texting millennials have an older provenance than you might imagine.
IDK, short for ‘I don’t know’, turns out to be US military slang from the First World War. The News Courier of Athens, Alabama reported on 17 August 1918 that IDK was ‘the latest American soldier slang … which stands for “I don’t know” in reply to fool questions asked by recruits and men who have just been landed.’ Or perhaps by partners in law firms.
OMG (‘Oh, my God/gosh!’) is of roughly the same vintage, having been used by Admiral Lord Fisher in a letter to Winston Churchill (then Minister of Munitions) on 9 September 1917. While the admiral explained that it stood for ‘Oh! My God!’, he was using it as a short form for a fanciful new order of knighthood, jokingly modelled on the existing Order of St Michael and St George (the grades of which are abbreviated CMG, KCMG and GCMG). So, not quite how the kids are using it now.
Even if IDK and OMG pre-date the Boomers by a long way, you still shouldn’t use them (or WTF, LMAO, LOL and the like) in your business e-mail.
We Continue to Have an Apostrophe Problem
Tweets, like text messages, are often composed on the fly (as we know from painful experience emanating from the country to the south).
This, plus their brevity and informality, may sometimes excuse lapses in grammar, spelling and punctuation.
One apostrophe error in an isolated tweet could just be a typo, but when a managing partner of a Toronto firm (which shall remain nameless) tweets these within the space of 24 hours, there is clearly a larger issue:
· Lets roll even higher in 2020
· Hat’s off to the workers
· Hows this one …
Remedial training is available, managing partner! Or buy a copy of my book 😉
Finding Annual BC Statutes
A holiday treat for those of us who carry out British Columbia legal research: BC Laws has just added historical BC annual statutes dating back to 1858. You can find them at http://bclaws.ca/civix/content/hstats/hstats/?xsl=/templates/browse.xsl. Up until now, BC’s annual statutes were not available freely online in any format.
