UPDATE: This seminar occurred in the past, and the seminar materials are now available. You can use the LESA Library to access course materials or purchase course materials a la carte. Alternatively, you can view the complete list of upcoming seminars to discover live programs that are available now.
The Honorary Chair of LESA’s upcoming 47th Annual Refresher is Justice Peter Michalyshyn of the Court of Queen’s Bench in Edmonton.
The focus of the 47th Annual Refresher, entitled “Suits & Disputes,” is civil litigation. It’s an area of law in which Justice Michalyshyn specialized for more than 15 years after first practicing for five years in criminal, then constitutional law.
After university and a brief career as a journalist in the early 1980s, Justice Michalyshyn entered law school at the University of Alberta in 1985 and was called to the bar in 1989. In March 2011, he was appointed to the Court of Queen’s Bench.
In spite of a busy court schedule, Justice Michalyshyn readily agreed to help stage the 47th Annual Refresher.
“I see the Annual Refresher first as a learning opportunity,” he said, “but also as a chance to connect or re-connect with civil litigators across the province.”
“As judges and even more as lawyers, we have fewer opportunities these days to gather and learn and to talk to each other in non-partisan settings.”
The underlying theme of the Refresher was set up in meetings with LESA staff and the six Sessional Chairs of the Refresher: Hon. Justice Frans Slatter; Jim Rose, QC; Sandy MacKay QC; Ivan Derer QC.; Perry Mack QC; and Connie Taylor QC. Together the group recruited another 16 distinguished faculty members.
“As we brainstormed the sessions for the Refresher,” Justice Michalyshyn said, “one underlying theme emerged: how has civil litigation changed in, say, the last 20 years? How are we as lawyers dealing with our clients’ problems? How are we dealing with the courts? How are we dealing with each other?”
No one disagreed, Justice Michalyshyn recalled, that there’s been significant change. And not all agreed it was change for the better.
“And if it’s not been for the better,” he noted, “then what should or can we as lawyers, and for our clients, and for that matter as judges, do about it?”
The ‘change’ theme, while intended to run through the Refresher sessions, is not meant to take away from the practical and substantive content offered in the three-day program April 27-29, 2014 – actually four days if one includes the “Running Your First Questioning” seminar on Saturday, April 26, 2014, aimed at lawyers with fewer years in practice.
The April 27-29 Refresher program begins with a Keynote session with distinguished lawyer/commentator Jordan Furlong on the Changing Economics of the Practice of Law, and includes sessions on ADR, Current Developments in Civil Litigation, Evidence and Experts, “Moving the File Along”, and Appellate and Chambers Advocacy.
“On the whole we think we’ve put together a program that will interest and benefit civil litigators in all areas of practice” said Justice Michalyshyn.
“And of course we’re doing it in one of the most beautiful settings in Alberta” he said. “And at a perfect time of year for lawyers to take part of a week-end and just a couple of days of the week away from the office, for a change, if not a rest.”
“But we’re not doing this to book lawyers a vacation” Justice Michalyshyn noted. Indeed, the Refresher includes no ‘built-in’ time for golf or hiking or the like.
“We’re confident civil litigators will attend the Refresher because they want take-away value on substantive and practical topics. And at the same time we’re hoping they’ll use this as an opportunity they seldom have to connect, or re-connect with each other, which is never a bad thing.”
LESA is grateful for the involvement of Justice Michalyshyn, together with the six sessional chairs and 16 faculty members who have donated their time to make the 47th Annual Refresher possible.
Learn more about the 47th Annual Refresher.
