Welcome to the very last day of the 2010s! The previous decade has seen some real highs and lows for everyone, but the Canadian legal blogging and podcast community has made it through, bigger and better than ever and ready for the next ten years! While the 2000s head into their 20s, the Clawbies are now in their 15th year, and like many real-life adolescents, they’re ready for some major changes.
As we announced at the start of this month with the opening of nominations, the Clawbies (which originally honoured only blogs, then blogs and podcasts) now celebrate every form of digital publishing in the Canadian legal community: blogs, podcasts, videos, social accounts, legal newsletters, platform commentaries, CanLII Connects, white papers, a stellar SSRN account, or a serial magazine column.
We asked you, the faithful supporters of the Clawbies, to help us find the best of the best in all these categories–and you responded! We came away with an extraordinary collection of outstanding digital legal publishing in Canada, and we adapted our award categories to reflect what you told us about the new legal commentary landscape in this country. Like we said last year, “a new era in personal online legal publishing is truly upon us.”
We’re honoured to have the opportunity to recognize some of the most exceptional practitioners in this exciting new world. And so, in no particular order, and without further ado … the 2019 Clawbies winners!!
Fodden Award 2019
Since 2010, the Fodden Award has been the top Clawbies honour, recognizing the very best in Canadian legal commentary. With eligibility broadened this year, it’s fitting that our 2019 Fodden Award winner is not a blog, but a legal newsletter.
Supreme Advocacy Newsletter
After 1000+ issues and 9000+ case summaries (and more than a handful of kilt stories), we can’t think of a resource more deserving of the Fodden Award than Supreme Advocacy’s Newsletter.
A veritable institution in the Canadian legal community, readers come for the Supreme Court of Canada case news and stay for the Last Word. Eugene Meehan and his team have been generously sharing their expertise with an enjoyable side of miscellany since the mid ‘90s. The newsletter represents an impressive commitment to free and open sharing of legal knowledge—the true hallmark of any Fodden Award winner.
Here’s to another 20 years of Supreme Advocacy Newsletters!
Best Blogs and Commentary
After 14 years of Clawbies, it’s still a pleasure to read a really well-written blog. This year’s recipients have achieved the deceptively tricky goal of conveying legal wisdom in an engaging and reliable way.
BC Provincial Court eNews
You might expect communication from a court to be stuffy and dry, but the British Columbia Provincial Court’s eNews blog takes a surprisingly accessible, conversational tone. From justice hackathons to court rules changes, to new publications and judge news, court happenings and opportunities for feedback, we’d love to see more courts across the country take a page from the BCPC’s blogging book.
BC Injury Law Blog
Erik Magraken’s personal injury blog has legions of loyal fans: according to one nomination, “He set a standard, as yet unmatched… Content worth reading, and daily reading for the PI lawyers out there.” Erik has been blogging for more than a decade, and his coverage of significant auto insurance changes this year was especially valuable to readers.
Cowling Legal
Freelance lawyer Erin Cowling has kept up a steady pace of honest revelations, useful tips for entrepreneurs and book reviews alongside her two outstanding series on diversity and inclusion in law firms and women leading in law. The proof is in the nominations: “one I always read” and “I think she finally convinced me to say ‘no’ to work.”
Vancouver Immigration Law Blog
Will Tao’s blog encompasses so much, it’s hard to know where to begin. It features in-depth coverage of immigration policy, cases and legislation and pays special attention to international students and migrant workers. But what makes it award-worthy is its candid discussion of power, privilege and race along with personal reflections. Will writes in an engaging, authentic style and raises the voices of those around him, too.
Chief Justice’s Blog at Access to Justice BC
As Chief Justice of the B.C. Court of Appeal and chair of Access to Justice BC, Robert Bauman has been blogging about A2J initiatives in BC for several years now. We’d love to see more blogging from Chief Justice Bauman but suspect he’s probably a pretty busy person ;)
Trauma & Lawyers’ Mental Health
With this new blog, Vancouver lawyer Crystal Tomusiak has started an overdue discussion of the impact of trauma on lawyers’ mental health. We applaud her courageous combination of intimate first-person narratives, frank observations about the legal profession’s shortcomings and vision for a healthier, more supportive profession.
County of Carleton Law Association (CCLA) Weekly Newsletter
Proclaimed by a fan as “the best in the biz”, the CCLA Weekly Newsletter acts as a central hub for news, announcements, recent decisions, tips & tricks, job ads and more. It’s a marvelously robust, must-read resource for the Ottawa-area legal community.
Best Bloggers on a Platform or Shared Blog
Last year we introduced a new award category to recognize an outstanding individual author on a group blog. There were many nominations of this sort this year! Here are the best of 2019:
Nigel Bankes (ABlawg)
Citing his “great analysis of everything going on in energy law, particularly in Alberta,” readers call him “the blogger’s blogger” who sets the standard for his fellow authors at ABlawg.
Patricia Hughes (Slaw)
Back on Slaw after a decade-long hiatus, Hughes is a prolific contributor who consistently writes balanced pieces on tough topics. “She writes about [what] people are looking for: freedom of religion & conscience, & political process. Basically how to know what’s right in our society.”
Mark Mancini (Double Aspect)
Readers appreciate his “up-to-date and insightful thoughts on administrative law and statutory interpretation.” Another conceded “I rarely agree with him but he knows his admin stuff. Respect.”
Best Podcasts
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Every Lawyer Podcast
Giving a welcome voice to a range of remarkable guests from across the country, the standout Conversations with the President series on this CBA podcast explored personal stories of diversity in law.
Lawyer Life Podcast
Co-hosts Darlene Tonelli and Mike Anderson of Inter Alia Law dissect “the professional, personal, and political lives of lawyers” on their refreshingly honest and relatable weekly show, now in season 3.
LawLawLand
Lawyer Mindy Caterina and comedian Garrett Jamieson have paired up to produce a lively and interesting pod “for everyone who is curious about law, rights, and the questions that matter most – like, when can the cops strip search you???”
Appointed Podcast
Canadian Senator Kim Pate and law student Reakash Walters “bring issues affecting folks on the margins, to the centre” with frank discussions of criminal justice issues and beyond.
Paw & Order
The animal law podcast from Peter Sankoff and Camille Labchuk was a favourite again this year, with listeners praising its “up-to-date news, thoughtful and engaging themed discussions” plus “witty banter [that] never fails to entertain.”
Best Twitter Accounts
Nominations were extremely enthusiastic about this new category! Here are six must-follow Canadian legal tweeps:
Orlando Da Silva (@orlando_lsm)
We can’t recall anyone in recent memory championing lawyer mental health issues like Orlando Da Silva has in recent years.
Elsa Ascencio (@elsaasce)
“One of the bravest, most compassionate, insightful voices on Twitter,” Elsa Ascencio used social media to mobilize the #demandinclusion campaign during this year’s LSO Bencher elections.
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Dubbed “a true force on this site this past year,” Joshua Sealy-Harrington received many nominations and was praised for “齐鲁晚报:2021-9-19 · 《齐鲁晚报》（电子版）的一切内容(包括但不限于文字、图片、PDF、图表、标志、标识、商标、版面设计、专栏目录与名称、内容分类标准以及为读者提供的任何信息)仅供齐鲁晚报的报、网、端、微等载体读者阅读、学习研究使用，未经本单位书面授权，任何单位及个人不得将《齐鲁晚报》（电子 ....”
Maggie Wente (@maggie_wente)
Top marks to Maggie Wente for “hard-hitting tweets and insight into indigenous issues.” (And also for making us laugh really hard.)
Erin Durant (@ErinDurant42)
Erin Durant is “a cyber mentor to all” who “motivates and advocates 280 characters at a time.”
Best A2J Resources
Some of the most exciting legal information work happening these days is taking place with the aim of improving access to justice. While an overwhelming number of people and projects nominated for this year’s Clawbies fit the A2J bill, we’ve selected three in particular that are outstanding.
CanLII Primer
The National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP) is no stranger to Clawbies wins, and this year they were given high praise for their collection of free resources designed to support SRLs. “I know of no better legal research guide for SRLs than the NSRLP’s amazing CanLII Primer.” The primer is available in French and English and was prepared by Julie Macfarlane and Tamara Thomas.
JP Boyd on Family Law
This Clicklaw Wikibook is a testament to the power of collaboration and plain language open legal information, and should be considered a model for other projects. This comprehensive and wildly popular one-stop-family-law-shop was created by legal web pioneer JP Boyd QC and evolved into its wikibook format in 2012. Boyd and Megan Ellis QC now oversee the volunteer editor pairs who maintain the wikibook.
BC Provincial Court Twitter Town Hall
2019 saw the third edition of the BC Provincial Court’s “Twitter Town Hall”, which prompted 170+ questions by participants and almost 150 responses from the team of BCPC Chief Judge Melissa Gillespie, BCCA Chief Justice Robert Bauman and former SRL Jennifer Muller. Being able to ask questions of a judge in public, online, and have them answer is “practically unprecedented”—kudos to the BCPC for this remarkable initiative.
Best Innovative Projects
Here are three projects that demonstrate creativity and outside-the-box thinking in a notoriously risk-averse profession.
Caryma Sa’d’s Landlord & Tenant 101 Comic Series
Folks praised Caryma Sa’d’s eye-catching, effective use of comics in this consumer law resource, and also gave props for using graphics to great effect during the 2019 bencher campaign.
Darin Thompson’s CPD Podcast
Darin Thompson’s “innovative approach to offering free CPD credits via podcast learning combined with engaging interviews with diverse, forward-thinking voices in the legal sector is brilliant.”
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Breanna Needham earns a Clawbie for “leveraging social media for social change” with her successful campaign to get equal robing room conditions for women lawyers at the Ontario Court of Appeal.
Best Law Library Resource
The Clawbies were launched from a law library, so this category will always have a special place in our hearts!
O’Faolain
There’s really only one word—stellar—to describe David Whelan’s blog, where he writes first-person reflections on law libraries and technology. From the nominations: “One of the most useful sites where I learn things to move forward with my work.”
极星vpn
Colin Lachance recorded this series of interviews at the 2019 CALL/ACBD conference in partnership with vLex—we think this is probably the first-ever Canadian law library podcast! More please!
Best Student Projects
Law students are some of the hardest working, most enthusiastic members of the Canadian legal community, and these three projects are a perfect illustration of that.
The Law School Show Podcast
By law students and for law students (past, present and future), The Law School Show aims to give “unencumbered access to key career-shaping information.” Now at 120 episodes, the pod features fascinating interviews with lawyers, academics and other guests, digging deep into their legal career journeys and areas of expertise.
Hearsay Podcast
Created by Pro Bono Students Canada, the U of Calgary Faculty of Law and CJSW, Hearsay is a public legal education podcast. Law students conduct interviews with lawyers, judges, academics, journalists on timely and interesting topics.
Little Legal Summaries
Windsor law student Sara Little is carving out a niche for herself with this blog, which features brief, comprehensive summaries of recent Canadian criminal appellate decisions.
Best Multi-Platform Presence
Not content to simply write or podcast, these two legal online superstars show us how to cover ALL the bases!
极星vpn
Thanks to her podcast, YouTube channel, blog and Twitter presence, Vancouver criminal defense lawyer Kyla Lee has a lot of fans. From the nominations: There’s العبارات - CRI:الدرس الأول:تبادل التحية nǐ hǎo ！你 好 السلام عليكم! nǐ zǎo ！你 早 صباح الخير! zǎo shang hǎo ！早 上 好 صباح الخير!
Russell Alexander
Ontario divorce lawyer Russell Alexander publishes a seemingly never-ending stream of quality blog posts, podcasts, eBooks, weekly videos and shares it all on social media. Russell’s popular FamilyLLB blog has slowly been evolving into a full-fledged family law portal.
Hall of Fame
Every year, we add several names to the Clawbies Hall of Fame. Publications must have at least three prior Clawbie awards for consideration. Once they have joined the Hall of Fame ranks, they are no longer eligible for future Clawbies, but can show off their achievement with the official Clawbies Hall of Fame badge.
Here are the 2019 inductees:
Labour Pains
Four-time Clawbies winner Sean Bawden’s job title has changed, but the quality of his blogging hasn’t. Sean won a “best new blog” Clawbie in 2012, and seven years later he’s in the Hall of Fame. Congratulations on your formidable track record, Sean!
Condo Adviser
Kudos also to Rod Escayola and the condo law team at Gowlings WLG for their new place in the Clawbies Hall of Fame. Condo Adviser has previously been awarded best niche blog and best practice group blogs—twice. Keep up the great work!
Employment & Human Rights Law
Lisa Stam won her first Clawbie back in 2011 and twice again after that. We’ll say it again: Lisa’s blogging sets the standard, anyone who wants to up their blogging game should study her style. A well-deserved win!
And that’s it — the Clawbie Awards are in the books for another year (and decade)! Congratulations to all the winners and nominees, and our sincere thanks to everyone who nominated a candidate on their own blog or via Twitter. A special shout-out to all the hard-working Canadian bloggers, podcasters, and other publishers who didn’t receive a Clawbie — keep up the great work! Your time will come.
Best wishes from the Clawbies team (Emma, Jordan and Steve) to all the Canadian law bloggers and podcasters, and everyone who reads and listens to them, for a bright and happy 2020!
