Law Times

Billions of dollars invested, not a penny lost. ntitled-2 1 $4.00 • Vol. 22, No. 31 7/7/11 9:10:05 AM Inside This Issue 5 Search Guidelines Covering Ontario's Legal Scene ntitled-3 1 October 3, 2011 5/4/10 2:49:21 PM Ont. lawyer defies Thai threats Robert Amsterdam seeking support following politician's tirade BY MICHAEL McKIERNAN Law Times 6 Innovative Program threats against him. In May, London, England-based Robert A 9 Focus On Litigation Quote of the week "The arbitration process breaks down when people choose arbitrators who let counsel run the arbitration process like a private trial." — Joel Richler, Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP, See Arbitration, Page 13 Amsterdam, who's also a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada, complained to the United Nations' special rapporteurs on the situation of human rights defenders and the independence of judges and lawyers after the deputy prime minister of Thailand threatened legal action for his representation of members of the country's political opposition. Then in August, the law society Treasurer Laurie Pawlitza wrote to Thailand's minister of justice urging him to monitor Amsterdam's situation and to "guarantee in all circumstanc- es his physical, psychological, and professional integrity in accordance with international hu- man rights standards and international instru- ments ratified by Thailand." Amsterdam is grateful for the Ontario legal community's support. "What the law society has done in this case is important," Amsterdam tells Law Times in a phone inter- view from Washington. "It's important that our voices are heard on universal principles like human rights. "One of the things I never take for grant- ed is that we have a law society and we have the rule of law. We all tend to forget how precious that is. We who are at the bar actu- ally do share common values and beliefs, and Canadian international human rights lawyer is vowing to return to Thai- land despite a government official's Robert Amsterdam says his clients have been forced to leave Thailand to give him instructions. when you have the level of exposure that I do to countries where the rule of law is not alive, it just makes you extraordinarily grateful for colleagues who have taken this seriously." The co-founder of Amsterdam & Peroff LLP, which has offices in Toronto, London, and Washington, has made a name for him- self as a defender of human rights in coun- tries with spotty records on the subject. He has clients in places like Uzbekistan and Nigeria, where he represented Nasir El- Rufai, a former cabinet minister facing jail time, and Mallam Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, another politician who claims he was the vic- tim of electoral fraud. In 2005, Amsterdam was arrested and expelled from Russia while working on the defence of former oligarch Mikhail Khodor- kovsky, who alleged there were political mo- tivations behind his prosecution for fraud and tax evasion. The courts eventually found Khodorkovsky guilty and sentenced him to 14 years in jail. See New, page 4 Windsor students team up for local businesses BY RON STANG For Law Times WINDSOR, Ont. — In a once- robust auto town, a community that was ground zero for the re- cent recession and has often led the country in unemployment rates, a fledgling program in- volving University of Windsor law students is doing its part to help turn things around. Law students there have 'There aren't a lot of resources locally to help people with cre- ative ideas learn how to bring them to market,' says Myra Tawfik. teamed up with their business counterparts to create what's called the Centre for Enterprise and Law. It provides mostly pro bono assistance to startup busi- nesses, especially those in the so-called creative class such as technology and alternative en- ergy firms. "Windsor suffers from the fact its economy is wedded to the auto industry," says Myra Tawfik, acting dean of law and the centre's co-director. The cen- tre, she notes, hopes "in its own small way" to develop a sense of confidence among local entre- preneurs by providing special- ized legal and business advice. The centre has a strong focus on copyright, trademarks, and patents. That's in part due to the fact that these are specialties that have been lacking in the local le- gal community as well as the re- ality that they're among the most important areas for people devel- oping creative businesses. "There aren't a lot of resources locally to help people with cre- ative ideas learn how to bring them to market," Tawfik says. Tawfik herself focuses on copyright, the law of confiden- tial commercial and personal in- formation, and trademarks. Her work also includes international intellectual property law. According to Francine Schloss- er, a management professor at the university's Odette School of Business and a co-director at the centre, entrepreneurial skills can't be developed in isolation. Often, she says, entrepreneurs require le- gal advice to legitimize a product or service. She gives an example of her students coming up with a mar- keting plan around a business name only "to find out later that business name can't be used for whatever legal reason." A real-life example saw a local organic food business that eventually sought See Windsor, page 4 ADR Connect: Find an ADR Professional 416-487-4447 • admin@adrontario.ca Untitled-2 1 Mediators Arbitrators www.adrontario.ca/findapro.cfm Gold Standard www.lawtimesnews.com 5/20/11 1:11:30 PM

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