Law Times

Page 16 February 3, 2014 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com RONALD DIMOCK JOINS JAMS Intellectual property lawyer Ronald Dimock has joined the JAMS Toronto dispute resolution centre. Dimock, with almost 40 years of patent, trademark, and copyright ex- perience under his belt, will serve as an arbitrator and mediator dealing with intellectual property matters at JAMS. He'll maintain his practice at Dimock Stratton LLP as well. "An accomplished mediator, arbitrator, and litigator, Ronald Di- mock is a highly esteemed member of the intellectual property law fi eld," said Chris Poole, president and chief executive offi cer of JAMS. "His expertise in a range of areas including patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret disputes will make a tremendous addi- tion to our panel." TWITTER A NEW ENFORCEMENT TOOL ROME — Police are turning to Twitter in their bid to get a handle on Italy's notorious parking chaos. With the creativity of Italians in parking their cars and scooters in places like traffi c islands or simply in the middle of the street, police in Rome have enlisted the power of social media to help them come to grips with the endemic problem. According to Reuters, citizens who spot il- legally parked cars can alert a dedicated police Twitter account, @PLRomaCapitale. e police then reply to say when they've taken action. e new head of the urban police force, Raf- faele Clemente, says the idea is to create a cul- tural shi . "Sharing, such as on social networks, is needed to fi ght certain patterns of illegality and rule breaking, and also of crime," he said. Congestion is a serious problem in the capi- tal. In the past, authorities have had to limit car access when pollution caused by exhaust fumes reached potentially dangerous levels. Add this to a culture of rule-breaking and cobbled streets that wind along a narrow, o en medieval street pattern, and chaos can ensue. Photos fl agged to police by Rome residents show cars parked in zigzags across pedestrian crossings and pavements. According to Reuters, a common problem is double parking where vehicles pull up beside those already parked on the sides of the road. Rows of cars four-thick can form, leaving only a narrow gap for the traffi c to pass by. "In Cola di Rienzo street barbarity reigns. . . . Intervene!" wrote one user. Seven hours later, police replied to say they had intervened with 25 separate fi nes handed out. Initial skepticism among Twitter users about whether the system would work, according to Reuters, gave way to messages of thanks once police had issued penalty notices. One user posted a photo of the police giving out fi nes in the rain. " ank you and go on like this!" wrote another. EX-POPE'S BLOOD STOLEN ROME — Who knew the Catholic church keeps the blood of deceased popes? According to Reuters, the church has ap- pealed to thieves to return a reliquary contain- ing the blood of the late Pope John Paul II that disappeared in what it called a "vile and sacrile- gious the ." e gold reliquary disappeared recently from a small stone church, San Pietro della Ienca, in the mountains east of Rome where, in his young- er days, the pope would slip away secretly from the pressures of the Vatican to hike and ski. "I appeal to the those who carried out this deplorable act," Archbishop Giuseppe Petroc- chi of the city of L'Aquila said in a letter to local Catholics. "Give it back," he said. Many Catholic churches have reliquaries, usu- ally small, ornate containers that hold relics, in some cases body parts of revered church fi gures. e one stolen contained a blood-soaked piece of cloth, most likely from the cassock John Paul was wearing on May 13, 1981, when he was the target of an assassination attempt, the offi ce of Monsignor Slowomir Oder, the offi cial in charge of John Paul's sainthood cause, told Reuters. Police found only the gold reliquary and a crucifi x missing even though the thieves would have had time to take other objects during the nighttime raid in the isolated area. As a result, they suggested the thieves could intend to seek a ransom. John Paul is due to become a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in May, meaning the relic will become more valuable. In 2011, John Paul's former private secre- tary, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz , gave the local community the relic as a token of the love he had felt for the area. LT Get more online Get more online Get more online Canadian Lawyer | Law Times | 4Students | InHouse | Legal Feeds lawtimesnews.com • canadianlawyermag.com Fresh Canadian legal news and analysis every day Visit Us Online 1-8-5X.indd 1 2/28/11 2:37:34 PM u Bizarre Briefs By Viola James u The InsIde story BLAKES ANNOUNCES 11 NEW PARTNERS Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP has welcomed four new partners in Toronto along with other addi- tions at its offi ces across Canada. e new partners include An- drew Gordon, whose practice focuses on the energy and fi nan- cial services sectors; commercial real estate lawyer Daniel Kof- man; Alexis Levine, a lawyer focused primarily on debt and structured fi nancings; and Jef- frey Shafer, who practices in all areas of Canadian domestic and cross-border income tax law. "On behalf of the fi rm, I wel- come them to the partnership," said Rob Granatstein, manag- ing partner at Blakes. " is is a milestone in a law- yer's career and every one of these individuals has worked extreme- ly hard for our clients." Besides the Toronto additions, Blakes announced one new part- ner in Montreal (Tricia Kuhl), three new partners in Calgary (Michael Dixon, Sean Max- well, and Michael O'Brien), two new partners in Vancou- ver (Troy Lehman and Robin Reinertson), and one new part- ner in Bahrain (Tim Sunar). LAWYERS APPOINTED TO ORDER OF ONTARIO Several members of the legal community were among the new appointees to the Order of On- tario last month. e new appointees invested at a ceremony at Queen's Park included lawyers such as Avvy Yao Yao Go. In announcing her appointment, the government touted her as someone "who uses her law degree to advance the rights of Toronto's marginalized communities." Go, the clinic director of the Metro Toron- to Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, also serves as a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. Also appointed to the order was George Carter, one of Can- ada's fi rst black lawyers and the fi rst Canadian-born black judge. e government praised him for his work to change discrimina- tory practices in Ontario's justice system and his role in the develop- ment of legal aid in Ontario. A third member of the legal community named to the order was Penny Collenette, an ad- junct professor at the Univer- sity of Ottawa Faculty of Law honoured as "a leader and in- novator whose infl uential reach spans the worlds of public poli- cy, business, law, and academia." POLL RESULTS e results of the latest Law Times online poll are in. e poll addressed many peo- ple's dream scenario about what Legal Aid Ontario should do if it suddenly had more money, and the results were clear that increas- ing the eligibility threshold for as- sistance is the way to go. According to the poll, 52 per cent of respon- dents would prioritize boosting the income threshold while 12 per cent felt any new money should go towards increasing the tariff paid to lawyers. About 10 per cent would like to expand the range of matters covered and just four per cent would emphasize more fund- ing for legal clinics. Not surprisingly, a signifi cant number of respondents — almost 22 per cent — think LAO should do all of those things were it to have more money. LT Ronald Dimock "And you call THAT an abduction?!"

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