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UPFRONT 10 www.canadianlawyermag.com ONTARIO UPDATE The Legal Innovation Zone at Ryerson University just announced an online service, Family Law Portal or www.familylawportal.com, to help families better understand their options to resolve disputes. The announcement says you worked with practitioners with more than 160 combined years of family law and financial experience. Who were they and what did they say? We have got a team of six lawyers and one financial expert, and they are well known within the family legal community. We came up with a portal that's free for all, and a triage system will be spearheaded and launched by the new year. And what we will say to everyone else is that we need to solve this problem by next May. When I was AG . . . a number of Can lawyers fix family law crisis by 2020? Q&A Fast fact Former Ontario attorney general Launched new online family law portal this summer Chris Bentley Managing director RYERSON UNIVERSITY'S LEGAL INNOVATION ZONE NEWS BRIEFS New OBA board pushes change on tech, diversity Potential discounts on legal technology and a summit on gender equality are among the fall initiatives planned by new Ontario Bar Association leadership. The organization's ladder-style leadership structure will officially rotate in September, when current president Lynne Vicars will become immediate past president and Colin Stevenson will take over as president. Karen Perron, a partner at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in Ottawa, was elected second vice president, the OBA announced on June 28. That puts Perron, who stressed the importance of promoting diversity, in line to lead the OBA in 2021. Legal Aid Ontario cuts clinic system funds Legal Aid Ontario announced a $14.5-million cut to clinics, amid a steep funding decline from the provincial government. The organization tried to avoid any impact to direct client services in clinic and certificate cuts, says Jayne Mallin, vice president of the Clinic Law Services Division of Legal Aid Ontario. Toronto clinics will see the most dramatic cuts off the top, totalling more than $2 million. The organization will be funding fewer hours for meritorious bail reviews, parole matters, Gladue authorization proceedings on tariff matters and mental health issues on block fee matters. Real estate lawyer replaces Mulroney as Ontario AG Real estate lawyer Doug Downey was named Ontario's new attorney general on June 20, replacing York-Simcoe MP Caroline Mulroney. Downey, a Progressive Conservative member of parliament for Barrie- Springwater-Oro-Medonte, was a partner at Downey Tornosky Lassaline & Timpano Law PC. He has an LLB from Dalhousie University in Halifax and his LLM from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto and is a designated specialist in real estate law by the Law Society of Ontario. Downey will take the role amid several challenging projects at the ministry, including the construction of a massive new courthouse in Toronto. Human Rights Commission looks at AI impact on racial profiling The Ontario Human Rights Commission has been working with community groups to assess the impacts of artificial intelligence in the criminal justice system, according to a new report, "Together as one: 2018 community engagement report," released on June 18. The research into artificial intelligence is part of the OHRC's goal of developing "detailed policy guidance" to prevent racial profiling. The OHRC asked community groups to weigh in on "under-policing as a type of racial discrimination experienced by Indigenous people and racialized people living in certain neighbourhoods, and the use of artificial intelligence to augment or replace human judgment in policing." Lenczner Slaght launches centralized website for commercial list A website launched June 21, Commerciallist.com, could help more lawyers understand Ontario's specialized business court, say its creators at Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP. Monique Jilesen, a partner at Lenczner Slaght and a member of the commercial list users' committee, says that, although a lot of high-profile commercial litigation takes place through the Superior Court of Justice's commercial list, it previously took five or more filters to find these cases through the Canadian Legal Information Institute's online database.