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REGIONAL WRAP-UP be more favourable to your client. You can argue either the French or English version is the appropriate one. If you're unilingual, you don't have that ability to pick up on the nuances," he says. There has also been an increase in the number of bilingual judges in Manitoba, he adds, reducing the need for simulta- neous interpretation in the courtroom. "In the past, if you were bilingual and your judge wasn't, then you'd be much more likely to use English because you didn't want to use interpretation [ser- vices]," he says. Rémillard says the trend isn't isolated to Manitoba; it's occurring nationwide, as the administration of justice is be- coming increasingly bilingual. "There's a momentum there. Bilingualism is be- coming quite institutionalized," he says, before adding with a laugh, "I never hear anybody say, 'I'm bilingual but I'd love to be unilingual.'" Some of the biggest law fi rms in the province, including Aikins MacAulay & Thorvaldson LLP, Taylor McCaffrey LLP, and Thompson Dorfman Sweat- man LLP, can handle cases in either of- fi cial language. — GEOFF KIRBYSON gmkirbyson@shaw.ca No more status quo for new dean T he new dean at the University of Manitoba's law school isn't look- ing to maintain the status quo. Chris Axworthy only assumed his duties at Robson Hall this summer but he has already set an important goal for him and his faculty — to produce increasingly worldly and rel- evant lawyers. The former justice minister and attorney general in Saskatch- ewan says law schools and the legal profes- sion are going through a skills evolution. "There's much less liti- gation and much more conciliation, media- tion, and negotiation going on now. There's much [more] of a focus on fi nding solutions rather than allowing [cases] to end up in a court. Those skills are more in demand now than they used to be. We have to respond to that," he says. He adds the impact of increasing globalization means lawyers acting for clients in Manitoba need to have some knowledge of the law in many other countries because that's where business is being conducted. Running one of the country's smaller law schools — about 300 stu- dents — Axworthy says he realizes he has a recruiting challenge ahead of him. But what some perceive as a weakness he says is a strength. "One of the attractions and benefi ts of this school is it's small enough so students can get an enriched experience here and build good rela- tionships with their colleagues and faculty. Some schools are so big the students don't even know their fellow students. We pride our- selves on students all knowing one another and having a really pos- itive experience." Axworthy, who also Robson Hall's Chris Axworthy. served three terms as an MP for the NDP, says he has no interest in returning to politics. "There comes a time in your career when you look for a new challenge and opportunity, something you haven't done before but something you think you can be relatively good at. When the oppor- tunity for his job came along, it didn't take long to fi gure out it was some- thing I'd like to take on," he says. — GK 10 OC T OBER 2008 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com I CENTRAL CANADA t's unique on the continent, considered the unoffi cial English-speaking bar of Quebec, and is celebrating six decades of history. Welcome to the Lord Reading Law Society, the collective voice of the province's Jewish legal community. "It's the only organization of its kind in North America," says Montreal lawyer Ian M. Solloway, chairman of the Lord Reading 60th anniversary committee. While it represents about 1,000 pri- marily Jewish jurists, Solloway describes the organization as "not exclusively Jew- ish." As a result of its humble beginnings, the society strives for openness and ac- ceptance. It was a well-documented in- cident that occurred in the fall of 1948 that served as the catalyst for establishing the society. The Barreau du Québec had decided to hold its annual convention at the Mont-Tremblant Lodge that year, but like many other places at the time, there was a policy of "no Jews and dogs" at the lodge owned by Joseph Ryan. Representation was made to change the venue, but Ryan suggested since it was the off-season, there wouldn't be many gentile guests around to be of- fended by a Jewish presence, so he agreed to remain the host site. Then-bâtonnier Gustave Monette was consulted and, vis- ibly upset, asked to address a Montefi ore Club meeting of Jewish lawyers where he apologized for his and the bar council's ignorance about the lodge's discrimina- tory policy and urged them to attend as it was too late to change location. They decided instead to boycott the convention, galvanizing the city's Jew- LORD READING LAW SOCIETY CELEBRATES 60 YEARS PHOTO: ALLEN PATTERSON, UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA IMAGING SERVICES