Canadian Lawyer

letters to the editor THE CONFLICT OVER CONFLICTS JUDGING THE JUDGES RECORD MAKER February 2012 Send your letters to: gail.cohen@thomsonreuters.com NIGHTMARE THE OFFSHORE BANKING TRACKING DOWN CLIENTS' MISSING MONEY CAN OFTEN TAKE LAWYERS AND INVESTIGATORS YEARS AND COST MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. $7.00 CL_Feb_12.indd 1 12-01-23 4:15 PM are critical. Borrowing a page from our counterparts in England, yet greater use of Mareva, with the addition of orders requiring the surrender of passports until compliance with the injunction is verified; and better connections with specialized fraud lawyers, investigators, and bank personnel in target jurisdictions (including common points of transit, such as England and Hong Kong) would serve to improve the chances of recovery. than hiding cash for the wealthy. The tax efficiency of corporate vehicles and bank accounts in those jurisdictions lower transaction costs and make possible the global market for structured finance. If only for these reasons, offshore banking is here to stay, regardless of the concerns recently raised by onshore tax authorities. Canadian lawyers, therefore, will have to work harder to get the better of fraudsters. Global knowledge and early action BRANDON BARNES DAVIS LLP, TORONTO Canadian Lawyer welcomes letters to the editor but reserves the right to edit for space, taste, and libel considerations. Please include your full contact information. Comments from canadianlawyermag.com Re: "Timing is everything" April 2012 So a four-year undergrad plus three years of law school plus a year of arti- cling plus five years of practice . . . means having your first child at 31 at the earliest, and that is assuming going to university straight out of high school with no time off in between degrees. Depending on how big a family one intends to have, this could present problems for a lot of women. — online comment from JONATHAN WESTPHAL It would be great to hear what the profession is doing/can do to offer women lawyers career flexibility and options as they consider having children. True, you put the "pedal to the metal" in your career but, for things to really change, the profession needs to take serious steps to see how women can benefit from legal careers (and the profession from their experiences and point of view) while not unduly limiting them. Law societies have a crucial role here as well. One option could be to formalize other legal avenues for young lawyers (female/male alike) other than the traditional law firm structure: non-profits, in-house, and teaching are some options. That said, law firm cultures need to change. Working from home or part-time work arrangements can be viable options as well. It's 2012, let's support women lawyers and get the numbers up. Re: "Taking a time out" — online comment from ANNA April 2012 You refer to "the hearings where scarlet-robed judges listen to the argu- ments and pepper counsel for each party with questions." The judges wear black robes for day-to-day hearings. The scarlet robes are ceremonial only and are worn for the opening day, the reception of new judges, and other special occasions. When they are listening to arguments and peppering counsel with questions, they are almost certain to be black-robed. — online comment from JOHN G Re: "Looking to the future" April 2012 It is interesting to see that Canadian law firms are smaller in size than their U.S. counterparts. However, my contention is that bigger size mainly causes more overhead, more administration, and less focus on clients and cases. I hope to see Canadian-size law firms thrive and succeed. — online comment from NICOLAI NIELSEN The courts of many offshore jurisdictions may be "slow and unpredictable" for the same reason that some Canadian courts meet that description — they are busy. The banking and financial services laws of the offshores cited in your article serve many purposes other For example, Jersey, in the Channel Islands, is well-known to English lawyers as a sophisticated jurisdiction with co-operative judges by European standards. Preliminary evidence of criminal wrongdoing, or a proprietary claim, can be enough to trigger a freezing of bank accounts in some Swiss cantons. Your recent article on the "Offshore Banking Nightmare" [Canadian Lawyer, February 2012], captures the frustration lawyers can experience when faced with the need for tracing assets overseas. However, it promotes a widely-held, but incorrect, belief in Canada about offshore jurisdictions — that they have common cause and are universally difficult places to litigate. In truth, there are many different types of offshore, ranging from EU members (Cyprus) to relative newcomers virtually unknown to Canadians (the Seychelles), with differing legal traditions and raisons d'être. OFFSHORE BANKING HERE TO STAY www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com M AY 2012 7 PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT # 40766500

• Cover