Job Description

Briefing Document

McMillan LLP

National Director, Knowledge Management and Practice Support  

For more information, please contact:
Nisha Rider, National Director, Human Resources
(Nisha.rider@mcmillan.ca)

May, 2013

McMillan LLP is a modern, ambitious Canadian business law firm with an international presence that has grown rapidly over the past few years. In particular, on January 1, 2011, McMillan LLP and Lang Michener combined to form the new McMillan LLP. The combined firm, with close to 350 lawyers spanning offices across Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, and Hong Kong, provides a comprehensive mix of services and specialties to clients across Canada and in the critical growth markets of Asia and Latin America.  

The University of Ottawa Press has made the eBook "How the Supreme Court of Canada Shook the Foundations of Canadian Copyright Law" available to download for free. The eBook, edited by Michael Geist, "represents the first comprehensive scholarly analysis" of the five copyright rulings made by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2012.

The presentation materials for a number of conference sessions from the recent Canadian Association of Law Libraries Conference in Montreal are now available. These conference materials include:

• Librarians as Trainers: Coping with Interruption and Interaction in an Era of Social Media (Speaker: Kate Bligh)
• Competitive Intelligence: Definition, Issues and Its Application in a Law Firm (Speaker: Linda Modica)
• Keeping Track: Evolution of the RDA Standard (Speaker: Chris Oliver)
• Soft Skills for Librarians: Self-Management Explained (Speaker: Chantal Westgate)
• Librarians as Innovators (Speaker: Stephen Abram)
• Show Them What You're Worth: Demonstrating Your Value to Management (Speaker: Maggie Weaver)
• Land of Confusion: EBooks' License Negotiation Demystified (Speaker: Bess Reynolds)

I've been running a blog since last fall where I conduct literature reviews to consider best practices for librariy technicians in certain areas of library work.  Here is the URL to my blog post on reference work in law libraries.

Hire Education | Watch why @ www.youtube.com/ubcartscoop

Hire a graduate student in library, archival or information studies. It's a great time to get a head start on student recruitment for the fall. We're now posting jobs for work terms that start in September or October. The UBC Arts Co-op Program offers some of the brightest students for 4 or 8-month paid, full-time work terms from the School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies (SLAIS). Students learning the latest in library, information management, and archival fields can be an ideal fit for that special project or short-term vacancy you’ve been looking to fill.

Types of Jobs SLAIS Students Perform:

Posted at the request of Tony Saadat (tsaadat@soutronglobal.com):

1.What is the governance "picture" for sharing knowledge in your organization? Who owns the content?
2.Does your system allow for integrating this knowledge into the organizational workflow?
3.Can you and your team -- with the tools you have -- operate the specialized library as the company's knowledge nexus?

I am pleased to invite you to an exclusive free webinar with our guest speaker Guy St. Clair, President of SMR International in New York, NY and Consulting Specialist for Knowledge Services with Soutron Global.

The Vancouver Association of Law Libraries is pleased to announce our final seminar of the year, on Wednesday, June 5th at the Shangri-La Hotel. This workshop could not come at a better time for the VALL community as there have been -- and will be -- many shifts in our working environment: new positions opening, transfers, closures, merging firms, climbing of the corporate ladder, and yes, even retirement.

Jenny Lewis & Michelle Sharp will present on the topic of knowledge transfer strategies that will ease employee transitions in law libraries. They will share methodology that can be easily implemented in your law library to mitigate knowledge loss risk. Organizations need to proactively explore and implement ways to share and transfer, explicit and tacit, knowledge as part of everyday practice to ensure business continuity. 

The seminar offers value both to managers of law libraries with transitioning staff, and to staff of all levels interested in strategies that will keep their library in the best possible state as they transition to a new position or into retirement. For more information they invite you to visit their website www.retirewithintention.com and stay connected through Facebook and Twitter.

The registration form is below, and here.

Join us for a fun and casual after-work social/networking get together at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

No host bar.

No need to RSVP. 

Event will be held, rain or shine!

Position highlights

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia is seeking a Law Librarian to join our Claims Division. Reporting to Special Counsel, the Librarian is responsible for oversight of the issue-specific legal research offered to special counsel unit, claims staff and defence counsel.  Duties include, but are not limited to, providing oversight and research on specific legal issues, cataloging and classification of existing legal research and supporting documentation, and maintaining the Library.

The successful candidates’ substantial knowledge of legal research databases and web-based subscription services will be essential in ensuring they can effectively conduct in-depth research in range of areas including ICBC practice-specific areas of law, business intelligence, public records, legislative and regulatory history, medical and news/media.

Additional position requirements

Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from an accredited university with at least three years of experience working in a law library, preferably in a law firm setting.  Experience in SIRSI preferred.

Law Degree is preferred

Proven excellent computer and research skills  including experience using Quicklaw, Westlaw, and other legal and business electronic databases

Ability to prepare comprehensive reports and present ideas clearly and concisely in written and oral form

Seven Fisheries libraries, including the one in Vancouver, will be closing. The 11 Fisheries libraries will be consolidated into four locations, including the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney BC. The rationale for the closings is "The growing willingness of Canadians to look online, coupled with an increasing presence of information online, including electronic scientific journals, enable the Department to consolidate its library resources."

Approximately 30,000 DFO-published reports and publications are currently available online, and can be found at the Department’s library portal "WAVES". DFO-published items that are not already available online will be digitized if requested by users.