Welcome to The Legalist

Hello and welcome to my first post as The Legalist. In this blog, I'll be offering insights on recent employment law cases that affect the workplace, and some of the legal implications of current workplace issues.

Why me? Well, because I know a thing or two about employment law. In addition to leading the Labour and Employment Law practice group at Clark Wilson LLP, one of Vancouver's largest business law firms, I've been inside counsel, manager, and director of a number of businesses in the public and private sectors. My point of view combines legal, human resources, and business perspectives in way I hope you'll identify with.

I start this blog for BCBusiness at an interesting juncture. The 2009 financial crisis visited many unhappy things upon workplaces in B.C. – downsizings, restructurings, consolidations, and the like. Our focus, it seems, is no longer on recruitment and retention, as it was in 2008. This gives employers the chance to take a fresh look at their employee policies, benefits and training. These are interesting and challenging times.

As we are seeing, economic recovery in 2010 is going to be slow, primarily due to weak demand for goods and services from the United States, our biggest trading partner. A strong loonie will put pressure on businesses to improve productivity and lower costs. In my opinion, that means that many of the employment and labour trends we saw in 2009 will continue in the coming year. 

There is a lot to write about, and I hope to provide some useful intelligence for anyone navigating or managing their workplaces. If you have comments or suggestions for future blog posts, please leave them as comments below.

This blog is written by Nicole Byres of Clark Wilson LLP and made available by BCBusiness to provide general information on employment law, and is not a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer licensed to practice in your jurisdiction. Neither the reading of this blog nor the sending of unsolicited comments or emails creates a lawyer-client relationship with the writer or Clark Wilson LLP.