March 28, 2025

In the last few weeks, the Law Society has received reports of cybercriminals calling lawyers pretending to be security or trust safety personnel from the lawyer’s bank. The cybercriminals use social engineering techniques to gain access to the lawyer’s trust account. Once access is gained to the trust account, the cybercriminals use electronic funds transfers to withdraw trust monies. This is a reminder to be suspicious of unexpected emails and telephone calls. If someone calls you and purports to be from your bank, hang up and call your bank back at their main contact number.

Our digital landscape is constantly evolving, and it is crucial to remain vigilant against a wide array of sophisticated cybersecurity threats. In recent years, there has been an alarming rise in social engineering attacks — where cybercriminals disguise themselves as trusted accounts or organizations to deceive unsuspecting recipients — as well as business email compromise attempts, which can result in fraudulent financial transactions and unauthorized access to sensitive data. Lawyers and their trust accounts are high value targets for a variety of types of cybercriminals.

Read more about adopting proactive measures and other resources to consider.

The Federation of Law Societies of Canada expresses its grave concern over recent developments in the United States that threaten the independence of the legal profession and the judiciary. These foundational principles underpin the Rule of Law in healthy democracies. Efforts to undermine them put fundamental freedoms at risk and erode public confidence in democratic institutions.

Recent actions and rhetoric targeting lawyers, law firms and judges pose a direct challenge to these foundational principles. The independence of the legal profession and the judiciary are essential to ensuring fair and impartial justice. Members of the public must be able to consult a member of the legal profession of their choice without fear that a lawyer or firm will face retribution for providing advice that may be in opposition to the government of the day. Judges must also be free to apply the law without fear of retribution or fear for their personal safety or that of their families.

Read full statement.

Effective file and practice management systems are critical to the delivery of competent legal services. Establishing effective systems will help you provide high-quality legal services and increase client satisfaction, while protecting you against Law Society complaints and Alberta Lawyers Indemnity Association (ALIA) claims.

The Law Society has developed simple yet effective tools to help you start gaining better control over your practice. This includes a series of key considerations, specific to different practice areas, which function as “issue-spotting” tools and workflow management aids.

A Master File List is an easy and effective file tracking and file management tool. It will summarize all active files, and the status of each file, in one comprehensive document. A Master File List also allows an up-to-date assessment about next steps, financial issues and workflow planning.

This resource outlines the format of what a Master File list should include and provides sample lists specific to different practice areas.

Surrogate Case Conferences

In 2019, the Court initiated a pilot project where Justices conducted Estate Intervention Conferences to facilitate the orderly conduct and early resolution of estate litigation. In 2022, it was decided that Estate Case Conferences would be available at any stage of estate litigation, either in a one-hour or half-day format. An announcement on Feb. 2, 2022, detailed the Court’s policies and procedures for Estate Case Conferences.

This latest announcement provides updated policies and procedures, including a new name for the conferences. 

Read full notice.

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