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I’m number 24! I’m number 24!

Look out Kim, it's a cougar!Look out Kim, it's a cougar!Happy New Year to you kids! And to me too, because I am proud to be number 24! Canadian IP lawyer extraordinaire and blogger Barry Sookman has ranked the most popular intellectual property and technology law blogs. He ranked the Top 10 for the world, and a bunch of other geographic areas (EU, US, UK, etc.) and most importantly, Canada.

Most importantly because your humble blogger appears on the Canadian list, at the awesome Jack Bauerian ranking of 24! Hells yeah!

Thanks to all of you readers for making this achievement possible, and to Barry for compiling the rankings. Let’s aim for top 20 in 2013! And then we’ll knock Geist off his perch in 2014. He has it coming.

Happy (totally non-secular) Holidays!

Sans snark, before Christmas Day ends, just wanted to wish my three faithful readers a very Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Good December 25th, etc. No matter what your faith (or questioning or lack thereof), have an awesome holiday season and a Happy New Year, from all of us (me) at allenmendelsohn.com.

Happy friggin holidays!

A personal snark-free (well, mostly) note

The above video is a wonderful documentary about the Mile End Legal Clinic, an organization that did more good in the last month than you’ve done in your lifetime. The Clinic helps people who can’t afford a lawyer get access to justice and know their rights, thanks to the efforts of lawyers and law students. Notwithstanding its name, it serves people from all over Montreal and Quebec. And I am proud to say that last week, I was named to their Board of Directors.

Now, you may say “but we have legal aid to help people who cannot afford a lawyer.” Well we do, but the system is pretty fucked. To qualify for legal aid as a single person in Quebec, you must have an annual income of $13,007 or less. Stats Canada’s Low Income Cut-off (essentially the “poverty line”, but they’re too chicken-shit to call it that) for a single person in Montreal in 2010 is $18,759. So basically, you can be poor and not qualify for legal aid. That’s fucked up. And that’s why clinics like Mile End are so important, and why I’m excited to help them as a Board member.

So let’s start with this – give them money. Your personal tax year is coming to an end, and you need some charitable deductions, don’t you? Or, you know, helping people.

Willkommen. Bienvenue. Welcome. C’mon in.

Hi there! Welcome to AllenMendelsohn.com, your source for all things Allen Mendelsohn. Well actually that’s not true. It’s really your source for all things internet law-related. Wait, don’t go away! This is going to be interesting, I promise. Join me after the jump so I can explain why this isn’t your average boring law blog that no one reads.

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