Neil Guthrie DPhil, LLB

Director, Professional Development, Research & Knowledge Management Admitted to the Ontario Bar: 1997
  • Toronto

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  • Bio
  • Professional Involvement
  • Selected Publications
  • Education

With a focus on education, innovation and collaboration, Neil is responsible for managing Aird & Berlis LLP’s professional development activities and knowledge management initiatives.

Neil's experience includes continuing legal education, student training, writing and editorial support, and knowledge management. He also has conducted and supervised legal research on a wide range of matters from all areas of practice.

Neil was responsible for developing the curriculum in legal research and writing for the Law Practice Program at Ryerson University, and currently teaches Advanced Legal Research and Writing at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto.

Neil serves as the firm's representative to the Law Firm Diversity and Inclusion Network.

Other Languages

French

 

Professional Involvement

Memberships:

  • Canadian Bar Association

  • Ontario Bar Association

  • Toronto Lawyers Association

  • National Association for Law Placement

  • Professional Development Consortium

  • Director, Legal Information and Resource Network, Inc. (LIRN)

  • Trustee, George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art

Selected Publications

Guthrie’s Guide to Better Legal Writing, Second Edition, (2021).

Legal Writing in the Digital Age, (The Lawyer's Daily, 2019).

Guthrie’s Guide to Better Legal Writing (Irwin Law, 2017).

Fortnightly contributor on legal writing to slaw.ca, since October 2015.  

"Law-firm Diversity and Inclusion: A Canadian Perspective," NALP Bulletin, September 2016. 

"Canadian Corner," Professional Development Consortium Linkletter 3:2, (autumn 2015), 11-12. 

"The End of Cash? Bitcoin, the Regulators and the Courts," (2014) 29 BFLR 355. 

"Privilege: Recent Developments," (2011) 39:3 Adv Q 349.  

"Some Lacunae in the Law of Limited Partnerships," (2009) 88:1 Can Bar Rev 147. 

"Self-evaluation Privilege" (co-Author) in Professional Privileges and Judicial Approach, ed. R. Satyanarayana (Hyderabad: Icfai University Press, 2009), 36-55. 

"Blank v. Canada (Minister of Justice): The Duration of Litigation Privilege" (2007) 32:3 Adv Q 388.  

"Lawyers and Greengrocers," (2007) 25:4 Adv Soc J 11. 

"Stare Decisis Revisited," (2006) 31:4 Adv Q 448. 

"Recent Developments in the Law of Privilege," (2006) 31:1 Adv Q 23.

"Recognition in Ontario of Limited Waiver of Legal Professional Privilege," (2006) 21:2 JIBLR 105. 

Education

LLB, University of Toronto, 1995
DPhil, University of Oxford, 1990
BA, Trinity College, University of Toronto, 1985