CALL/TALL/VALL Webinar - School Smarts to Office Smarts: LRW Strategy Session

A webinar by Jacob Ericson (moderator), Phillippe Lacasse (Director and Executive Legal Counsel, Law Clerkship Program, Federal Court of Canada), Josh Chan (Research Specialist, Dentons Canada LLP), Levi Parsch (Legal Counsel, The Canadian Nurses Protective Society), Matthew Renaud (University of Manitoba) 

Professional Development Pathways: 

• Instruction
• Leadership, Management and Professionalism
• Reference and Research Services

About the Session:

The Toronto Association of Law Libraries, the Vancouver Association of Law Libraries and the CALL/ACBD Professional Development Committee are pleased to present "School Smarts to Office Smarts: LRW Strategy Session" to take place on January 28, 2026 from 1:00 - 2:30pm Eastern Time. 

For those of us who attended the CALL Conference in Calgary in May of 2025, you'll recall that an excellent panel presentation by a similar name occurred at that conference. This webinar is a continuation of that conversation! 

Join us for this compelling discussion which will include two lawyers, 2 law firm librarians, and an academic librarian who will share perspectives on gaps in legal research and writing training for students.  

Importantly, the session will focus on practical strategies for addressing this skills gap, including legal research training for students in law schools, tools available to them, and opportunities for learning in the workplace. 

This will continue our discussion of how academic and law firm librarians and practitioners might work more closely together to support law students as they move from law school to practice. 

This webinar will be offered free of charge to members of VALL and TALL, and to faculty and administrators from academic institutions. Registration code is required for registration.

Academic law librarians are strongly encouraged to invite faculty, LRW instructors and law school administrators to this webinar.

Speaker Bios:  

Jacob Ericson (Moderator) has a BA from the University of Virginia and an MLIS from Dalhousie University. He has worked for the Atlantic Canadian law firm Stewart McKelvey since 2017, first as a Legal Information Specialist and now as the manager of their Library & Knowledge Services department. He has also worked as an instructor in the Legal Research and Writing program at the Schulich School of Law. 

Josh Chan is the Research Specialist (Law Librarian) at the Vancouver office of Dentons, Canada’s Global Law Firm. In his role, Josh coordinates and delivers legal research training for all incoming groups of summer and articling students in Vancouver. He provides frontline legal research help for students, associates, and partners at the firm. Prior to joining Dentons, Josh was a law librarian at Courthouse Libraries BC. He obtained his MLIS from The University of British Columbia. 

Philippe Lacasse serves as Director and Executive Legal Counsel for the Law Clerkship Program at the Federal Court in Ottawa (June 2025–present), where he oversees the legal research of approximately 45 Federal Court Law Clerks. Prior to this, he was Executive Director, Judicial Appointments, and Senior Counsel at the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs (2017–2025), following earlier senior roles at that Office and Justice Canada (2005–2017). Mr. Lacasse was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 2006 and is also a member of the Law Society of Ontario. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa (2004), and belongs to the Canadian Bar Association. Fully bilingual, he works in both English and French. 

Levi Parsche (he/they) acts as Legal Counsel for the Canadian Nurses Protective Society (CNPS) in Ottawa. After graduating from Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law in 2022, Levi began his legal career practicing litigation at Stewart McKelvey in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Levi was admitted to the Nova Scotia Bar in 2023 and is also a member of the Law Society of Ontario. 

Matthew Renaud, BA (Hons), MA, MLIS 

Matthew Renaud is a law librarian at the University of Manitoba. He holds a B.A. (Hons.) and M.A. from the University of Manitoba and an MLIS from the University of Alberta. He currently co-teaches the Advanced Legal Research course at the U of M’s Faculty of Law and instructs in their first-year legal research and writing program. Prior to starting at the University of Manitoba, Matthew worked at the County of Carleton Law Association Library in Ottawa, Ontario.