For a list of Professor Semple’s publications as of July 2020, please click below.
i) Monographs
Personal Plight Legal Practice: Innovating for Accessibility, Quality, and Profitability. (2017) Canadian Bar Association, 204 pages.
Justitia’s Legions: Legal Services Regulation at the Crossroads. (2015) Edward Elgar Press, 308 pages.
ii) Articles, Chapters, and Commissioned Reports (sole author unless otherwise noted)
With Andy Boon, “Legal Ethics and Lawyer Self-Regulation.” Invited contribution to Lawyers in Society: 30 Years After, an international book project edited by Richard L. Abel, Ole Hammerslev, Ulrike Schultz, and Hilary Sommerlad. Forthcoming, publication projected for 2021.
“Regulating Contingency Fees: A Consumer Welfare Perspective.” Invited contribution to Trevor Farrow & Les Jacobs eds., The Cost and Value of Justice (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, forthcoming 2020).
“Billing without Bilking: Regulating Time-Based Legal Fees.” (2020) Working paper. Under review at the Dalhousie Law Journal. 28 pages.
“Good Enough for Government Work? Life-Evaluation and Public Policy.” (2019) The Journal of Happiness Studies, Vol. 21. 30 pages.
“Measuring Legal Service Value.” (2019) University of British Columbia Law Review, Vol. 52, No. 3, pages 943-1006.
“Mystery Shopping: Demand-Side Phenomena in Markets for Personal Plight Legal Services.” (2018) International Journal of the Legal Profession, Volume 25.
“A Third Revolution in Family Dispute Resolution: Accessible Legal Professionalism.” (2017) Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, Vol. 34, No. 1. (Peer-reviewed). Online: Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice.
“Legal Services Regulation in Canada: Plus ça change?” in Andy Boon, ed., International Perspectives on the Regulation of Lawyers and Legal Services, (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2017).
“Male, Pale, and Stale? Diversity in Lawyers’ Regulatory Leadership.” (2016) Canadian Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 31, Issue 3, p. 405. This research was the subject of an article in the Law Times newspaper.
“The Cost of Seeking Civil Justice in Canada.” (2016), Canadian Bar Review (Peer-reviewed), Vol. 93.3, pp. 639-673. This research was the subject of an article in the Canadian Bar Association National Magazine.
“Personal Plight Legal Practice and Tomorrow’s Lawyers.” (2014) Journal of the Legal Profession, Vol. 39, pp. 25-47. This article was the basis of a December 12, 2014 post at the Canadian Association of Law Teachers blog.
With Russell G. Pearce and Renee Knake, “A Taxonomy of Lawyer Regulation: How Contrasting Theories of Regulation Explain the Divergent Regulatory Regimes in Australia, England and Wales, and North America.” (2014) Legal Ethics, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 258-283.
“Judicial Settlement-Seeking in Parenting Cases: A Mock Trial.” (2014) Journal of Dispute Resolution, Vol. 2013, No. 2, pp. 301-329. A version of this article appears as a chapter in Tania Sourdin & Archie Zariski, eds., The Multi-Tasking Judge: Comparative Judicial Dispute Resolution. Sydney: Thomson Reuters, 2013.
“Access to Justice: Is Regulation Blocking the Path?” (2013) International Journal of the Legal Profession (Peer-reviewed), Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 267-283.
With Nick Bala, “Reforming the Family Justice System: An Evidence-Based Approach.” (2013) Report commissioned by the Association of Family & Conciliation Courts, Ontario Chapter. 20,000 words.
“Mandatory Family Mediation and the Settlement Mission: A Feminist Critique.” (2012) Canadian Journal of Women and the Law (Peer-reviewed), Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 207-239.
With Carol Rogerson, “Access to Family Justice: Insights and Options.” (2012) in Michael Trebilcock, Anthony Duggan & Lorne Sossin eds., Middle Income Access to Justice (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012), pp. 413-449.
“Judicial Settlement-Seeking in Parenting Disputes: Consensus and Controversy.” (2012) Conflict Resolution Quarterly (Peer-reviewed), Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 309-332.
“The Eye of The Beholder: Professional Opinions About The Best Interests Of A Child.” (2011) Family Court Review (Peer-reviewed), Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 760-775.
“Whose Best Interests?” (2010) Osgoode Hall Law Journal (Peer-reviewed), Vol. 48, No. 2, pp. 287-336.
“Cost-Benefit Analysis of Family Service Delivery: Disease, Prevention, and Treatment.” (2010) Research paper prepared for the Law Commission of Ontario.
“The Silent Child: A Quantitative Analysis of Children’s Evidence in Canadian Custody and Access Cases.” (2010) Canadian Family Law Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 1-25.
“In Sickness and in Health? Spousal Support and Unmarried Cohabitants.” (2008) Canadian Journal of Family Law (Peer-reviewed), Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 317-375.
“The Case for Tribunal Standing in Canada.” (2007) Canadian Journal of Administrative Law and Practice, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 305-323. Cited by the Alberta Court of Appeal in Leon’s Furniture Limited v Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner), 2011 ABCA 94, at para 25.
“Network Neutrality: Justifiable Discrimination, Unjustifiable Discrimination, and the Bright Line Between Them.” (2007) Canadian Journal of Law and Technology, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 163-173.
iii) Drafts and Work in Progress
“Everybody to Count, Some to Count for Less than One: Discounting in Welfare-Consequentialist Public Policy.” Revised with Major Modifications, resubmitted June 2020, Moral and Political Philosophy.
iv) Other Legal Writing
“Review of Matthew D. Adler Measuring Social Welfare: An Introduction.” Forthcoming, Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics.
“The British Invasion: Legal Services Regulation Edition.” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, April 10, 2020.
“Harassment in the Legal Profession: A Few Bad Apples?” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, February 24, 2020.
“Tending the Flame: Technological Innovation and the Legal Services Act Regime.” (2019) A paper prepared for the Legal Services Board. 41 pages.
“Dispatches From the Front Lines of Canadian Legal Ethics.” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, December 16, 2019.
“Get It in Writing: Legal Fees, Retainer Contracts and Newell v. Sax.” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, October 3, 2019.
“The Absent Ethics of Legal Fees: Putting Profit-Seeking in Its Place.” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, August 14, 2019.
“Personal Plight: Mending the Market” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, August 11, 2019.
“Welfare-Consequentialism: The Opposite of Populism?” Paper presented to the International Public Policy Association Conference. Montreal, June 2019.
“Welfare-Consequentialism and Social Policy.” Paper presented to the International Public Policy Association Conference. Montreal, June 2019.
“Tort Litigation and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Changing the Climate of Opinion.” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, June 6, 2019.
“A Tale of Two Attorneys-General: Jody Wilson-Raybould and Caroline Mulroney.” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, April 10, 2019.
“Collegial Reputation and Peer Rankings: An Invisible Hand?” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, January 31, 2019.
“Why We Can’t Ban Legal Advertising.” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, December 14, 2018.
“Bridges over the Chasm: Licensing Design and the Abolition of Articling” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, July 27, 2018.
“Measuring Legal Service Value, Part 2.” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, June 1, 2018.
“Measuring Legal Service Value, Part 1.” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, April 5, 2018.
“Shady Billing: Closing the Hall of Shame.” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, January 30, 2018.
“Access to Justice Levies for Lawyers: Putting Our Money Where Our Mouths Are.” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, December 12, 2017.
“Get Creative in Billing Clients for Dispute Resolution” Canadian Lawyer, November 20, 2017.
“Generalism and Access to Justice: Jack of All Trades, Master of None?” Slaw.ca Legal Ethics Column, October 6, 2017.
With Jenna Wright, “Contingency Fee Arrangements: Comments on to Law Society of Upper Canada Advertising and Fee Arrangements Working Group.” (September 29, 2017).
“Attorneys on Amazon? Online Marketplaces for Legal Services (Law and Technology at Windsor Law Blog)” (2017).
Submission to the LSUC Advertising & Fee Arrangements Issues Working Group Report (September 2016, 7 pages.)
“Our Nostradamus (Review of recent books by Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind)” (2016). Windsor Review of Legal and Social Issues, Vol. 37, p. 126-131.
“Submission to the Family Legal Services Review.” (April 30, 2016, 12 pages.) This was my submission to the provincially appointed commission chaired by Madam Justice Anne-Marie Bonkalo.
“Access to Justice: After the Machines Take Over.” (2016) Slaw.ca, January 27, 2016. Reprinted in Obiter Dicta (Osgoode Hall Law School), February 24 2016.
“Three Routes to Justice for All.” (2015) Lawyers Weekly, October 29, 2015.
“ABS: What Horrors Within?” (2014) Canadian Bar Association National Magazine.
“Depending on the Kindness of Strangers: Access to Civil Justice in Canada (Correspondent’s Report).” (2013) Legal Ethics, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 373-376.
“Book Review: The Best Interests of Children — an Evidence Based Approach, by Paul Millar.” (2011) Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Vol. 48, No. 3/4, pp. 695-702.
“MySpousalSupport.ca.” (2010) This is an online, interview-based adaptation of the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines; it is now archived.
With Freya Kristjanson, “Judicial Review in the Federal Courts: A How-To Guide.” (2008) Paper prepared for the Ontario Legal Clinics Conference.
“Negligent Emissions: Humanizing Climate Change.” (2007) Canadian Bar Association Eco-Bulletin.
“The Mandatory Pre-Retirement Death Benefit in Pension Legislation: Time for Another Look.” (2007) Published on the Ontario Expert Commission On Pensions website.
v) Books Edited
With Ann C. Wilton, Spousal Support in Canada. (Toronto: Carswell, 2011).
Contributing Editor, Family Law Act of Ontario and Canadian Divorce Law and Practice (James C. MacDonald and Ann Wilton, eds. Toronto: Carswell) (2008-2010).
vi) Other Published Writing
“Dealing with Climate Change ‘Losers.’ The Windsor Star (July 15, 2014).
“The Charter at 25: Time for a Sequel.” Ultra Vires (November 2006).
“The Worst-Case Scenario, and How We Could Get There.” CBC Newsworld (November 2004).
“A Bus to Nowhere.” the newspaper (University of Toronto) (August 17, 2004).
“Time for a Home-Grown President?” the newspaper (August 24, 2004).
“Dispelling the Myth of the WTO ‘Evil Empire.’” The Varsity (February 11, 2002).
“The Balloon Transcends Language.” The Globe and Mail (October 20, 2000).
“Brave New World of Teen Autonomy.” The Globe and Mail (July 13, 1998).