The Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador

Law Society Closed for the Holidays
2025-12-24 - 2026-01-04
Happy Holidays from the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador
Benchers and staff of the Law Society would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. You can view our Christmas card here.
Please note that we will be closed for the holidays after 23 December 2025 and will reopen for regular business hours starting on 5 January 2026. Staff will not be monitoring email and will respond to inquiries upon return on 5 January 2026.
The Law Library will be accessible to members and approved legal professionals with a valid fob card. Please remember that only circulating items may be borrowed.
Happy holidays!

The Science of Sleep: Implications for Professional Judgment, Performance, and Well-Being
2026-01-28 12:00 - 13:00 (America/St_Johns) | Online
Webinar Overview:
Sleep is a foundational biological process that directly affects cognitive performance, emotional regulation, and decision-making. In high-responsibility professional settings, chronic sleep deprivation can impair judgment, increase error rates, and reduce the ability to manage stress effectively.
This webinar provides an evidence-based overview of sleep science and its relevance to professional practice. Participants will be introduced to the sleep cycle and the physiological processes that occur during each stage of sleep, followed by an examination of how insufficient or poor-quality sleep affects mood, attention, memory, and overall well-being. The session also considers broader cultural and workplace factors that contribute to chronic sleep deprivation, supported by case studies demonstrating the economic and organizational impacts of sleep loss.
A focused segment examines the relationship between sleep and stress, including how sleep deprivation alters the stress response and degrades cognitive performance under pressure. Key distinctions – such as sleepiness versus fatigue, and sleep quality versus sleep quantity – are clarified. The seminar also addresses common sleep disruptors, including caffeine, alcohol, melatonin, and behavioural patterns such as revenge bedtime procrastination.
The session concludes with practical, evidence-informed strategies to support better sleep, including relaxation techniques, cognitive and behavioural tools, stimulus control, and sleep hygiene practices. A moderated question-and-answer period will follow, with questions addressed live or in post-session materials.
Seminar Presenters:
Marlee Boyle, Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT); Certified in Clinical Sleep Health; BSc Biology
Marlee has spent more than 10 years working as a Respiratory Therapist and transitioned to sleep therapy in 2014, becoming one of only nine therapists in Canada certified in clinical sleep health. Her specialties include sleep disordered breathing (obstructive sleep apnea) and treating insomnia though Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Marlee’s goal is to change the culture of sleeplessness in the workforce, to minimize accidents, as well as promote individuals to take control of their health and wellness by making a sleep a priority in their lives.
Leah Corkum, Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN); Sleep Therapist; BA Psychology
Leah has been working in the healthcare sector for 10 years as an LPN. Leah, being a shift worker herself, has led the development of shift worker education and strategy for Sleep Works with the goal of mitigating the effects of sleep deprivation. Leah is focused on preventative healthcare and education that supports positive sleep behaviour. Her goal is to improve the daily lives and futures of her clients through the benefits of healthy sleep. Leah completed the Family Sleep Institute Child Sleep Consultant Certification program and has been a Certified Child Sleep Consultant since 2019.
Registration Fee: $86.50 ($75.00 + HST) HST # R108086463
To register for this seminar, please click here.
CPD Credit: 1 hour

Mental Health in Sentencing: Beyond Mitigation
2026-03-10 12:00 - 13:30 | 3rd Floor, Law Society Building, 196-198 Water Street, St. John’s, Canada
Seminar Overview
The law of sentencing in Canada has—without much fanfare and with too-little commentary—undergone a significant conceptual shift in recent years. Most clearly reflected in the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2023 decision in R v Hills, Canadian sentencing law has embraced as its lodestar an approach that is best described as “individualized proportionality.” This approach elevates the individual offender’s experience of punishment as the animating concern in arriving at a fit sentence. And though the acceptance and embrace of this approach is clear in the doctrine, its implications are still to be fully explored. In this talk, Professor Berger will bring together this new paradigm for sentencing with a perennially difficult problem in sentencing courts: how to deal with the mental illness of the offender. His argument will be that, given this new approach, mental health should be relevant to sentencing in ways far more common and fundamental to the determination of just sentences than it has been in the past. It should no longer be approached as a question solely of the responsibility of the offender at the time of the offence; rather, mental health must now be treated as relevant to sentencing “beyond mitigation.” But so doing, he will suggest, has the potential to unsettle the system in interesting and important ways.
Seminar Presenter, Benjamin L. Berger
Benjamin is a Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. An award-winning teacher and researcher, and a prominent voice in the study of criminal law and sentencing in Canada, he is a Member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada and held the York Research Chair in Pluralism and Public Law. He served as law clerk to the Rt. Honourable Beverley McLachlin, former Chief Justice of Canada, and holds an LLM and JSD from Yale University, where he studied as a Fulbright Scholar. Professor Berger has published over 80 academic articles and book chapters on criminal and constitutional law and theory, the law of evidence, the law of sentencing, law and religion, and legal history. He is the author or editor of eight books, and his work on sentencing has been extensively cited and relied upon by Canadian courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada.
Registration Fee
$57.50 ($50.00 + HST) HST # R108086463
CPD Credit 1.5 hours
To register for this seminar, please click here.
