“If you’re making the customer do any extra amount of work, no matter what industry you call home, you’re now a target for disruption. It’s all about reducing choices and unnecessary steps, narrowing clutter, and adding a touch of class to boot.” — Aaron Levie, CEO and co-founder of Box, Fast Company, May 2012, Expert Blog section

Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP was founded in October 1888 and for the entirety of its nearly 124 years has operated comfortably (and I’m pleased to say profitably) from offices in Toronto. Never occupying space located more than one kilometre from the corner of King and Bay streets, our firm serves a client base that continues to grow in its geographic scope such that there are very few corners of the world that are not home to a Cassels Brock client. Earlier this year, we announced the decision to open an office approximately 3,300 km away from that corner in Vancouver, B.C. How, and why, did we decide to take this giant leap?

This is the third in Canadian Lawyer online’s year-long series Managing Partner Forum. Each month the leader of a Canadian law firm will share his or her thoughts on some of the challenges and successes of running their firms.

Dreaming of becoming a law firm managing partner someday? Then you’ll want to take note of what these law firm leaders across the country shared with Canadian Lawyer 4Students about what it takes. We asked them the following probing questions to help you on your way to law firm leadership.

This is the first in Canadian Lawyer online’s year-long series Managing Partner Forum. Each month the leader of a Canadian law firm will share his or her thoughts on some of the challenges and successes of running their firms. We kick it off with John Coleman of Norton Rose Canada, who was instrumental in two of the most talked-about mergers of 2011.

This column will deal with some of the key results of the 2011 Canadian KPI Survey conducted by Law Firm KPI, a for-profit company (our intent anyways) co-founded by Karen MacKay of Phoenix Legal Inc., and me in 2010 to specifically undertake surveys of key performance indicators for law firms with up to 100 lawyers. The purpose of the survey is to provide Canadian law firms with industry information in order to benchmark their own performance against the performance of other firms of reasonable comparative size. More information on the annual survey can be found at LawFirmKPI.com.

There should soon be plenty of cheery lawyers across the land, based on the results of Canadian Lawyer’s 2011 compensation survey. If you’re a lawyer looking for work — or a change of scene — you’ll be glad to know that 44 per cent of the 60 law firms that participated in this year’s survey plan to hire more lawyers in 2011. Associates can smile over news that 63 per cent said their lawyers would receive a salary boost in 2012.

Illustration: Jason Schneider

Don’t ever tell Ned Levitt it’s time for him to retire. The 63-year-old partner at Aird & Berlis LLP intends to carry on practising law “until the hearse pulls up to the door.” He’s one of many healthy and highly motivated baby boomers who believe they will remain active and productive for many years to come. “My practice is still expanding so why put an arbitrary time frame on that,” he says. “I work out at a gym three mornings a week. I’m a shortboard windsurfer. So are you going to tell me to go lie on a couch?”

This is a challenging time of year to write for me at least, as the basking in family, friends, food, wine, and gifts readily distracts one’s focus from the environment we will be returning to and embracing once again.

One of the single greatest challenges facing many law firms is the effective transition in their leadership as the enterprise grows. As always, let me start with my underlying premise for this month’s column — the titular leaders of law firms must be lawyers.