Partner Adam Wagman on the people-first culture behind 15 years on the top boutiques list
00:00 And the answer is because I suffer from the curse of liking people. Uh and and I think this is something that uh many of
00:08 our lawyers, all of our lawyers, all of our partners, all of our associates, all of our clerks, all of our assistants, everyone that works in the firm, they
00:16 all suffer from the same thing. They want to help people.
00:23 Today we are proud to feature Howie Saxs and Henry LLP. Recognized as one of Canadian lawyers top personal injury
00:30 boutiques for 2026 with more than 25 years of experience in complex plaintiff litigation. Howie Sachs and Henry LLP
00:39 has established itself as one of Canada's leading personal injury law firms based in Toronto and serving clients across Ontario and Canada. The
00:48 firm is known for excellence in advocacy, strategic litigation, and achieving meaningful outcomes for seriously injured clients and their
00:55 families. The firm focuses exclusively on personal injury and medical malpractice law, representing clients in catastrophic injury, brain and spinal
01:04 cord trauma, institutional abuse, disability claims, class actions, and mass torts. HSH is also widely respected
01:12 as a trusted referral partner recognized for its collaborative approach,
01:17 professionalism and commitment to client care. It is consistently ranked among Canada's top personal injury boutiques
01:24 since 2011. The firm's reputation is built on legal excellence, compassion, and a strong record for results. Now,
01:31 joining us today, I'm so thrilled to be joined by Adam Waggman, partner at Howy Saxs and Henry LLP to discuss the firm's journey, philosophy, and what this recognition means to their team.
01:42 Congratulations on being named among Canadian lawyers top personal injury boutiques for 2026. How does it feel to
01:48 have your leadership in this serious injury and medical malpractice work recognized in such a public and
01:55 data-driven way and what does it signal to your team internally?
02:00 Well, Brody, first of all, thank you so much for having me here and thank you so much to Canadian Lawyer and thank you to our community and our peers for getting us here.
02:10 You know the first answer is that the most important thing for us is what our clients think. Um they're our focus.
02:18 They are who we are trying to impress and who we are trying to work our butts
02:26 off to help. But, when you get this kind of recognition from your peers, a recognition that we've had
02:34 and we're so grateful for, since 2011, since the first Canadian Lawyer list across the country,
02:42 it means a lot. It means a lot not just to the lawyers at the firm but to the staff who work so
02:50 hard every single day to know that their work is recognized not just by a client who says thank you and sends a card
02:58 but by other people in the legal community who know that what we do is
03:06 important and that we do it really at the highest possible level. It's really rewarding.
03:13 Your profile highlights deep expertise in catastrophic injuries, complex medical malpractice claims, and mass
03:20 torts class action litigation along with a network of leading rehabilitation and medical experts. How has this intense
03:28 focus on the most serious personal injury matter shaped the way you build cases and collaborate with medical professionals? And how do you think that focus contributes to your success?
03:39 Yeah, it's a fantastic question.
03:41 And I think the first answer is people. You know we only hire people at Howy Saxs and Henry who have the
03:49 intelligence, the compassion and the technical knowledge to work at the highest level on some of the
03:57 most complicated cases. Our job is not just to help people with their legal case. It's to help people put their
04:06 lives back together after a terrible trauma has happened. And the best way we know to do that is to understand what they're dealing with.
04:17 Not just from a personal perspective, from a medical perspective, from a day-to-day perspective, to be able to plug in the right medical providers,
04:25 rehabilitation providers, to give our clients the best chance to recover, to hit their goals,
04:35 to have a maximum recovery and having this focus on brain
04:42 injury, on spinal cord injury, on severe orthopedic injury, amputations, on severe psychiatric psychological
04:50 issues. That allows us to surround our clients with the right team, the right people, the right level of expertise to
05:00 help them in their lives to help them get better and of course to help make sure that we get them the best possible
05:07 legal result that we can. It's absolutely crucial to have that kind of expertise when you're going to work with people who have had the most serious
05:15 issues and trauma experienced in their lives. Yeah, I think that segues perfectly into our next
05:23 topic, which is that your profile showcases just these multiple partners who are certified specialists, widely published and recognized as leaders in
05:32 brain injury and complex trial work. Why is maintaining a strong thought leadership role important to your firm?
05:40 Yeah. Well, as you said, it really speaks to what we were just talking about, which is the need to not just talk the talk, but walk the walk.
05:50 If we're going to hold ourselves out as experts in a particular area, if we want to help people who have the most serious
05:56 injuries, the most difficult recoveries, then we need to be on the cutting edge.
06:04 cutting edge from a legal perspective. We need to be on the cutting edge from a medical and rehabilitation perspective.
06:12 The way to do that is to be a thought leader is to always be researching, looking, involving yourselves, reading,
06:20 and then of course turning all of that into sharing.
06:27 We really like to share information with our peers, with the public.
06:34 We as lawyers have a monopoly on legal information. And when a really serious injury or trauma happens to people, there's a loss of
06:41 control in their lives. What we want to give them back in part is that control over their lives.
06:48 And we do that through many different avenues, but one of them is information.
06:55 Letting people know what they're going to expect both from a legal and a rehabilitation and recovery perspective.
07:01 Let them know what the track usually looks like.
07:09 And that's what we all try to do. You also asked earlier about how it feels to be on the Canadian Lawyer list for so many years.
07:17 We do not take that for granted.
07:27 When we receive notice that we're on the list again for 15 years running at this point
07:34 but the second after we get that call and that email we start focusing on next year
07:42 making sure that we can achieve better, higher, making sure that that recognition will continue.
07:49 We are never going to rest on our laurels and we are always going to walk the walk.
07:55 Speaking of that and thinking about the next generation in terms of expertise, how are
08:03 you investing in that next generation of advocates coming up through the ranks?
08:08 We have a great group of lawyers at Howy Saxs and Henry.
08:15 All of our associates, our entire team is absolutely top-notch.
08:25 We start with hiring fantastic people:
08:32 compassionate, smart, hardworking individuals who understand that our clients’ needs are not 9-to-5 Monday to Friday.
08:40 Our clients need us 7 days a week at all hours.
08:47 Once we find those amazing people, we invest heavily in their training.
08:54 We are known for our mentorship.
09:02 We provide advocacy training and set expectations from day one.
09:11 Our associates are leaders in brain injury and legal organizations.
09:22 We expect them to be the next version of us.
09:30 We give them every resource to succeed.
09:35 You just spoke beautifully about being in it for the right reasons.
09:44 One of the striking elements is compassion and client service.
09:52 How do your day-to-day client experiences build long-term trust?
10:00 You hit on a great point, trust.
10:08 It’s something I talk about with every new client.
10:17 They are making one of the biggest decisions of their lives.
10:27 We ask clients to trust us, and we promise to earn it every single day.
10:36 That is our goal.
10:45 We make ourselves available to clients essentially 24 hours a day.
11:00 When I’m not sleeping, I am available.
11:09 Clients can call, text, or email.
11:16 They can meet on short notice.
11:25 A lawyer may have many files, but a client has one life.
11:34 Their needs are immediate.
11:43 When you understand that, you provide the level of service they deserve.
11:50 We do it not just because it’s our job—but because we care.
12:02 We do it because we care about them, about their families, about their lives, about their children, about their jobs, about their activities that they love.
12:12 We learn about who they are and what they want to achieve after something horrible has happened to them. And then
12:20 we focus on exactly that. And we do it because we love people.
12:26 I've said many times to my friends and colleagues when they ask me how I can run the kind
12:34 of schedule that I run and do the things that I do and the answer is because I suffer from the curse of liking people.
12:43 And I think this is something that many of our lawyers, all of our lawyers, all of our partners, all of our associates, all of our clerks, all of
12:51 our assistants, everyone that works in the firm, they all suffer from the same thing. They want to help people.
12:58 When you start there, it's a great foundation for a legal practice in helping people. And that's what we do every single day.
13:08 Let's pivot slightly. Let's touch on technology.
13:12 How are new tools and capabilities like AI changing your work? Where do you see the biggest opportunities or risks for plaintiffs counsel?
13:21 Technology has evolved dramatically since I first started working as a lawyer. I had a typewriter on my desk when I was an
13:29 articling student. So I have lived through the evolution of computers and smartphones and software and file management software and now AI.
13:41 What we have learned very early on is that embracing technology early is
13:50 key to success. It is key to staying on the cutting edge and it is key to being leaders in the community.
13:58 We've adopted AI now for several years and it has been a huge help.
14:06 AI and technology do not replace legal skill, legal knowledge, the compassion that we talked about, the client focus.
14:15 What AI tools and other tech tools do is allow us to do it more efficiently and better.
14:25 What we do is adopt these tools. We have a wonderful AI
14:32 program that is, in my mind, one of the leading personal injury AI tools for litigators.
14:42 We roll those out across our firm very early. We provide training.
14:48 We make sure that people understand that adoption of these tools is not optional because helping people at the highest level is not optional.
14:57 It is the promise that we make. If we're going to live up to that promise, we need to be on the cutting edge of
15:05 everything that we do. Tech is certainly one of those areas.
15:14 We have wonderful people who adopt quickly, who learn, who train, who find things about these tools that I didn’t even know when we first brought them on.
15:23 They use those tools to become more efficient and provide the best level of service to our clients.
15:29 In terms of risks, one of the things that I’ve learned in my time using AI, and I use it a fair
15:37 amount, is that AI still needs me.
15:44 AI doesn’t know what’s important in my file.
15:51 AI doesn’t know what’s important to my client.
16:01 AI can summarize and draft, and it’s remarkable,
16:09 but when something is missing, it’s because I know my client and their case.
16:18 Use these tools with an understanding of limitations.
16:25 The risk is people thinking AI is a replacement for lawyers or clerks—they’re fooling themselves.
16:34 People who think AI gets everything right are also mistaken.
16:44 AI is a very important tool, but it still needs us to do a great job for our clients.
16:57 Finally, you are recognized as a leading Ontario firm at a time when personal injury law, insurance disputes, and
17:04 access to justice issues are rapidly evolving. What’s on your radar, and how will you stay at the forefront?
17:13 There are many changes happening right now.
17:19 There are changes within court rules in Ontario.
17:26 There are changes in statutes, especially around insurance issues.
17:34 We need to stay on the cutting edge and understand how to strategically use those changes
17:42 to benefit our clients.
17:50 Some of those changes will be of strategic importance.
17:56 Staying informed helps us use them effectively.
18:04 One major factor is technological change and advancement.
18:20 Cars may still collide in my lifetime as a lawyer, but younger associates may see a very different future.
18:28 This means personal injury law will evolve significantly.
18:35 Our practice must adapt to new types of claims.
18:42 We stay on the cutting edge of these shifts.
18:50 Our practice has already transformed over the past decade.
18:57 We’ve expanded beyond traditional personal injury work.
19:04 We now cover areas like nursing home negligence,
19:14 institutional negligence, class actions, and mass torts.
19:21 These expansions help us serve more victims.
19:32 We’ve also grown our birth injury practice significantly.
19:39 Our goal is to help as many people as possible.
19:48 To support those who have experienced severe trauma
19:52 and help them achieve the best possible legal outcomes.
20:01 We are always looking to the future.
20:08 Congratulations once again on being recognized as one of Canadian Lawyer’s top personal injury boutiques for 2026.
20:16 Your commitment to excellence and advocacy continues to make
20:23 a significant impact on clients and families across Canada.
20:30 Thank you again, Brody. It was a pleasure speaking.
20:33 And again, this is Brody Lawson. Thank you for watching Canadian Lawyer TV.