Running a Small Firm in 2026: What's Changing – and What Actually Matters

00:00 Our first panel is running a small firm in 2026. What's changing and what actually matters? It's a forward-looking conversation on how AI, client expectations, and economic pressure are reshaping the business of law for firms like ours. Please join me in welcoming Kimberly Gail, lawyer and principal at Gail Law Professional Corporation; Aaron Cowling, CEO and founder at Flex Legal; JG Bal, partner, Family Law, Hummingbird Partners LLP; and moderating the panel, Josh Kazy Brochi, principal at Kosy Brocky Law.

00:47 Okay, good morning, everybody. Thank you for coming today. Thank you for the lovely introduction. We've got a great panel today, but not a long time.

00:55 So, I'm going to get right to it. Today, we're going to be talking about running a firm in today's world, in Ontario, here in Toronto. And welcome input from people in the audience. We've got a great panel. I think the core theme that we've talked about is that when you go to law school, nobody teaches you how to run a firm. It's more focused on law, learning how law works, right? And then all of us, at some point in our journey, whether it's right out of the gate or after practicing at a larger firm or even a smaller firm, have decided that, in fact, we're going to run a business in addition to practicing law. So that's going to be the focus of what we're talking about today. We're going to hear some great input from folks who run their own practices and firms, different sizes, different practice areas. And we're going to have a back-and-forth on that. Without any further ado, what we're going to do to start is ask a very broad question and hear some input from everybody.

01:54 And that is: What does it really take to run a small firm as a business today, and what should lawyers know before going out on their own, if they've just gone out on their own, or if they've been doing it for a while and they want to rethink what they're doing?

02:09 So, with Jagjeet on the end, we'll work our way this way. And, of course, if anyone has something to comment on another person's comments, please jump in, and I'll try my best to include everybody. If there's questions, raise your hand. We welcome you to participate. It's not a huge room, so we can certainly get anyone here involved. Okay, so, Jagjeet, take it away.

02:32 Speaking from personal experience, I think you've got to think of the law practice. I mean, lawyers are almost completely consumed with practicing law. But, you know, if you're going to grow your business or scale it, it's got to be thought of as a business. And our own firm, which is about 18 to 20 lawyers, really took off when we had a non-lawyer who was renting space from us, and he basically offered to be our CEO. And it was from there that we really grew.

02:55 We grew because there was somebody thinking about our business. So, I mean, whether it's an actual non-lawyer, which is unconventional just because of the law rules, but if you had a non-lawyer CEO, someone thinking about the business, that's their full-time job. Otherwise, every lawyer here is going to have to take out some time in their practice to run this business. So, you've got to think of it as a business, which includes the accounting, the software, and the compliance. There's a lot of compliance. Now, the Law Society requires a lot of things. Our firm is constantly dealing with this, and it's spread out over a number of people. We have a full-time human resources person, a full-time accounting department, and an IT person. There's just a lot in there. But you can definitely do it as an individual because of the tools and software available now. I mean, when I started as an articling student, the law firm was spending $20,000 a month on the library. You can get that for $500 and be just as cutting-edge as anyone else. So, I think, just as a starting point, I would encourage everyone to think of it as a business. And the other thing I would tell you is, if you can do it, don't do it on your own. Find someone else. Find at least one other person because it is a lot of work. You can grow from two. So, if there are two takeaways I'd tell you, start it with someone and think of it as a business. Those would be my two primary, big-picture pieces of advice for anyone thinking about starting a firm.

04:16 Yes, I agree with all of that. I also think you have to know yourself. If you don't think you're a business person and you just love the law, and you don't want to do human resources, network, business development, and all this kind of stuff, it may not be right for you.

04:34 Most people I see who go out and start their own firm or business are like, "Hell yeah, this is great. I'm never going back to being someone's employee." But there are some who start it and think, "Oh, I didn't think of this. I didn't think of all this work I'm going to have to do that's not just the law." And loving just practicing law may not be right for you. And the second point, what was the last thing you said? I was going to follow up on that. Now my brain...

04:59 Oh, practicing on your own. Start on my own.

05:01 So, as someone who started and runs a business on her own, there are days when I'm like, "Oh, I really wish I had a partner I could complain to or check with to see if I'm right in thinking this about what's happening." But also, I've seen so many partnerships fall apart. It's like a marriage. You really want to know the person you're starting a law firm or business with. Divorces are messy in matrimonial cases, but business divorces are nasty, too, having litigated many of them. So, I think you should really get to know the person, make sure you're on the same page, have a partnership agreement, and have all that conversation up front, just like you would if you're entering into a marriage.

05:42 So, yes, but I agree with everything else you said. Yeah, I mean, I started on my own, and I'm still the owner of my own firm. And I would say people love the idea of having the freedom and flexibility of being your own boss, and it's just so seductive. But it's kind of nice to just show up to work, do your work, and then go home at the end of it. Obviously, we all take our work home with us because it's very deadline-driven. We feel very responsible.

06:13 So, I guess it's very much like what Aaron said: Dig deep within you and decide what you really want and what makes sense for you, and then just do it. Don't look back.

06:24 Just to ask some more about that, can we just raise your hand if you are thinking about starting a firm? Yes.

06:30 So, we have a sense. We have one. If you've already started or are running a firm, raise your hand. Your own firm. Okay.

06:36 Right. So, it seems like the group is more folks who are already running a firm. So, let's try to gear some follow-up questions around that. And I think that's really interesting. I love Jag's thought: Think of it as a business. I try to do that myself in my firm, but you still have to not forget about the law.

06:56 We talked a lot about whether it's a good idea to have a partner when you do this. And I can say I don't have a partner, and there are days when I maybe wish I did, but there are more days when I'm happier for the freedom that Kim alluded to.

07:13 Judge, you've talked a lot about the importance of having those folks around you. Maybe we can go a little further on that and hear your perspectives on this point.

07:21 Yeah, I mean, to touch upon what Erin said earlier, there is a class of lawyers that want to be lawyers. They want to practice law. They want to really dive deep into their work, and we have some lawyers like that. That's actually a good model for us because we can attract lawyers who want to dive in and do that, and there's no danger of them starting their own firm because they don't want to, right? But at the same time, if you want to scale and grow, you're going to have to let go of some control.

07:45 So, the reality is our firm has been able to grow because we have six partners. They all have different responsibilities, but we have core areas that we're responsible for, and that's on top of a team of non-lawyers who run this. It is literally a full-time job to attract talent, review resumes, and interview people. You can outsource it, but you get to a certain point where it makes sense to have it inside your firm.

08:10 Given our size, what I'd say to somebody who's starting a lot smaller is that there are a lot of things you can buy piecemeal or outsource, like good accounting software. You're going to need that. But speaking for our firm, I don't think we could grow without these partners. If I was the only partner, this firm would probably fall apart. It's just too much. There are too many things coming at you. So, it just depends on the size as well, and I think that has to be borne in mind as you grow.

08:43 These things are going to happen. But to Aaron's point about it being a divorce, it's very true. We've had issues in our firm. You want to align with people who have the same financial tolerance. Somebody who lines up with you on how to spend money. If you have somebody who's a spender and is going to borrow, it's going to create a very different firm. So, if you're going to join with someone, you could try it as an association and find out if your financial risk-taking is similar because otherwise, it will fall apart.

09:14 I would say growing is the hardest. The honeymoon stage is the beginning. Maybe it's you, maybe it's you and a friend or colleague, and you have enough work and time to go out there and come to things like this, which is amazing. So, thank you all for being here and soaking up all the knowledge. You'll hopefully get one or two tidbits and feel really re-energized when you go back to your practice.

09:30 But then you get a little busy, and the admin gets a little too intense. You're working a couple of extra hours and thinking, "I didn't start my own firm so I could work more and deal with these headaches."

09:51 So, you're thinking, "I probably need a law clerk or someone really good to help me with admin." But is it full-time? Do I have enough work for a full-time person? How do I pay that person? Where do I find that person? I don't have time. I'll just keep working. And then it kind of becomes very challenging to grow your business. Everybody, if you're not there already, you will get there.

10:15 Or, if you have a four- or five-person team and need to add to that team, you need to feed that team work. And it's really the growth that becomes more challenging.

10:25 That's why I call the beginning stage the honeymoon stage. Good thoughts, Aaron.

10:29 So, I was just going to add to that. I think you also have to have a plan for your firm. Just a little background: I don't run a law firm. I run a freelance lawyer platform. I have been a lawyer for... How long have we been lawyers? Two decades.

10:43 We went to law school together. So, 20 years, let's say 21 years. And I see some firms that grow just for the sake of growing because they think, "We're going to grow. We're going to add more people. We're going to get more work in." Then all of a sudden, they've built this thing that's not working anymore, and I see them scale back.

11:00 So, if you have a partner or partners, it's important to sit down and make sure you're on the same page about the vision for where the firm is going.

11:07 With Flex Legal, our clients range from sole practitioners who have no desire to ever grow. They reach out to us to have a freelance lawyer assist when they get busy, and then we don't hear from them again for another six months.

11:15 Then we have firms that maybe have four lawyers. They want to keep growing, but they don't have enough work for another full-time lawyer. So, they'll reach out to us. We'll supplement their staffing until they hire that full-time lawyer, and then they just keep growing. So, I think it's important to have a vision for where you see your firm in the future.

11:41 Good tips. My practice is a very niche practice. I defend professionals at their regulators. One of the conversations we had preparing for this is: What area of law should you focus on? So, probably you were in some department or learned one area of law. Should you have a hyper-focused niche practice, or should you have a multidisciplinary practice with more areas of law? What's the best way to go about that?

12:04 We have various different perspectives here on the panel. So, let's start at the end with Jag, who has a bigger firm with more practice areas. Why don't you talk to us a little about that?

12:14 Yeah. Our firm probably has about four or five areas of practice. And I know when we were talking earlier, Erin, your view is that specialization makes sense and that's what you encourage, right?

12:23 Would that not necessarily...? Okay.

12:25 I guess I would probably go with that because I'm in a hyper-niche. I'm going to practice what I preach. I think that's the same in our firm.

12:33 We've always said early on to go narrow and deep. You're going to become a good lawyer in an area of law if you go narrow and deep. Law is becoming more and more complex. Naturally, every area of law has crossover to other areas. If you do family law, you're going to know a little bit about estates. You're going to know something about civil practice.

12:48 Our firm is a series of lawyers who all specialize. We don't really have any generalists. We have maybe one generalist who was winding down his practice, wanted to park it somewhere, and didn't want any of the overhead and admin problems. He's practicing, but he's from a slightly different generation, where you do a few areas of law.

13:04 But in our firm, nobody does more than, say, two areas of law. Somebody might do corporate, commercial real estate, but everybody else specializes. We have people specializing in condominium law, medical malpractice, and other areas.

13:20 The advantage of that is that clients can come to a firm and say, "This is our firm. We handle these areas." No firm handles all areas, whether it's Torys or our firm. We handle a good number of areas that can meet the needs of small business owners and families. Within our firm, we encourage people to specialize and go narrow and deep, as I said earlier.

13:43 I practice estate litigation, which is inheritance disputes. People thought I was crazy when I said I was going to, well, add that to my practice. I practiced estate litigation for about eight months, and it was seven months too long. It was just not for me.

13:56 Some people say, "I had an estate litigation file, and it was the worst file of my life." So, people who don't know the area... I say, "No problem. Send it to me." But people thought I was a little crazy opening up my own practice with such a niche area of law because I guess there's this conventional wisdom that if you're going to open up your own shop, you need to practice multiple areas to get business.

14:12 If somebody goes, "Hey, Kim, you're a lawyer. Can you help me with this?" you can just say yes. Whereas most of the time, I'm like, "Well, I do estate litigation."

14:21 "Oh, so you draft wills?"

14:29 "No, I don't draft wills. I only do the disputing." So, it's a very specific area, and I am pro crafting your own knowledge and being the master of your own area because people will seek you out for your information, and a lot of other lawyers don't want to practice your area, regardless of what it is.

14:54 I also think a little tidbit is whether you're in the quality-versus-quantity business. As litigators, we're looking for really good files that are meaty, that will pay, and we're not necessarily interested in quick turnarounds.

15:08 That's probably one way to think of your business. Are you looking for many files that are maybe lower-cost but easier to do, that will pay for your overhead and put food on the table and put your kids through private school? Or are you looking for bigger files that you don't need to take as many of, and you can spend more time coming to things like this to market yourself?

15:29 Kim, would you say it's easier to market what you do with a niche area? And Jag, do you have any comments afterward?

15:36 Yeah, I think so, because I think in your branding and marketing... I do mediation as well for estate disputes.

15:42 That was an easy... I did a Master of Laws while I was already practicing, and I think it helped me figure out what I really like doing, which is resolving people's disputes.

15:49 A lot of people are very confused about why I don't draft wills. They just don't understand. "Why don't you just draft a will for me?" And I know that being a planner is different from being a litigator. A lot of people go off on their own and do both, but I think it's actually very hard to do both because there are different business models and different expectations of your time.

16:11 Your time is extremely valuable, as you know, and every minute counts. So, if you're going to be learning an area of law that you want to be an expert in, then I would say be hyper-focused, and your marketing will reflect that.

16:28 Jeff, would you find it harder to market more areas?

16:32 Yeah, definitely. There's website advertising and media advertising. We have a company that assists us with media advertising, and we're constantly adjusting it. There's only so many dollars to go around.

16:40 You have an estates department that maybe has hired two lawyers, and we're trying to keep it busy, but family law and the articling students have just started. So, you've got limited dollars to allocate, and they don't always lead to files. It's a constant back-and-forth.

16:56 It's also related to the earlier point about marriage. It's not a competition, but you've got to account for different interests in the firm. If you've got an advertising budget, the estates department wants to spend some money, and so does family law. There's only so much to go around.

17:12 But, as we said earlier, you can grow and then things don't go the way you want. Our firm has ebbed and flowed between four lawyers, three or four lawyers, and down to two. When COVID happened, we thought it was all going to come apart because it is touch-and-go.

17:28 From the outside, it might look like this firm has grown from four partners to 18 lawyers. It is an expensive undertaking and operation. You've constantly got to keep your eye on cash flow because the lawyers themselves are also constantly being recruited.

17:47 You've got to keep them. You've got to have a culture that makes them want to stay at your firm, and they've got to be compensated because your talent is valuable. We haven't talked about this, but somebody's looking to poach your talent, right?

18:04 For a firm our size, it's not easy for us to compete with a bigger firm. They can offer someone a bigger salary right away. I think we have a much better overall package, depending on what a person wants from their life.

18:20 One thing I've found is that when I get out of my lane, that's where I have more exposure to not knowing what I'm doing on a file or my team not knowing.

18:24 Oh, yeah. And I think we all agree on that. You support many different lawyers. Have you seen that to be the case? Is that evidence for you to focus more on what you're good at?

18:36 Yeah, definitely. No one wants to get outside of their lane and be negligent in their provision of legal services. But as an example, Kim does estate litigation, but one of her files had a corporate element to it. A client wanted me to review a contract.

18:52 So, instead of outsourcing or giving that to another law firm and losing that client, Kim used one of our corporate freelance lawyers, who helped Kim because she knew enough not to try the contract.

19:05 So, stay in my lane. And also, the time I think it would take for me to review... I'm just kind of like the whole planning thing. People say, "Why don't you just bring in a planner?" But then I have to review their work, and how do I know their work is up to snuff?

19:20 Because I do litigation, and yes, it's all under the umbrella of estates. I could do it if I wanted to, but sometimes the reason I started my own firm is to do things I want to do, so I don't have to do things I don't want to do.

19:28 Which also touches on the point that you'll get a lot of advice from other people. They'll say, "Why don't you do this with your law firm? Why don't you do this with your business?" You know your business and your law firm. Someone from the outside doesn't know all of that, so don't just take their advice at face value. I tried one will, and I was like, "I'm not doing that again."

19:55 And back to marketing really quickly: I have a billboard. If you're driving north on Bathurst around Bathurst and Wilson, you will see a picture of me, and it says, "We fight for your inheritance." You'd be surprised how hard it was to come up with that very easy tagline, but that's what I do. I do inheritance disputes, and it's easy for people to understand what you do.

20:11 I think if you're a doctor, you go to your family doctor, but then your family doctor refers you to a specialist. This is why, when I have a client who wants tax advice, I say, "I don't provide tax advice, but I'm happy to work with other great lawyers who I can bring onto the file."

20:31 So, it's really fun to work with your colleagues. They're at their own firm, you're at your own firm, and you're all working toward helping your client resolve their dispute.

20:40 Generally speaking, there's increased pressure to do more with the resources you have in a smaller, growing firm. One of the things people spend money on is the place they practice.

20:47 Some folks on our panel have more of a remote practice. Some rent office space. I purchased a building some years ago. You purchased a building? I wonder.

21:01 There's different ways people can focus on how their practice operates, what they spend their money on, and what headaches they want to add to their lives.

21:08 Where do you think firms going forward in 2026 can best use their resources? The Government of Ontario and the banks have all sent their folks back to the office. Some people are still clinging to the COVID discovery of working remotely. Where would you spend your money as a firm going forward?

21:29 I would spend most of our money trying to get work in the door, which is marketing and promoting our firm, as well as attracting talent and investing in that talent because it's work and talent that drive the business. You need both of them.

21:45 For talent, you not only have to attract people, but you also have to have people who can nurture and cultivate that talent. We do have articling students and young lawyers who apply. They may be keen, but they need mentoring and someone they can go and talk to.

22:03 I know we talked earlier about space. I think the workspace is a good place to come, but we have a lot of very good lawyers who are almost 100% remote, as well as clerks. Ever since COVID, you can run a fully digital firm at a very low cost with the software available now.

22:18 You can also have a mix, which allows you to scale without having to get more and more space. There was a time when you needed one office per lawyer. You could probably get away with one office for two or three lawyers now.

22:35 So, Jagjeet, you say spend money on bringing in more work, marketing, and talent. Right. Talent and work. Okay.

22:42 Talent and work. Because that's the lifeblood of the business, right? You need work and people who can do it, and then you've got to keep investing in them.

22:49 Erin, I think we can't avoid the big topic everywhere: AI and technology. You're going to have to spend money on that to be more efficient. Clients are pushing back about the money they're spending. They're uploading their bills into ChatGPT, saying, "Is this right? Why is my lawyer charging me this much?"

23:01 And they're pushing back. They're responding with emails written by AI right away, saying, "You're wrong about this." So, obviously, we have to be on it. This isn't an AI and technology panel, but I think spending money on the right technology is important.

23:23 I've seen this happen with some of our law firm clients. They go out there, and it's like shiny-object syndrome. They're promised the moon with wonderful software, but they don't talk to the people who are actually using it.

23:31 They think, "Oh, well, this will speed up my assistant's time or my associate's time." They buy it and lock in for an annual subscription. Never do that. Do month-to-month until...

23:46 Then their assistant says, "This isn't making me any faster. It's actually slowing me down. I preferred it this way." Or the associates say no. Then they feel pressured to use it because you spent money on it.

23:54 So, ask the people who are going to be using it. Do a test run. Spend money on it, of course, if it's going to help your firm be more efficient and cost-effective and free up your time. Ask the right people. Don't lock in until you know for sure you're going to use it.

24:11 But I would say, yes, leave some money aside for AI and technology for sure. Just one thing I want to jump on quickly about what you said: The folks in this room are other people practicing in small-firm settings. If you've made connections and friends, I've relied on some of the folks in this room and talked to them about what they're doing.

24:30 So, that's sort of the same thing. I like your point: If you're going to jump into a big expense, whether it's a technology expense or something else, maybe before you do that, speak to somebody else you know who might be using the product.

24:48 Good point, Kim. Go ahead. Yeah, I'm almost thinking of these as projects because your time is valuable. So, what project are you going to focus on now?

24:55 I agree that a project would be building your team. If you need a certain staff member and you're drowning in admin, then your new project is going to be allocating that talent and filling that gap.

25:04 Luckily, we just brought on a talented business manager/law clerk/receptionist. That's a lot of roles.

25:15 Mitch is great. Having him has helped us with our new project, which is modernization and technology. We're going through that now. We just got new practice management software.

25:28 We just got Clio. It's been really fun switching and seeing all the new things that can be done. I'm going to go to the Clio conference in Boston, so I'm really leaning into this new idea of being more efficient in our practice.

25:36 I was just talking to a colleague, and she said, "When I send retainer letters, I change the name, attach it to an email, send it out, save it to the file, and it only takes a few seconds, but I'm wondering if there must be a better way."

25:52 I said, "Yeah, we just went through that. We had this issue, and Mitch was like, 'Why are we doing this manually?'" I said, "I don't know. It's just that we don't have time. It's quicker."

26:00 So, it's about taking a step back or getting somebody to fill that role to help because my biggest fear is falling behind. I don't want to be the firm that is still using PC Law. No offense to anybody still using PC Law, but I had to switch from that about five years ago.

26:16 I'm definitely afraid of being the grandma in the room, and I think it's really hard to catch up when you're too far behind.

26:26 Kim, you invested in a new staff member, and that person's wearing lots of hats. I've seen that before. That's pretty common in a small firm, right? I think a lot of people agree. So, how do you explain to your team that you might actually have to buy coffee for the office if you're used to doing law clerk tasks or what have you? How do you get that going with your team?

26:53 How do I get the team to handle multiple tasks? You're running your business manager and law clerk as the same person. Those are different tasks, right? Well, we do have Jessica, who's our original OG clerk, our paralegal. But she got too busy to do some of the more menial tasks, so to speak, and didn't have time to answer the phone anymore.

27:10 So, then we brought another person in. I think it's like what Aaron said. It's very organic. When we brought him in, everyone was like, "Thank God, because there's only so many hours in the day."

27:18 This is why I like working with my team. We're a little bit of a family environment because we're only about five people. Three fee earners and Mitch make four. I usually have around four to five.

27:37 People say, "Oh my God, don't you want to build an empire and be a national firm and run a hundred-lawyer office?" I'm like, "No, I don't want that. I like being small. I like having a little family environment where I can make these decisions and decide that I'm going to Boston in two weeks. You guys can figure it out."

28:06 Jagjeet, Kim used the term "fee earners" to describe certain people and others who aren't. Is that how you divide your firm as well? Do you think about that ratio when you add someone who isn't going to bring revenue to the firm? What does that mean to you?

28:22 It means cost, first of all. We try to keep an eye on that, but given our size, we can afford to bring in some people who are not fee earners because they support all the other fee earners and make things more efficient.

28:30 But just to touch upon something you asked me earlier about where we would spend money, I didn't want to minimize software. If there's anybody starting a firm, good practice management software and accounting are worth every penny. They're the lifeblood of your business, helping you manage files and know where your money is going.

28:52 That space is pretty competitive. We've gone through many different software programs. We're currently using LEAP, and it's a fraction of the cost of what it was when I first started.

29:01 You definitely need software and technology. That's something you need to do first and foremost. But that's something that didn't seem to be a need in our firm anymore because it comes up every so often. What was the question you just asked, Josh? I forgot.

29:10 We were talking about whether someone who doesn't make money for the firm is a big leap to add. Maybe I'll ask in a different way: Is there a ratio you think should exist in these firms, like 2:1, 3:1, or 3:2, between people who make money for the firm and people who are fixed costs?

29:31 That's a tough one. I think it's a tough one. Sometimes I've found it's really good to have redundancy protection. If you have someone there for when somebody is sick or goes on vacation, it may be worth that extra cost.

29:48 So, is there a ratio that works with that in mind? I'd say it's probably three fee earners to maybe one who isn't, if not higher. Even law clerks, students, and lawyers—we try to think of everybody as someone who can be a fee earner.

30:03 We have a transparent compensation model where these people can also earn bonuses depending on their performance. So, there are very few non-fee earners. I could probably count them on one or two hands at most because most of our firm still consists of traditional law clerks and lawyers who are billable.

30:21 And I would say that when you're dealing with the chicken-and-egg question of when to hire someone, when I was first starting, I thought I couldn't do it because I was doing a lot of legal aid. But once I finally hired a clerk, because I did everything myself, I realized I should have done it a year earlier.

30:37 It would have hurt me earlier, but I should have done it a year earlier because it lets you scale. You have to delegate what you can delegate where it's possible. Erin, any thoughts on this?

30:47 Yeah, I was just going to say that in 2026, we don't have to have non-fee earners as a fixed cost. There are so many fractional COOs for law firms, legal operations people, freelance accountants, and freelance bookkeepers. You just use them when you need them. You don't have to have that on your balance sheet every single month.

31:04 There are freelance lawyers and freelance law clerks, too. So, Erin, does your firm work with more than just lawyers providing freelance services, or is it just lawyers?

31:11 We just have lawyers, law clerks, and paralegals, but we do have partnerships with freelance COOs and fractional professionals.

31:22 I'm looking for someone. I can help you.

31:25 Wonderful. Okay, we're wrapping up. Thirty seconds each. What's your big takeaway on operating a small firm in 2026? We'll start with Jag.

31:36 Pay your debts first. Do not fall behind the eight ball. There's no shortage of lawyers who fall into trouble with the CRA or remittances. Stay on top of your cash flow. That's the primary thing I'd tell you.

31:47 I think for me, there's an opportunity for small firms in the future to start thinking about their pricing now that AI is here and clients are pushing back. I don't know what the answer is, and I've been hearing the billable hour has been dead for my entire 20-year legal career, but it's still alive and kicking.

32:04 But how do we show our value when ChatGPT or an AI service can spit out a factum? How are you going to communicate that value to your client so they understand it and you price it properly? I think anyone who understands this and figures it out will have an advantage over other law firms.

32:18 I'm going to say, do what you want. I sometimes feel like I'm not actually the boss. Who is the boss? My clerk is my boss. My associates are my boss. They're always telling me what to do.

32:34 And I remind myself that I have the freedom and flexibility to come to things like this and do fun things. I want to always remind myself that this is why I started my own business. There is always going to be stress, and it is a slog, but don't give up. Keep coming to things like this and meeting like-minded people.

32:57 Great tips from everybody. Thank you all for this great discussion.