Ontario personal injury firm Diamond and Diamond Lawyers is looking to expand into real estate and family law
Ontario personal injury firm Diamond and Diamond Lawyers is looking to expand into real estate and family law.
The highly visible firm that bills itself as the “People’s Law Firm” has announced it will be offering services that will include real estate transactions, wills and estates, as well as uncontested divorce agreements.
Managing partner Sandra Zisckind says the expansion into these areas was a natural progression, as the firm’s personal injury clients often need help in other areas.
“It just sort of made sense to go in this direction, where we could service everybody and sort of do everything in house, which was always our goal,” she says.
The firm is also looking to do some corporate-commercial law and will offer fixed fees for simpler services in the new areas.
“We’re trying to do very easy quick and cheap, but quality work for the public,” she says.
The firm has faced some criticism recently, as the Toronto Star reported that lawyer Jeremy Diamond, whose face is peppered across the firm’s advertisements, had never tried a case, and that the firm had referred out cases in return for referral fees without telling clients they were doing so.
Zisckind says the expansion is not in response to the negative press it has received, as it was in the works for more than a year.
“We’re moving on from all negative publicity in the past and looking forward,” she says.
She adds that the firm has only advertised for work it intends to do since she took over the firm with her husband Jeremy Diamond, and brother,
Isaac Zisckind a number of years ago. She says that whenever there has been excess work that the firm could not take on due to shear volume, then that work would be referred out.
The firm plans to move into a new office triple the size of its current one in order to accommodate the expansion. Zisckind says she expects the firm will grow from its current roster of lawyers of 18 across the province to 21 by the end of the summer and 25 by January 2018.
“We’re speeding forward full force and adding more and more people to the mix. So it will be good. It will be a one-stop-shop,” she says.
In addition to the new areas, Zisckind says the firm is also looking to expand into immigration and employment law in the next six months.
The firm, which currently only has offices in Ontario, is also looking to open an office in Vancouver at the end of June in a geographic expansion.
Zisckind says the office in Vancouver will start solely as a personal injury practice, but could expand into other areas in the future.
