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The Canadian Lawyer Compensation Survey provides unique insight into the ways in which partners, associates and in-house counsel are compensated across the country.
Innovatio Awards celebrate in-house counsel, both individuals and teams, who have found ways to show leadership by becoming more efficient, innovative and creative in meeting the needs of their organizations within the Canadian legal markets
When: September 20, 2018
Where: Arcadian Court, Toronto
Event Detail: 2018 Nominations are now closed
Presented by Lexpert, the prestigious Rising Stars Awards Gala honours winners from across Canada and welcomes law firm and in-house leaders and distinguished guests to celebrate and network with others who are at the top of the legal profession
When: November 8, 2018
Where: Fairmont Royal York Hotel, Toronto
Event Detail: 2018 Nominations open June 4th
Presented by Lexpert, these awards recognize individuals and teams from law firms, academia, law societies and corporations that have made a significant contribution to the legal community
When: June 19, 2018
Where: Toronto
Event Detail: To purchase a table and explore sponsorship opportunities click here
The Lexpert CCCA Corporate Counsel Directory & Yearbook is a joint endeavour of the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association and Lexpert. It provides the most extensive listing of corporate counsel in Canada.
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Though he enjoyed his work as a commercial litigator, Allan Stitt found clients were rarely satisfied with the results. If they won — well, big deal, it was inevitable anyway. And if they lost, they felt betrayed. Litigation wasn’t appearing, to him, an effective path to resolution.
“Winning didn’t feel nearly as good as losing felt bad,” says Stitt, president and CEO of ADR Chambers.
While all 90 firms included on Canadian Lawyer’s 2019 Top Personal Injury Boutiques survey have a track record of winning cases for their clients, achieving a top spot takes more than that. Whether it is advancing the law to better secure results for injured people in the future or providing holistic advocacy where client relationships last past the conclusion of the file, the winners who spoke with Canadian Lawyer talked about goals that go beyond successful judgments and financial compensation.
“Well, everybody comes to see us after they’ve had one of the worst days of their lives,” says James Cuming, a partner at Cuming & Gillespie, a winning firm from Calgary.
Happy families are all alike, but unhappy families are all unhappy in their own way, wrote Tolstoy in Anna Karenina. When negotiating, arranging and implementing wills, trusts and estates, the unique dramas accompanying a family — and the evolving cultural and economic context in which they exist — are growing in intricacy, especially compared to the simple days of primogeniture, where an estate was transferred to the child lucky enough to be born first.
Margaret O’Sullivan, managing partner of O’Sullivan Estate Lawyers LLP, says her practice is becoming increasingly complex with the wide variety of families, their different philosophies and where and how they are organized, in 2018.
Mark Twain said the only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. Advocating on behalf of the leftovers are the winners of Canadian Lawyer’s top tax law boutiques list, whose lawyers say they are focused on federal fiscal policy changes, at home and in the United States.
The winning firms span Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Ottawa, Victoria, Montreal and Buffalo, New York.
“It’s kind of an exciting time to be a lawyer in insurance defence,” says William Chalmers, managing partner at Hughes Amys LLP.
Privacy in the digital realm, regulated by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, and how the market and legal sphere adapt to and govern legal marijuana, is going to produce compelling work in the future, he says.
Canada’s immigration boutiques have spent the last decade adapting to a toughening of the rules governing business immigration with stiffer penalties but they have benefited from new initiatives meant to make coming to Canada easier and faster. At the same time, anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. is attracting more immigrants to Canada and stimulating business.
Barbara Jo Caruso was a partner at Gowling WLG for 13 years before leaving to start Corporate Immigration Law Firm, an experience, she says, that provided her a “wonderful foundation.” But the smaller setting allows more agility in addressing client needs.
As clients focus more on value than prestige, corporate boutiques have grown
Those leading Canadian Lawyer’s top corporate law boutiques list are veterans from big firms who left to ply their trade under what they say is a more flexible, affordable but capable model. The startup economy is breeding clients who do not want to pay $1,500-an-hour fees but still need legal services to grow.
As police methods continue to evolve, so, too, have the top criminal boutiques. Protecting clients from the intrusion of an increasingly technologically equipped state has been a preoccupation of many of the firms in Canadian Lawyer’s top criminal law boutiques.
But a lack of public investment in other areas such as white collar crime enforcement and legal aid, according to Marie Henein of Henein Hutchison LLP, is a challenge.
The top civil litigation boutiques are grappling with complex issues that can wind their way through the courts for many years. They are both using and litigating over new technology and charting courses in new territory with unpredictable terrain.
The allegedly imminent marijuana legalization will create opportunities for businesses, formerly only enjoyed by the Hells Angels and other extra-legal entrepreneurs. Turning it legitimate will wrap weed production and sale in red tape, opening the door for civil litigators to enter a unique industry.
Labour & employment boutiques are well positioned to provide value as the law and social norms evolve.
There are a lot of changes in the labour and employment law market these days — both already happened and on the horizon — but Howard Goldblatt of Goldblatt Partners LLP, which made our new Top 5 Union-side Labour and Employment Boutiques list, says that’s par for the course.
