By Murray Gottheil | August 19, 2025 At my first law firm, there were three partners. After one moved on and another passed away, the remaining owner announced that he had no intention of making any associate a partner soon. So I left. At my next firm, it was my job to create a corporate […]
Photo by Martino Battista at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | August 15, 2025 I understand that newbies to the legal profession who have student debt and no client base often feel locked into jobs that they hate. I do not understand mid-level and senior lawyers who are financially stable and have a client base that stay […]
By Marcel Strigberger | August 14, 2025 Hey humans! Should AI be declared a separate legal personality? The Law Commission in the U.K. is studying the notion, noting that the thought is not far-fetched. This means the entity can be a “person” in the eyes of the law, such as corporations, sovereign states, etc., all capable of […]
HOURLY RATES NEAR RECORD RISE A Thomson Reuters study reveals that lawyers’ hourly rates in the US have soared by 7.4% in the last year. What’s surprising is that the growth for the profession as a whole considerably outstrips the 5.0-5.5% rise at top-100 US firms. While the number for the firms outside the top-100 […]
Photo by Akin Akdag at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | August 8, 2025 Back in the day, when law school cost very little and you could rent an apartment in Toronto for a reasonable amount, law firms hired newly qualified lawyers at modest salaries and gave them simple assignments. The firms also provided mentoring and training, so […]
By Marcel Strigberger | August 7, 2025 I do not like entering into contracts. The prospect of signing an agreement checks most of the boxes for a PTSD diagnosis. Mention the words “offer and acceptance”, and I quiver. I would say I have had these sentiments since I was 10 years old. Why, you ask? I have […]
By Murray Gottheil | August 6, 2025 One day, several years ago, I was out for lunch with a banker whom I will call Neil. Neil was a commercial account manager at a large Canadian Bank. As I always did at such meetings, I asked Neil, “How can I help you?” (For those of you who need […]
By Julius Melnitzer | August 5, 2025 OTTAWA LAWYER’S VANDALISM RAISES FEARS IN JEWISH COMMUNITY CBC News reports that Iain Aspenlieder, a 46-year-old lawyer fired by the City of Ottawa after being accused of vandalism, has pleaded guilty to mischief to a war memorial after defacing the Holocaust National Monument in June by painting the […]
By Julius Melnitzer | July 31, 2025 BONUSES: GOODBYE, HOURS; HELLO, COLLABORATION, INCLUSION & LONG-TERM PERFORMANCE A recent report by Innecto Reward Consulting and HR Network People in Law suggests that law firms may be shifting their bonus criteria from billings, personal performance and profit to structures that are fairer, more transparent, and contribute to […]
By: Julius Melnitzer | July 31, 2025 In a recent case, the Supreme Court of Canada is being asked to consider a question that has long divided courts and vexed employers: are agreements that forfeit employees’ unvested equity-based compensation on termination enforceable, even if the vesting is scheduled to occur during the reasonable notice period? “The […]