Ashley Butts’ career focus revolves around skill sets learned in criminology and sociology studies By Julius Melnitzer | August 8, 2023 The career of Ashley Butts, senior legal counsel in BASF Canada Inc.’s Toronto office, provides strong support for the emerging proposition that success in-house and private law firm experience are not necessarily intertwined. “Law was […]
Photo by Cottonbro Studio at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | August 6, 2023 Since I retired, I do not speak to law firm partners very often, which is just fine with me. For one thing, I cannot afford to speak to them about professional matters. For another, I have had quite my fill of speaking to […]
David Cohen, senior director, client services delivery at McCarthy Tétrault LLP By Julius Melnitzer | August 2, 2023 Generative artificial intelligence could be the catalyst that portends the long-predicted death of the billable hour. “Clients have been clamouring for new pricing models for some time, and generative AI – which can produce answers in seconds instead […]
Photo by Nicola Barts at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | August 1, 2023 I was a super-fantastic lawyer. Really, almost everyone says so. And yet, there were a few clients who did not appreciate what I did for them or what it cost to have me do it. Luckily for me, during most of my career […]
Kath Hammond says her team’s tightly-knit, non-hierarchical structure lent itself well to the challenges COVID presented By Julius Melnitzer | July 31, 2023 It’s unlikely that COVID proved more of a maelstrom for a legal department leader than it did for Kath Hammond, Vice-President and General Counsel, Corporate Safety and Security at the Greater Toronto Airports […]
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | July 30, 2023 This morning someone remarked that much of my writing about the legal profession is a tad negative. She said, “You practiced law for a long time; you were good at what you did; you made enough money to retire and travel the world. […]
TD’s Kashif Zaman says it will be a while before AI makes a workload impact for legal departments By Julius Melnitzer | July 26, 2023 The squeeze on general counsel and legal departments has reached new heights, according to The General Counsel Report 2023, a joint white paper from global consultancies FTI Consulting, Inc. and Relativity. “For […]
Her 13-member litigation and employment department is responsible for both Canada and the US By Julius Melnitzer | July 25, 2023 When Lesley Lee, director of litigation and employment law at TC Energy, decided to move in-house from her private firm practice, focus is what attracted her. “I enjoyed private practice, but liked the idea of […]
Sunny Handa says cybersecurity is an enterprise risk, not just an IT risk By Julius Melnitzer | July 24, 2023 At first blush, readers of Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP’s Canadian Cybersecurity Trends Study 2023 might take heart in discovering that 2022 did not see steady growth in the number of cyberattacks. “The number of attacks […]
Photo by Alex Fawzy at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | July 22, 2023 Law firm partnerships like to project the image of a cohesive unit. One strategy that they employ is to insist that although partners may disagree with each other in a partners’ meeting, once they leave the room, they all must support the group’s […]