Yes, You Can! (Maybe)
Photo by Elevate at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | July 20, 2024 In my heyday of clients and billings, my largest client asked me to handle an outsourcing transaction. I would hazard a guess that had it been completed, it would have made quite a ripple in the business community. A Bay Street firm was the […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: McCarthy partners’ earnings top $1.4M | Canadian lawyers flunk Rule of Law pledge test | Quebec class counsel seek $900M in fees in tobacco litigation | Dentons partners with AXL in AI venture | Alexi launches Alexi Private Cloud
By Julius Melnitzer | July 10, 2025 MCCARTHY TOPS CANADIAN PROFIT-PER-EQUITY-PARTNER RANKINGS McCarthy Tétrault LLP’s equity partners lead Canadian law firms’ profit pool – and by a stretch. The US$1.42M PPEQ haul in 2023 topped the $986K earned at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP by over $400K and more than doubled the Gowling WLG figure […]
Capitalism Run Amok in the Legal Profession
By Murray Gottheil | June 26, 2025 There were good things about the old days when law was primarily a profession, and lawyers joined law firms with a view to learning, working hard, and becoming partners. One of them was that law firms cared about their associates progressing, developing clients, and becoming self-sufficient. When we decided […]
Does “AI” stand for “Abandoned Intelligence”?
By Murray Gottheil | June 24, 2025 There is no shortage of talk about the importance of lawyers delegating legal work to other lawyers and paralegals. Despite that, I have always believed that lawyers should not delegate work that they do not know how to do themselves. I questioned how anyone can check the quality of […]
The Curse of Originating Client Credits: Let the Games Begin
Photo by Pixabay at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | June 22, 2025 An important element of a law firm’s culture is how it designates ‘client lawyer’ status, or ‘client origination credits’ (“OCs”). By way of background, there are three ways to earn money in a law firm: For the uninitiated, when a client retains a law […]
Is lawyer advertising a good thing? Or over the Bottom?
By Marcel Strigberger | June 19, 2025 The road not taken? Actually, I would not mind taking it if it had fewer lawyers’ billboard ads. To wit, while snowbirding in Florida recently, I could not escape the tsunami of lawyers’ ads inundating the highways. Given how aggressive so many drivers are, I feel spooked by these […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: The Canadian law firms that generate the most revenue per lawyer | How and why a great Canadian law firm folded | OK to compare Israel with Nazis: court | Lawyers can be jailed for misusing AI | Privacy Commissioner frustrated with pace of reforms
By Julius Melnitzer | June 18, 2025 IF RICHES ARE YOUR PROFESSIONAL GOAL Here, in Canadian dollars and according to Law.com, are Canadian Big Law firms that produce the most revenue per lawyer: Related Article: Advice from Law Schools: Follow the Money to Big Law HEENAN BLAIKIE’S DEMISE: UNVEILED If you want to discover how […]
Advice from Law Schools: Follow the Money to Big Law
Photo by Edotommo99 at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | June 16, 2025 One cold December evening, when I was 22, I lined up outside for almost an hour to get into an exclusive club in Montreal. The gatekeeper allowed the beautiful people in and passed over the others. I would still be waiting if I had […]
A Tale of Two Law Firms
By Murray Gottheil | June 12, 2024 Let me tell you about two different law firms. Big Law Group One is a well-respected Canadian firm with many hundreds of lawyers, some of whom appear to be happier than others. Some of their dearly departed professionals have told me distressing stories about their lives at that firm, […]
To Everything There is A Season
By Murray Gottheil | June 10, 2025 I was the managing partner of a law firm for a while. At the time, I saw myself as something like Cassandra, whom the Gods punished by giving her the ability to foresee the future while dooming her never to be believed. I used to try my best to […]