BARE BONES BRIEFS: Ottawa lawyer defaces Holocaust memorial | Is a drink at lunch during trial break a no-no for counsel? | AI Knowledge Exchange passes on partners’ insights to associates | Turning Parties’ AI Against Them? | Lawyer swims – but not with the sharks
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 […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Law firms’ changing bonus criteria | AI rolls out to thousands of law firms | Vampire lawyer fired | BCSC rebukes LSBC for treating lawyer unfairly | DLA Piper boosts Toronto RE practice
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 […]
7 Reasons Why the Legal Profession often gets No Sympathy
Image from Shutterstock.com. By Marcel Strigberger | July 30, 2025 The legal profession is a noble one. But is that the impression the public has of lawyers? What images generally come to mind? Let’s start with Noah’s Ark. A biblical theme park called Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky, is suing its insurers for insufficient coverage […]
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 […]