Should AI be declared a separate legal personality? Ask your motherboard
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 […]
BARE BONES BRIEFS: Smaller firms’ hourly rates outstripping Big Law | 87% settlement rate for mediations | Trump punishes immigration lawyers | Pension risk transfers down 60% | Rule of Law pledges growing slowly
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 […]
Law Firms Marching Obliviously into Oblivion
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 […]
How Can I Help You?
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 […]
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 […]