Mastercard’s Marvin Mikhail: good in-house counsel are ‘sponges’ who soak up business from inside
When in-house teams are doing their job properly, legal services are not a commodity, says Marvin Mikhail By Julius Melnitzer | June 21, 2023 Marvin Mikhail, vice president and senior managing counsel for Mastercard in Canada, likens his role to that of a sponge. “Successful in-house lawyers are most valuable when they advise their companies from […]
Welcome to the World of Clients
Photo by Alex Green at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | June 19, 2023 When I practiced law, drummed into my head was the notion that every mistake was a potential catastrophe and a source of shame. I was a perfectionist and proud of it. I was also a little bit intense and not particularly healthy. […]
Stepping out of her comfort zone is the key to success for Isabelle Durand, CLO at iA Financial
Isabelle Durand had much to learn when she moved to the highly regulated financial services sector By Julius Melnitzer | June 16, 2023 When Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. asked Isabelle Durand to step out of her comfort zone and become the company’s vice president and chief legal officer, she jumped at the opportunity: […]
A Retirement Primer for Slow Partners
Photo by Magda Ehlers at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | June 15, 2023 I recently wrote an article titled You are Old. We are Greedy. Get the Hell Out! In that article, I lamented the fact that law firms often nudge (or push, or shove) lawyers out of their firms when they hit their sixties. If […]
WorkSafeNB’s GC David Luther cleared a 9-month, 400-case backlog in six weeks
By Julius Melnitzer | June 14, 2023 Within six weeks of implementing general counsel David Luther’s recommendations in June 2022, the Decision Review Office of WorkSafeNB, the New Brunswick crown corporation charged with administering the province’s workers’ compensation regime, had eliminated its 400-case, 9-month wait backlog, implemented core service standards and automation, and lowered operational costs. […]
Justifiable Paranoia – Nothing New Under the Sun
Photo by Cottonbro Studio at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | June 13, 2023 All of this has happened before. All of this will happen again – Battlestar Galactica, Peter Pan, and Ecclesiastes 1:9 It is not often that I quote the Bible, but when both Peter Pan and Battlestar Galactica validate the quote, it has […]
In-house lawyers will not solve their problems by improving legal service delivery: consultant
Peter Connor says there’s a difference between being a business partner and partnering in business By Julius Melnitzer | June 12, 2023 In-house lawyers will not solve their problems by improving legal service delivery. They must change their work and how they do it, says Peter Connor, the founder and CEO of Alternatively Legal. With 40 […]
The More Things Change, the More Lawyers Still Screw Up Marketing
Photo by Oussama Bergaou at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | June 10, 2023 Either you follow-up or you fold-up – Bernard Kelvin Clive I recently observed a law firm doing some impressive online marketing. At the same time, to quote Shania Twain, when it came to the follow-up, “that [didn’t] impress me much.” Here is […]
Never Trust a Lawyer Who Doesn’t Make Mistakes
By Murray Gottheil | June 8, 2023 Back in the day, I would have an associate join a client meeting with instructions to speak up if they thought I was getting something wrong. Of course, they would only do so occasionally because I was not wrong all that often. When they did, if their point […]
David Forsayeth always wanted back into a business role, and he got it in spades in-house at Flipp
Building internal processes for working with the legal group is among David Forsayeth’s proudest accomplishments By Julius Melnitzer | June 6, 2023 After graduating with a bachelor of commerce degree, David Forsayeth, general counsel at Flipp Corp., always imagined himself in a business role. Law school intervened, as did four years as a private mergers and […]