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8.15 - 8.45 am: Registration and Breakfast

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8.45-8.55am: Welcome to the Forum

Andrew Bowyer, Founder, The Canadian Legal Innovation Forum

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8.55 - 9.45am: LegalTech in 2023: What's changing the game and having the greatest impact for Canada's legal ecosystem? 

Technology has always been a key pillar of legal innovation, however recent advances - particularly in generative AI and automation - has placed it at the forefront of the innovation conversation in the sector. Yet the promise of legal technologies' power to disrupt the sector - and its practitioners’ roles within it - has long been heralded, with mixed results.

On this panel - our participants - leaders from technology firms, law firms and legal departments - will review how evolutions in technology are impacting the legal sector. And what it means for its present and its future.

Points for discussion:

• What technologies are having the greatest impact on the legal sector and why? Here we’ll look at evolutions in platforms focused on AI, automation and collaboration and their impact for practitioners.

• How are legal practitioners integrating technology at law firms and legal departments to improve efficiency, client service delivery and drive innovation.

• Market structure - how are emerging (and existing) legal technologies promising to shake up the sector in the medium to long term. And what does it mean for its structure?

Speakers:

Ivana Gotzeva, Partner, Knowledge Management and Pricing, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP

Stephen Abrahamson, VP + General Counsel, 123 Dentist

Simon Wormwell, Chief, Strategic Enterprise Initiatives, Osler

Ginevra Saylor, National Director, Innovation and Knowledge Programs, Gowling WLG

Chair:

James Quinn, Co-Founder + CEO, Clarilis

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9.50 - 10.40am: Leading at the intersection of business and law: how are leading lawyers in key sectors driving growth in their organizations? 

In a complex operating environment, in-house leaders play critical roles in helping guide organizations’ approaches to risk management as well as growth.

Areas such as corporate governance and ESG, privacy, compliance and flexible organizational strategy are all at the top of the corporate agenda. And for organizations, having an effective and empowered general counsel coupled with an optimized and innovative legal department to address these and other areas is key.

On this panel, our speakers - leading in-house counsel from Canadian organizations - will look at how their roles are evolving in terms of the challenges they are facing in their roles, how they are aligning their legal departments with their broader organizations and how they are acting as agents of change.

Topics covered will include:

• Drivers and trends for in-house leaders in a complex operating environment.

• Examples of how the role of in-house leaders is evolving to meet mission critical needs of their organizations and what these challenges are

• How are legal departments evolving their departments’ strategy and structure to better align with the business to both manage risk and drive growth?

Speakers:

Louise Kennedy, Vice President + Associate General Counsel, OPTrust

Denis Boulianne, Executive Vice President, Legal Affairs, Ivanhoé Cambridge

Brodie Swartz, Senior Vice President, Legal + Corporate Secretary, OMERS

Paul Greven, Head of Legal - Canada, Jones Lang LaSalle

Chair:

Renee Smith, Director, Legal Function Transformation, PwC Canada

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10.40 - 11.00am: Networking Break

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11.00 - 11.50am: Mastering Digital Risk: how to define, develop and implement a strategy to navigate emerging digital risks

Digital risk is at the top of many corporate agendas. The explosion of use of collaborative technologies and the attendant data trails left by them, evolving privacy rules, the increasing risk and severity of data breaches are all highlighting the critical importance of having a robust digital risk strategy in place.

For legal departments and their advisors - increased digital risk equals increased legal risk - especially as they relate to litigation and accelerating regulatory scrutiny.

On this panel, our speakers will look at how they are assessing and addressing present and emerging digital risks.

Topics covered will include:

• Drivers + Trends at play when it comes to digital risk and what role legal departments play in addressing them

• How to develop and define an organization wide strategy to address digital risk

• Delivering a digital risk mitigation strategy across the organization. What are the hallmarks of effective implementation? Which functions should manage what components of the strategy

Speakers

Veronica Mohan, Senior Counsel, Privacy & Cybersecurity, Manulife

Imran Ahmad, Partner and Head of Technology, Co-Chair Data Protection, Privacy and Cybersecurity at Norton Rose Fulbright

Carla Swansburg, Chief Executive Officer, ClearyX (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP)

David Meadows, Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting

Chair

Gary Kalaci, CEO, Alexa Translations

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11.55am - 12.35pm: Notes from abroad: what can Canada’s legal sector learn from the UK’s as it evolves along its innovation curve

For a number of reasons, the UK has long been considered to have the most innovative legal market in the world.

During this fireside chat our speakers will consider the following:

• Why is the UK a global leader in legal innovation and what ingredients have made it to be so?

• Where does the UK stand currently on its innovation curve and what’s next for it?

• What can Canada's legal sector learn from the UK’s to accelerate its own legal innovation story?

Speakers:

April Brousseau, Director, R&D, Clifford Chance

James Quinn, Co-Founder + CEO, Clarilis

Chair:

Kate Simpson, Chief Knowledge Officer, Bennett Jones

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12.35 - 1.30pm: Lunch Break

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1.30 - 2.20pm: Mastering change management: how to deliver change in your law firm/legal department

In order to effect change, effective execution is key. On this panel our speakers - leaders from legal departments + law firms - will review how to define, develop and implement a change management strategy.

Topics covered will include:

• Foundations of change management in legal departments and law firms. What fundamentals need to be in place for successful change management initiatives to succeed in legal departments and law firms and their wider organizations?

• Frameworks to approach change management initiatives in your legal department/law firm to drive change in your wider organization.

• People and process. How to build consensus internally, put the right teams in place, enhance processes and apply metrics to change management.

• The role of technology in change management. How does implementing new technology and leveraging existing technology support change management initiatives? And best practices on working with third party partners to deliver results.

• Real world examples of effective change management in action. Delivering and iterating on strategy, driving adoption and focusing on the end-user experience. As well as things to avoid to ensure change management initiatives succeed.

Speakers:

Laurie David-Henric, Head of Legal Compliance Governance Operations and Strategy, Manulife

Dana Zuech, AVP, Legal Operations, SunLife

Andrea Alliston, Partner, Knowledge + Practice Innovation, Fasken

Elizabeth Evans, AVP, Legal Knowledge Management, Education, Technology and Transformation, TD Bank

Abbas Najarali, Senior Director, Operations & Managed Services, Epiq

Chair: Sahil Zaman, Head of Legal Transaction Management, iManage

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2.25 - 3.15pm: Collaborating for innovation: how are practitioners in the legal ecosystem driving innovation together?

In order for Canada’s legal sector to evolve along its innovation curve, effective collaboration between participants (law firms, legal departments and their third party partners) is critical. On this panel our participants will review how collaboration between practitioners is evolving between legal practitioners and driving innovation in Canada’s legal sector.

Topics covered will include:

• Why do practitioners in the legal ecosystem (law firms, legal departments, third party partners) need to collaborate in new ways to deliver innovation initiatives?

• The ideation process: how are law firms, legal departments and their third party partners working together to ideate creative solutions to their respective challenges.

• Case studies of effective collaboration between law firms, legal departments and their third party partners.

Speakers:

Sacha Fraser, General Counsel, IBM Canada

Caroline Abougoush, VP, Legal Operations, Oxford Properties Group

Sukesh Kamra, Chief Knowledge + Innovation Officer, Torys

Shirin Mirsaeidi, Partner, Legal Project Solutions, Deloitte

Chair

Amanda Bafaro, Chief Risk Officer + General Counsel, BridgePoint Financial

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3.15 - 3.30pm: Networking Break

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3.30 - 4.20pm: Solving for the people puzzle: attracting, retaining and developing talent in an evolving legal ecosystem

The legal sector continues to witness an unprecedented shift when it comes to talent. Lawyers are changing firms, moving in-house, to alternative legal service providers and in some cases moving out of the profession entirely. While recent economic shifts may have slowed intra-sectoral movement to some extent, structural and generational shifts are promising that solving the people puzzle presents the key challenge and opportunity for the sector in both the near and mid-term.

On this panel, we’ll review the following:

• What are the key drivers and trends at play in the legal sector vis-a-vis talent?

• How are law firms, legal departments and ASLPs attracting, developing and retaining talent in an evolving legal ecosystem?

• Passion, purpose and generational change. A new generation of lawyers is taking the reins in the legal sector. What does this mean for the legal sector and practitioners within it moving forward?

Speakers:

Darcy Legros, Chief Legal Talent Officer, Bennett Jones

Emily Wesson, National Leader, BLG Beyond Legal Talent

Sara Morgan, SVP + Head of Global Legal Talent, Axiom

Morgyn Chandler, Managing Partner, Hammerco Lawyers

Chair

Sean Lynch, Director, Client Strategy, Ricoh

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4.20 - 5.30pm: Conference Close + Networking Drinks