CANLIF InFocus – Estates Law Firms 2023

  • Free to attend
  • Under consideration by the Law Societies of BC & ON

Session One: What are the key drivers and trends shaping the estate law landscape across Canada?

Evolving legal trends and rules impacting family lawyers in major jurisdictions: Ontario, Alberta and B.C.

Societal shifts and the impact on estate law. How are estate lawyers addressing and evolving their practices alongside these shifts?

Real-world case studies: estate planning, administration and litigation

Session Two: How are estates law firms evolving their business strategies in a competitive marketplace?

Innovation and the estate planning, administration and litigation process. How are emerging digital platforms helping to make firms more efficient and a better user experience for their clients?

Collaboration: how are estate lawyers partnering with other professionals to deliver a better experience and outcomes for their clients?

Addressing financial challenges in estate administration and litigation for beneficiaries and executors

Speakers:

Part 1

  • Shannon James, Associate, Carscallen
  • David Hunter, Partner, Hamilton Duncan
  • James Bowden, Managing Director. Afridi & Angell Professional Corporation
  • Dorothy Hagel, Hagel Law firm
  • Tim Andrews, Executive Vice President – Brand Experience, BridgePoint Financial

Chair: Andrew Bowyer, CEO & Founder, ADB Insights (Canadian Legal Innovation Forum)

Part 2

  • Jordan Atin, Counsel, Hull & Hull
  • Marlenne Doss, Partner, Aion Law
  • Cindy Williams, Vice-President, Risk Assessment & Lead,
  • Plaintiff Lending, BridgePoint Financial Group
  • Riyaz Dharamishi, Founder and CEO, Escheatify

Chair: Heather Suttie, Legal Market Strategy and Management Consulting, Suttie.

CANLIF InFocus – Family Law Firms 2023

  • Free to attend
  • Under consideration by the Law Societies of BC & ON

Session One: What are the key drivers and trends shaping the family law landscape across Canada?

Evolving legal trends and rules impacting family lawyers in major jurisdictions: Ontario, Alberta and B.C.

Societal shifts and the impact on family law. How are family lawyers addressing and evolving alongside these shifts?

Access to counsel: approaches to enabling better access to legal services to clients that lack the financial wherewithal

Session Two: How are family law firms evolving their business strategies in a competitive marketplace?

Mastering financial risks: how are family law firms addressing financial risks facing them and their clients and what strategies are they implementing to support them?

How is the alignment of people, processes and technology helping family law firms get an edge?

Marketing and improving the client experience: what marketing and retention strategies are family law firms implementing successfully and why? And how are they improving the end-user experience for retained clients?

Speakers:

  • Michael Stangarone, Partner, MacDonald & Partners LLP
  • Steve Benmor,Family Lawyer, Mediator & Arbitrator, Benmor Family Group
  • Edward Kirk, Head of NA, Settify
  • Keri Campion, Legal Risk Analyst, BridgePoint Financial
  • Iain Sneddon, Partner, Cohen Highley
  • Sarah Boulby, Partner, Boulby Weinberg LLP
  • Colleen O’Brien, Employability Expert & Divorce Coach, Practical Solutions

Chairs:

  • Amanda Bafaro, Chief Risk Officer, BridgePoint Financial
  • Andrew Bowyer, Founder, Canadian Legal Innovation

Maintaining business continuity in a complex operating environment 2020

  • Free to attend
  • Under consideration by the Law Societies of BC & ON

Law firms and legal departments have had to adjust significantly to ensure business continuity in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. They have had to maintain operations in a completely virtual working environment. Advise clients who are facing highly complex operational challenges in a rapidly shifting business landscape. And manage and disseminate large amounts of sensitive data while maintaining client confidentiality and security.

This 60 minute webinar – with expert speakers from law firms and legal departments – will examine the business continuity strategies law firms and law departments have undertaken in 2020. And, they will look towards the future and how they expect these strategies to evolve in a complex operating environment.

Speakers:

  • Robert Soccio, General Counsel, Navistar
  • Tara Elliott, VP Legal, Interac
  • Gennady Ferenbok, General Counsel, Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Ltd.
  • Clint Crosier, General Counsel, iManage

ALLIED PROFESSIONALS: How are legal professionals embracing change and driving transformation in law firms? 2022

  • Free to attend
  • Under consideration by the Law Societies of BC & ON

Increasingly, legal professionals (both paraprofessionals and other allied professionals) are playing a key role in driving transformation in their law firms. They are super users of legal technology, have deep experience in process and project management and are the backbone of their law firms’ cultures. As more law firms are engaging in transformation in an evolving legal market, having the right legal professionals in place to drive change is critical.

On this 60 minute webinar, our speakers – leading legal professionals from Canadian law firms – will focus on how they are driving transformation in their law firms.
Topics will include:

How are legal professionals defining what change management/transformation means in their law firms? And what role are they playing in influencing their firms’ strategies?

The role that legal professionals are playing in implementing transformation strategies and how are they addressing resistance to change in their firms?

What cloud based technologies married with advanced processes are helping to drive transformation and why are they impactful?

Speakers:

  • Karen Anderson, Manager, Corporate Services, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
  • Karen Tuschak, Founder and CEO, Spider Silk Innovative Solutions Inc.
  • Tiffany Pereira, Director, Customer Success, MinuteBox
  • Victoria Snook, Director, Law Clerks and Paralegals, McMillan LLP

RISK: Mastering risk for legal departments 2022

  • Free to attend
  • Under consideration by the Law Societies of BC & ON

The top priorities for today’s legal departments continue to be focused on regulatory compliance (including labor + employment and ESG challenges), data privacy and security, and anticipating and responding to other, unanticipated risks faced by their business units.

To respond to these challenges, legal departments must better map their compliance processes, infrastructure and department business strategies. And leverage this to focus on ways to to be a more engaged strategic advisor and partner to their organization.

During this 60-minute session, our panel will discuss the following:

⇹ A review of drivers and trends of the evolving risk landscape faced by legal departments

⇹ Developing and implementing tech-forward solutions married with advanced processes to better automate legal department functions that anticipate current and future risks

⇹ A look at how legal departments can evolve their strategy by leveraging people, process and technology. And how they can collaborate with 3rd party partners to deliver results.

Speakers:

  • David Meadows, Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting
  • Jennifer Jobanputra, Senior Director, Compliance & Ethics, Loblaw Companies Limited
  • Rustam (Rusty) Juma, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Privacy Officer, Eckler Ltd.
  • Al Park, Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting

Transformation: Mastering transformation in your Law Firm/Legal Department 2022

  • Free to attend
  • Under consideration by the Law Societies of BC & ON

In response to changing market conditions, law firms and legal departments are transforming how they provide services to clients or business units, how they are organized, and how they can operate more cost-effectively. Law firms are doing this though expansion and alignment of innovation groups in their firms as well as building out internal, captive ALSPs. And legal departments through an increased focus on and investment in legal operations.

During this 60-minute session, our panel of law firm and legal department leaders will discuss:

⇹ How to identify pain points in your law firm/legal department and develop a transformation strategy
⇹ Implementing an effective transformation strategy with the right people, processes and technology
⇹ Transformation in action: case studies

Speakers:

  • Jean-Francois Denis, Director, Legal Operations, SNC-Lavalin
  • Michael Bowmile, Senior Legal Counsel, Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited
  • Rob Morris, Chief Operating & Information Officer, BLG
  • Sumi Trombley, Senior Advisor, UpLevel Ops

Chair:
Heather Suttie, Legal Market Strategy and Management Consulting, Suttie