Precedent Magazine — Winter 2020

System update Inside Bay Street’s overhauled recruitment process p.17

Front-line workers Going to court in the time of COVID p.31

We have a winner The litigator who’s also a game-show champion p.34

The new rules of law and style Winter 2020 $9.95 precedentmagazine.com

The Precedent Innovation Awards People, projects and ideas that are improving the profession

EXCLUSIVE ONLINE NETWORKING FOR LAWYERS

The following lawyers were recently featured on the Precedent A-List a-list.lawandstyle.ca The Precedent A-List is your online source for awards, promotions, new hires and other legal news

Bereskin & Parr welcomes associate Martin Brandsma

WeirFoulds welcomes associate Chantal deSereville

Paliare Roland welcomes associate Catherine Fan

Koziebrocki Law welcomes associate Nicole Fielding

Torys welcomes new counsel Stephanie Gabor

Smart & Biggar welcomes associate Natalie Galley

Beard Winter welcomes associate Oliver Gorman-Asal

Mathews Dinsdale welcomes new partner John Illingworth

WeirFoulds welcomes new partner Peter Jacobsen

Bereskin & Parr welcomes new partner Denis Keseris

Get more news online at a-list.lawandstyle.ca

Hicks Morley welcomes associate Gabrielle Lemoine

Minden Gross welcomes new partner Queenie Lo

NST welcomes new partner Julia K. Lockhart

WeirFoulds welcomes new partner Andrew MacDonald

WeirFoulds welcomes new partner Carlos Martins

Paliare Roland welcomes associate Douglas Montgomery

Minden Gross announces Samantha Prasad as new executive committee member

Hicks Morley announces Craig Rix as managing partner

WeirFoulds welcomes associate Emma Romano

Torys welcomes new partner Charlene Schafer

Dickinson Wright appoints Mark Shapiro to lead its Canadian practice

Minden Gross welcomes associate Stephen Skorbinski

Blaney McMurtry welcomes new partner Dave Stern

Hicks Morley welcomes associate Danika Winkel

Polley Faith welcomes associate Emily Young

To share your news, contact us at alist.support@precedentmagazine.com 416-929-4495

THANK YOU INNOVATORS FOR YOUR LEADERSHIP! The LIZ is the world’s first legal tech incubator and global hub focused on building better solutions for the consumers of legal services.

We are pleased to congratulate all of the recipients of the Precedent Innovation Awards.

@RyersonLIZ

legalinnovationzone.ca

On the cover ­Illustration by Ashley Wong

Winter 2020. Volume 14. Issue 4.

“ It’s not hard to get the firm on board with modern and ­innovative ideas.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHALAN AND PAUL

Monique Jilesen of Lenczner Slaght, a Precedent Innovation Award winner p.21

Cover story

The Precedent Innovation Awards

The legal profession might be slow to change, but there are trailblazers within its ranks.

Meet 10 daring lawyers who have toppled long-held traditions in the name of making the industry better p.21

PRECEDENTMAGAZINE.COM 5

Contents

31

17

34 Debrief

Editor’s Note

Best Practices

Best Picture

Letters

On the Record

The Insider

What’s the true meaning of innovation? p.9 Our readers weigh in on the future of the office tower p.10 Our People

We asked our contributors to tell us what they’d most like out of a robot p.11

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PRECEDENT WINTER 2020

Meet the new managing partner at Bennett Jones p.13 The Bay Street recruitment process has undergone a massive overhaul p.17

On precedentmagazine.com

One lawyer’s account of going to court in a pandemic p.31 The unexpected upside of ­parenting under lockdown p.32 Secret Life

How Brooke MacKenzie became a Jeopardy! winner p.34

This lawyer found Zen at the racetrack

A weekend behind the wheel can be a mind-clearing ritual

IMAGES BY (CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT): DANIEL EHRENWORTH, MARK SOMMERFELD, PETE RYAN, ISTOCK

Brief

We advertise only a small percentage of our jobs.

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WINTER 2020. VOLUME 14. ISSUE 4.

PUBLISHER & EDITOR

Melissa Kluger SENIOR EDITOR

Daniel Fish

COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR

Kelsey Heinrichs Pete Ryan Shalan and Paul Mark Sommerfeld Ashley Wong IT CONSULTANT

Sebastian Leck

MacMedics.ca

ART DIRECTION

DIGITAL IMAGING SPECIALIST

Brian Morgan Rachel Wine

Paul Jerinkitsch Imaging FACT-CHECKERS

ACCOUNTING

Paul Cass

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Simon Lewsen Matthew Hague Matthew Halliday Mai Nguyen Helen Racanelli Conan Tobias CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS & ILLUSTRATORS

Allison Baker Amy van den Berg Martha Beach Catherine Dowling Reanna Sartoretto PROOFREADERS

Lazarus James Jennifer Marston Anna Maxymiw Sarah Munn

Daniel Ehrenworth Sarah Gonzales

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Editor’s Note

A new light Innovation doesn’t necessarily mean new.

Sometimes, it’s about finding a creative way to revive an old tradition

Can we talk about pandemic hobbies for a minute? I never got on the sourdough

PHOTO BY IAN PATTERSON

bandwagon, but I’ve been pursuing a long list of calm-inducing activities over these stress-filled months. There’s been gardening, home decorating and online shopping. I also got remarkably into birdwatching. Equipped with nothing more than a bird-identification app on my phone, I spotted swooping hawks, elegant swans and a bright orange Baltimore oriole. There was something meditative and relaxing about it. Then I was chased by an overly aggressive red-winged blackbird that landed right on my head. And that was the end of my birdwatching pursuit.

The hobby that has really helped get me through the lockdown, though, is crossstitching. Sure, it sounds old-fashioned and a bit dull, but it’s a calming and rewarding thing to do indoors for hours on end. (Though it’s much easier in the daylight, since the work is so tiny and can be hard to see.) It feels good to leave my screen for a while and do something artistic with my hands. A welcome reprieve from the Zooming, texting, emailing and that other hobby of mine: online shopping.

Given my great appreciation of needlework, I was very excited when the ­Precedent art directors suggested that artist Ashley Wong illustrate our cover story (“The Precedent Innovation Awards,” p.21). Wong sews her illustrations, so we were going to illustrate new and envelope-pushing ideas in the legal profession with an old, traditional medium.

That dissonance, in my view, sends a powerful visual message. We often think of innovation in a narrow sense, limited to fancy apps or self-driving cars or tourist trips to the moon. But innovation is a broader concept. All it requires is looking at a problem in a new light and finding a solution. And so, while some winners of our innovation awards have built modern technology — such as an impressive software program that improves the construction industry and an online resource that helps lawyers navigate the Commercial List — others have relied on tradition.

One lawyer built a new network of senior in-house counsel; another offers mobile legal services in a pandemic-friendly Mercedes. As you read about these winners, I hope you are inspired to look for opportunities for change within your own practice or organization.

Speaking of what is old being new again: Precedent is back in print. When the pandemic hit, we took a break from printing and relied solely on digital distribution. For this issue, however, we have returned to good old-fashioned print.

Which, given all the challenges we’ve faced, actually feels super innovative right about now.

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Visit precedentmagazine.com/my-account to get started. And if you need help, email us at subscribe@precedentmagazine.com or give us a call at (416) 929-4495.

Melissa Kluger

Publisher & Editor melissa@precedentmagazine.com @melissakluger

PRECEDENTMAGAZINE.COM 9

Letters

Looking for a second chance?

Don’t miss our replays!

Live Chat with your peers while you learn.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE On many occasions over the past year, I have thought of the work that Precedent has done to profile racialized lawyers through your magazine. I want to offer a heartfelt thank you for those efforts. The act of positively profiling racialized lawyers helps to retrain our ­collective brains around what a lawyer looks like. This is an important step in the pursuit of equality, including the fight against anti-Black racism. Thank you!

Konata Lake Partner, Torys LLP

Downsizing

Learn more at store.lso.ca/ replays

Your recent article on the future of the Bay Street office tower (“Foreclosed,” Fall 2020) caught my attention. As employers begin to see that lawyers can be effective while working remotely, I hope policies promoting flexible work arrangements are here to stay. In addition to being responsive to obvious practical realities (like a global pandemic), adjusting to the needs of a new generation of workers could decrease attrition in a profession otherwise marred by burnout. Law firms — and lawyers — don’t need to follow one specific model to be successful.

Long overdue

As I read your latest cover story on how the profession has responded to the coronavirus (“The pandemic chronicles,” Fall 2020), I particularly enjoyed the section on Parker Sim LLP. We need to examine the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on female lawyers in our bar, especially those who are sole practitioners. How many more stories do we need to hear of women working while they are in labour before we change the practice of law in this province?

Nastaran Roushan Immigration and Refugee Lawyer

Lindsay Board Associate, Daniel Brown Law LLP

@LSOCPD Law Society of Ontario CPD

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PRECEDENT WINTER 2020

Reading this story, which covered how much of the profession is now working at home, actually made me very thankful that my office is open. We are smaller and able to maintain a safe work environment. I don’t think there is a real substitute for actual live human interaction with your ­colleagues and clients.

Kathryn Marshall Associate, Milburn & Associates

The hottest stories on precedentmagazine.com Most views How Boris Bytensky

helped reduce the pre-pandemic prison population Most likes Toronto lawyers pose

for their Zoom portraits

Most retweets The future of the

Bay Street office tower

Our People

Artificial intelligence In this issue, we unveil the winners of the annual Precedent Innovation Awards.

Although no one invented a robot, we asked our contributors what kind of human-like machine they’d want to own

Your CPD. From your legal community.

“I’d love to have a robot that could help me practise my Spanish,” says Rachel Wine, who art directs Precedent alongside Brian Morgan. “The robot would be fluent and non-judgmental, in addition to being my personal assistant.” Based in Toronto, Wine has worked at the Globe and Mail and enRoute and contributed to Maclean’s and Canadian Business. Outside of her magazine work, she lectures, writes and consults on photography.

Ashley Wong is a Hamilton-based illustrator who

PHOTO OF RACHEL WINE BY MAY TRUONG

c­ reates distinctive images with embroidery floss. In this issue, Wong’s colourful artwork accompanies our second annual innovation awards, which celebrate disruption in the profession (“The Precedent Innovation Awards,” p.21). Her illustrations have also appeared in Chatelaine, Today’s Parent and the Globe and Mail. “If I had a robot,” she says, “I would want it to be able to take me all over the world in the blink of an eye.”

“I already own a robot (a Roomba) that sweeps my floors,” says Helen Racanelli, a Toronto-based freelance writer. “But the robot I really want is one that collects and cleans all the cloth masks scattered around my house.” Her writing has appeared in the Toronto Star, Reader’s Digest and Today’s Parent. For this issue, she spoke to two Bay Street lawyers about how they balanced work and family throughout the coronavirus lockdown (“Pandemic parenthood,” p.32).

See our Fall programs at store.lso.ca

@LSOCPD Law Society of Ontario CPD

PRECEDENTMAGAZINE.COM 11

Brief

THE LATEST FROM THE LEGAL WORLD

BEST PRACTICES

At the helm How Dominique Hussey rose to the top at Bennett Jones

by Simon Lewsen illustration by Sarah Gonzales

“ Zoom may not capture someone’s enthusiasm.”

Emily Lawrence on how Bay Street has to adapt to the overhauled on-campus interview process p.17

On March 31, Dominique Hussey became the vice chair and Toronto manag-

ing partner at Bennett Jones LLP and, in the same moment, the first Black woman to head up a major Bay Street law firm. She received congratulatory calls from hundreds of people. “I felt like I heard from every Black female ­lawyer in Toronto,” she recalls. But she also heard from Black executives, scientists and business owners who found inspiration in her achievement. It was a powerful moment. Hussey started to feel connected to a broader cross-section of society, no longer limited to the legal profession. “My recent experiences,” she says, “have expanded the group of people I consider my community.”

Hussey grew up in Stratford, in a brainy, creative household. Her mother, a tribunal adjudicator, passed on a love of music, books and theatre, while her father, a surgeon and jazz guitarist, encouraged her in piano and vocal performance. Hussey’s favourite musician has always been Stevie Wonder, the singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist who works in numerous genres and is a mentor to many. You might sum up Wonder’s work ethic this way: Do lots of things. Do them well. And be generous to everyone you meet.

PRECEDENTMAGAZINE.COM 13

Brief Hussey lives by these maxims, too. She joined Bennett Jones, back in 2005, as an accomplished intellectual-property litigator, already six years into her career. Her most recent position had been at Goodwin Procter LLP in New York, where she worked as an associate in the firm’s world-class IP group. In that role, she had represented several major pharmaceutical and consumerbrand companies, including Teva Pharmaceuticals, one of the world’s largest drug manufacturers. “I loved meeting researchers and learning about their thought ­processes,” she says. “There’s an art to inventing new things that advance society.”

Once at Bennett Jones, Hussey began her rise to the top. Over the next 15 years, she made partner, took charge of the IP litigation department and, of course, became the managing partner in Toronto. That ascent is easy to understand. Hussey is both an excellent lawyer and — because she is effusive, compassionate and precise — a natural team leader. She is the person colleagues trust with their most complex problems, both legal and personal. “I have spent countless hours working opposite Dominque’s desk,” says Shelby Morrison, an associate on the Bennett Jones intellectual-property team. Hussey and Morrison often get into debates about cannabis regulation, an area for which there is little caselaw. But Hussey seems to know every related area of the law and can find the relevant precedents. “She’s the exception to the phrase ‘jack of all trades, master of

“Excellence is not concentrated in one particular group.”

Dominique Hussey

none,’” says Morrison. “It seems that she’s the master of everything.”

When Preet Bell, a Bennett Jones associate (now a partner), was pregnant with her first son, she, too, sought Hussey’s counsel.

“Her words completely changed my perspective,” says Bell. Hussey told her to let the busy days be busy and to find balance in the aggregate, over a period of months.

At times, Hussey has had to remember her own advice. In early 2020, she went to trial on a patent-litigation case and, for six

weeks, was barely home. Right afterward, she and her husband — Alan Gardner, also a partner at Bennett Jones — booked a family staycation in a suite at the Hotel Le ­Germain. In the evening, their two ­children, Josie and Henry, ordered room ­service and vegged out on movies. The next morning, they all had a day off, with brunch at a nearby tapas joint and later board games in the suite.

Such survival strategies are now even more necessary. Hussey’s busyness has hardly abated. Since COVID-19 hit, she has championed the mentorship program at Bennett Jones to ensure that junior lawyers get full attention, despite the remote-work environment. She also helped Bennett Jones build an expanded diversity and inclusion committee. And after the George Floyd protests broke out in the United States, the firm, with Hussey’s input, signed on to the BlackNorth Initiative, which commits it to having a workforce that reflects the country’s racial diversity. For Hussey, such initiatives aren’t just good policy; they’re good business. “Excellence is not concentrated in one particular group,” she says. So businesses have to hire widely.

Hussey has also made herself available to Black colleagues who are feeling burned out, having been called upon, repeatedly, to explain systemic racism to white peers. “It takes a lot of time to be Black,” Hussey often says on these calls. “These conversations are exhausting, but they’re also necessary.

We can’t shy away from this opportunity.”

Timeline of a managing partner

Year of call 1999

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PRECEDENT WINTER 2020

1995: As a 2L at McGill, Hussey worries that, by abandoning her undergrad, she has closed the door on a potential career in science. So she makes a highly unusual decision: she re-enrolls in her science program and completes the necessary courses that summer.

1997: Hussey receives a bachelor of science (in biology) and a law degree. Later that year, she articles at Gowlings in Ottawa, before joining the firm as an associate. At the firm, she meets Alan Gardner, an associate and her future husband.

builds on her expertise in patent and intellectual-property litigation.

2001: Hussey moves to New York to commence a master of laws at Columbia Law School. Her thesis compares how Canada and the United States approve drugs and litigate drug patents.

2008: Hussey becomes the head of the firm’s IP litigation group.

2002: As an associate at Goodwin Procter LLP in New York, Hussey

2005: Hussey joins Bennett Jones LPP in Toronto as an associate.

2007: Eighteen months later, she makes partner.

2020: She is appointed the vice chair and Toronto managing partner at Bennett Jones. Hussey helps steer the firm through the unprecedented challenges of the COVID -19 pandemic.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BENNETT JONES LLP

Dominique Hussey Vice chair and Toronto managing partner, Bennett Jones LLP

1993: As a third-year undergraduate student, working toward a bachelor of science at McGill University, Dominique Hussey applies to law school. She is accepted and decides to attend, leaving her science degree behind.

EXCEPTIONAL LAWYERS WANTED PRECEDENT MAGAZINE is calling for nominations for its twelfth annual Precedent Setter Awards. These awards were established to recognize Toronto lawyers in their first 10 years of practice who have shown excellence and leadership in their practices and their communities.

the precedent setter awards If you know an exceptional Toronto lawyer called to the bar between 2011 and 2020, nominate them today! Winners will be featured in the summer 2021 issue of Precedent Magazine.

Nominations due

Friday, January 15, 2021 For details visit

precedentmagazine.com/awards Precedent seeks to recognize lawyers who reflect the diversity of the profession and strongly encourages nominations of candidates with diverse backgrounds and experience.

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WHEN YOU INTERVIEW A POOL OF CANDIDATES

WHEN YOU LOOK AROUND THE ROOM

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Brief ON THE RECORD

Adaptation How COVID -19 blew up the on-campus interview process

by Sebastian Leck illustration by Pete Ryan

Over the past two decades, Bay Street has

hired second-year summer students in the same fashion. In October, the largest law firms would send a recruitment team to law schools across the country to vet applicants at 17-minute “speed dating” interviews.

One month later, the top-rated students travelled to Toronto, where, over a threeday period, they interviewed at law offices in the downtown core. In the evening, most firms hosted cocktail parties and networking dinners. Finally, at 5 p.m. on the third day, firms called their favourite students to extend job offers. It was a gruelling ordeal.

The coronavirus has exploded this ritual.

In March, as the pandemic hit Toronto, the legal profession concluded that recruitment season could not unfold as planned. The primary reason was safety. Recruiters and students could not meet at an in-person interview without risking infection.

There was also a more practical reason.

At the end of the last academic year, many law schools adopted a pass-fail system in response to the pandemic. If the recruitment process began in the fall, on schedule, a large portion of second-year students would not have grades on their transcripts.

That would deprive recruiters of a core metric they use to evaluate each application.

By May, the Law Society of Ontario had approved a new schedule. The second-year summer recruit will now take place in the winter. Applications are due at the start of January. (This allows students to submit grades they earned during the first semester of the new school year.)

There will, once again, be two phases of interviews. This includes an initial run of 17-minute interviews (most of which will take place in February) and a second round of in-depth interviews with the most competitive applicants (in March). Although the Law Society hasn’t forbidden in-person contact between students and recruiters, most firms have decided to move interviews onto videoconference software and to cancel networking events.

So what do firms think of the new schedule? “I don’t have any particular concerns

about pushing it to January,” says Emily Lawrence, a partner at Paliare Roland and the director of the firm’s student program.

But she does expect video interviews to pose a unique challenge. “You might have someone who would be charismatic in person, but, on Zoom, the medium just makes everyone a bit flatter,” she says. “We’re going to have to build another layer of thinking into how Zoom may not capture someone’s enthusiasm.”

Christopher McKenna, manager of student recruitment and programs at Bennett Jones LLP, is confident that the transition to video will be smooth. “A lot of students have had to work virtually this summer,” he says. “They’re not inexperienced. I think

we need to give this generation some credit.” If anything, he thinks video interviews could make the process better for introverted and socially anxious students.

Whether any changes will become permanent hinges on how recruitment goes in the winter. Jennifer Wing, a spokesperson at the Law Society, says the regulator will be closely watching the overhauled process. One particular area of interest will be the elimination of networking events, which often confer an advantage onto certain students. “The Law Society is hopeful that the revised process will be more inclusive,” says Wing, “while at the same time addressing the unique needs that have arisen as a result of COVID-19.”

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PRECEDENTMAGAZINE.COM 17

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How this chief compliance officer deepened his legal knowledge Matthew Onyeaju has a lot riding on his shoulders. As the chief compliance officer at a large independent investment dealer, he leads a team of more than 50 people that oversees 700 financial advisors. His overarching objective is to make sure those advisors, as well as the firm more broadly, abide by the myriad rules and regulations that govern the securities industry. This task requires a lot of experience. “Securities law is incredibly challenging,” says Onyeaju. “Many rules have an exception, and you’re constantly navigating grey areas.”

To navigate that complexity, the top compliance professionals are always looking to bolster their knowledge in the field. Onyeaju is no exception. In 2018, he enrolled in the securities law specialization of the Osgoode Professional LLM, a rigorous graduate program that he could ­complete on a part-time basis. The professors helped him step outside his daily work and examine the regulatory framework that shapes the world of finance. “Day to day, you’re not always taking the time to appreciate the evolution of legislation and why it’s happened,” he says.

“I was able to think more deeply about the origins of law.” The program also gave Onyeaju new insights into how he can make the dense thicket of regulations comprehensible to ­advisors working in the trenches.

In August, Onyeaju completed the program. And, without hesitation, he would recommend it to anyone working in the securities field, including compliance professionals and lawyers. “It’s a great point on a resumé,” he says. “And just really invaluable.”

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The Precedent Innovation Awards We all know what innovation looks like in the world of Big Tech. There’s Amazon. Apple. Spotify.

These titans of disruption have built powerful technology and designed sleek products that have transformed daily life as we know it.

Yet the legal world has hardly changed at all.

The inner workings of the courts remain old-­ fashioned and needlessly complex. The profession has an acute lack of useful resources. And the cost to hire a lawyer is still wildly unpredictable.

If we want to solve these stubborn problems, we can’t rely on an outside saviour. We’re on our own.

We’re also totally up to the challenge. Look no further than the winners of this year’s Precedent Innovation Awards. These thoughtful lawyers have democratized access to legal information, helped clients afford their services and developed bespoke software that streamlines the most cumbersome legal tasks. Want to know how they achieved all that? Turn the page to find out.

by Matthew Hague, Matthew Halliday, Simon Lewsen, Mai Nguyen and Conan Tobias illustrations by Ashley Wong photography by Shalan + Paul hair and makeup by Romy Zack

PRECEDENTMAGAZINE.COM 21

Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP

CommercialList.com A user-friendly website that outlines how to practise effectively at one of Ontario’s most specialized courts

M

ost professions have “knowledge gatekeepers.” These prestigious few have accumulated valuable trade secrets that give them an edge over the competition. In the legal industry, they might know how to frame an argument to appeal to a certain judge. Or perhaps they’ve collected the most useful caselaw in a particular practice area. These doyens can choose to hoard their knowledge and protect their place at the top. Or they can share what they know for the betterment of the profession.

Monique Jilesen, a partner at Lenczner Slaght, is one of Bay Street’s most elite gatekeepers. But she’s never had a hoarder mindset. Her intuition, on the contrary, has been to spread her insider knowledge as widely as possible.

Over a two-decade career in corporate litigation, Jilesen has acquired an intimidating wealth of knowledge on a unique court in the justice system: the Commercial List. This division of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice hears the most complex business disputes in the province. (Think of Air Canada’s 2003 bankruptcy.) The judges have specialized knowledge in business law, which allows cases to move at a faster pace. That speed is crucial. “I was involved with the Air Canada insolvency,” says Jilesen. “If the court didn’t promptly deal with the order to give Air ­Canada bankruptcy protection, the entire fleet might have been grounded.”

Despite its vital role in the justice system, the Commercial List can be difficult to navigate. Resources on the court are scant. What does exist is scattered across a variety of websites or hidden behind newsletter paywalls. There are also peculiar unwritten rules. Consider, for instance, the “9:30,” an informal hearing with the judge. “The name just refers to the time that the hearing takes place, but people talk as if everyone would know that,” says Jilesen. “There are unwritten rules about what judges expect at this meeting, what lawyers will try to achieve and the procedure for managing it.”

A few years back, Jilesen had an idea. If she collected all the information she had on the Commercial List, she could publish it at a single online location. There would be no cost to access the website. It would be an act of public service.

With help from the firm’s director of marketing, Jilesen researched the logistics of creating CommercialList.com. Next, she sought permission from Lenczner Slaght, which both granted its approval and agreed to fund the development of the website. “It’s not hard to get the firm on board with modern and innovative ideas,” says Jilesen. “Plus, I’m on the management committee, so that’s handy.”

In January 2019, work on the site began. Most of the firm’s associates and partners contributed content, which included precedents, recent decisions and original articles that outline the court’s unwritten customs.

2 0 2 0 P R E C E D E N T I N N O VAT I O N A W A R D W I N N E R S

Monique Jilesen

By summer, the site had launched. And, in its first two weeks, CommercialList.com saw more than 1,000 unique users, a number that has continued to grow. “Having these resources available to me makes things faster and more efficient,” says Jeremy Opolsky, a partner at Torys LLP. “It’s got a user-accessible format and is always up to date.”

At Lenczner Slaght, Jilesen is still a go-to resource on this complicated court. And, of course, she is happy to answer her colleagues’ questions.

“But I can also send a person to CommercialList.com for more information,” she says. “And I use it myself. Because it means I don’t have to go look things up somewhere else.”

— Conan Tobias

PRECEDENTMAGAZINE.COM 23

2 0 2 0 P R E C E D E N T I N N O VAT I O N A W A R D W I N N E R S

Faren Bogach, Krista Chaytor and Jeff Scorgie

Pay Prompt A software program that helps construction companies track payment deadlines in accordance with industry regulations

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WEIRFOULDS LLP

I

24

n the construction world, projects rarely conclude on time. That’s no secret. Beyond the constant delays, however, another problem has historically rankled the industry: making sure everyone gets paid on time. Thin profit margins, limited cash flow and complicated contracts often prevent money from flowing down the ­construction pyramid — from property owners to contractors to subcontractors — at a steady clip.

In 2017, Ontario took aim at this predicament.

The provincial government passed amendments to the Construction Lien Act (now called the Construction Act) that included new “prompt payment” rules. These regulations, which came into effect in October 2019, require property owners to pay a contractor’s invoice within 28 days of receiving it. The contractor, in turn, has seven days to pay its subcontractors. Sound simple?

Not exactly.

“The rules create a big administrative burden,” says Jeff Scorgie, an associate at WeirFoulds LLP whose practice focuses on construction law.

“There are a lot of complicating variables.” What happens, for instance, if an owner contests the charges on an invoice? In that scenario, it has 14 days to issue a notice of non-payment, which outlines its objections. The contractor, for its part, still has to pay any subcontractors, unless it takes the dispute to adjudication within 35 days.

To manage these deadlines is a dizzying task.

“The learning curve for this legislation is not six months, but six years,” says John Mollenhauer, the CEO of the Toronto Construction Association, an industry group that represents more than 1,800 companies and constructionrelated professionals. In other words, it is extremely complicated.

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At WeirFoulds, Scorgie, alongside two of the firm’s partners, Krista Chaytor and Faren Bogach, needed a simple way to navigate that complexity. “We were talking one day in Krista’s office,” recalls Bogach. “I asked, ‘How can we best solve these questions?’ Jeff said we need a calculator. Krista said it should be an app.”

Ultimately, the team incorporated a new ­company, Pay Prompt Inc., and worked with a software developer on a web-based platform that could track construction payments in keeping with the new legislation. (The team operated ­outside the firm, as Bogach explains, so it could make the software more widely available throughout the construction industry, beyond the firm’s clients and contacts. ) In basic terms, here’s how the software works.

Let’s say you’re an owner. (There’s a separate module for contractors.) On the home screen, you’ll see a list of options, such as “I have an invoice” and “I want to give a Notice of NonPayment.” Once you select an option and answer a few short questions, the program calculates the date you have to pay an invoice or issue a notice.

You can then view all of your deadlines on a ­single dashboard.

Once a beta version was ready, the trio approached Mollenhauer and his team for feedback on the software. “We loved it,” says Mollenhauer. “We liked the pragmatic way they went about it. They genuinely understand the Act.” In October, Pay Prompt officially launched. To date, it has 50 clients that no longer have to pay a lawyer to tediously manage payments and deadlines. “Lawyers should be doing deeper work,” says Chaytor. “This is more rewarding for us and far better for our clients.” — Matthew Halliday

Faren Bogach

Krista Chaytor

Jeff Scorgie

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Peter Nguyen

GC Forum An organization that brings together senior lawyers on small in-house teams, so they can make connections and discuss common problems

I

n 2017, Peter Nguyen attended a fancy linenand-silverware dinner. The event was put on by a well-known networking group that catered to corporate counsel. At the time, Nguyen was the general counsel, and the only in-house lawyer, at Resolver, an incident- and risk-management software company. He had hoped to connect with colleagues at businesses of a similar size. That didn’t happen. “I had a nice meal,” he recalls. “But I mainly met lawyers from big companies.”

Nguyen had little in common with many of his fellow diners. At large companies, in-house counsel tend to work in a single practice area, such as employment, marketing or media rights.

“As a company’s solo lawyer, though, you have to advise leadership on everything legal, from ­contracts to litigation,” says Nguyen. “You also have to weigh in on issues that aren’t strictly legal, but might have legal implications, including overall business strategy or customer privacy.

You have to be a jack of all trades.”

Because Nguyen couldn’t find a community of such lawyers, he built one himself. In 2018, he founded GC Forum, an organization targeted at the senior lawyer on small in-house teams.

Nguyen made two crucial choices at the outset.

First, he wouldn’t accept sponsors. The focus of events would always be on connecting and problem solving, as opposed to evening-long sales pitches. Second, there would be no membership fee, so that cost would never prevent anyone from joining the group. “I only asked,” he says, “that people bring an open mind and a willingness to participate.”

In short order, he started to host get-togethers, which were held at Resolver’s office. (Once the

coronavirus pandemic hit Toronto, these gatherings moved onto Zoom.) These events focus on topics that are uniquely relevant to those on small legal teams. At one meeting, Rob Chesnut, the former general counsel at Airbnb, talked about the ethical dilemmas that tech startups often encounter. Another meeting explored how general counsel can drive change in the battle against systemic racism. (In November, Nguyen became the senior vice-president of legal at ­Descartes Systems Group, a logistics and supplychain-management software company. He’s one of five lawyers at the company.)

To date, more than 100 lawyers have joined GC Forum. One of its members is Gordon ­Ackroyd, the general counsel at SecureKey, a Toronto-based online privacy company. “It’s been an incredible opportunity to share insights and learn from others,” he says. “Peter is both very generous with his time and a problem solver at heart.”

— Matthew Hague

Peter Nguyen

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Adam Goldenberg

Law in the Time of COVID-19 A podcast that updates listeners on the ongoing legal implications of the coronavirus crisis

I

PHOTO COURTESY OF MCCARTHY TÉTRAULT LLP

Adam Goldenberg

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n March, the coronavirus pandemic threw the legal system into a state of upheaval. As the nationwide lockdown forced businesses to close down and furlough staff, lawyers had to oversee the fallout. When the government implemented sweeping emergency measures, it was lawyers who had to absorb the implications in an instant. Trials and hearings, meanwhile, were adjourned; over time, some moved onto Zoom.

The world was changing at a breathtaking pace.

Adam Goldenberg, a litigation associate at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, understood that reliable information was more important than ever.

“None of us had experienced anything like this before,” he says. “There was a real hunger for insight on the legal dimensions of how to respond to the pandemic.”

To help fill that information gap, he wanted to tackle pandemic-related legal questions in an easy-to-digest format that wouldn’t add to people’s growing screen time. Naturally, he settled on a podcast. He pitched the idea to the firm’s COVID-19 response team, and he received the green light to charge ahead.

Goldenberg was thrilled — and terrified. “I knew how to put a case together,” he says, “but I didn’t know how to put a podcast together.”

He went down a rabbit hole of online tutorials, bought a USB microphone on Amazon and tinkered with audio programs like GarageBand and Audacity.

By March 20, his podcast, Law in the Time of COVID-19, officially dropped. The first episode featured a 15-minute interview with three strategic advisors at McCarthys — including Jean Charest, the former premier of Quebec — on how the federal and provincial governments might respond to the crisis. Goldenberg spent eight hours on the production, labouring over the smallest details. (The trickiest part was getting the music to fade in and out just right.) “This is

me being a perfectionist,” he says. “I wanted each episode to be of a consistent quality.”

In total, Goldenberg has released about three episodes a month. In each one, he covers a different topic, such as the future of commercial ­leasing and how lawyers can maintain client ­confidentiality while working at home. (Some ­episodes are CPD-accredited in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.) He interviews both colleagues at his firm and outside experts. “One of the nice things about this podcast,” says Goldenberg, “is that it’s something our whole firm can participate in.”

His perfectionism has paid off. The sound is crisp and clean. The interviews are engaging.

And Goldenberg’s monologue at the beginning of every episode hooks the listener in with accessible language set over peppy music that, yes, fades in and out quite nicely.

As the host, Goldenberg never lets conversations get too wonky. “He can connect some very nebulous, archaic legal concepts into real-life applications,” says Miranda Lam, a McCarthys partner. “Adam has a real mastery over how to make something hard easy.”

— Mai Nguyen

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Paul Banwatt

John Durland

Tim Gilbert

that require in-depth legal advice. Their monthly payment, meanwhile, remains the same.

Slingshot subscribers can also access a web portal that houses a suite of legal-document ­templates, such as employment contracts and intellectual-property agreements. With the help of lawyers at G ­ ilbert’s, these resources are easy An online subscription service that to customize. (Banwatt and Durland built the allows businesses to purchase regular portal alongside the firm’s IT staff, using Wordlegal advice at a fixed monthly cost Press and off-the-shelf software.)

The response to Slingshot has been extremely aul Banwatt has seen plenty of startups run positive. One of the first subscribers was into trouble. Founder disputes have turned Lumières Media Inc., a recently incorporated ugly. Business owners have mishandled company that produces podcasts and live events the termination of employees. And, in one case, that explore big ideas in science. “We met with a young company had to change its name after an other lawyers, but we weren’t very impressed,” issue arose with its trademark. “That’s a painful says Raif Douthwaite, a co-founder of Lumières. thing to see,” says Banwatt, an associate at the “The pricing and the approach seemed inflexintellectual-property boutique Gilbert’s LLP. ible, and we couldn’t fork over tons of money.”

“Especially for a small company that’s trying to Once the company became a Slingshot user, build a reputation.” the legal world became a simpler place. The Basic legal guidance would have prevented document templates allowed Lumières to forthese setbacks, but the legal profession isn’t malize its relationship with contract workers. always set up to serve nascent companies.

The billable hours have been beneficial, too.

“Startups have limited capital,” says Banwatt.

Before a live event, one of the speakers worried “They can’t deal with the peaks and valleys of that her participation would effectively transfer legal costs.” So they often muscle through legal her intellectual property to Lumières. Banwatt issues on their own. and Durland reworked some of the phrasing in Banwatt and John Durland, another associate the speaking contract so that both sides were at Gilbert’s, teamed up to solve this longcomfortable with the arrangement. standing problem. In March, the pair launched “The legal industry is ripe for change,” says Slingshot, an online subscription service that Tim Gilbert, the managing partner at Gilbert’s, helps startups manage their unpredictable legal whom Banwatt credits with fostering the creative costs. For a fixed monthly fee, clients receive a environment that made Slingshot possible. “If monthly allowance of billable hours, which, if we insist things happen the old-fashioned way, it unused, are bankable. This allows clients to increasingly won’t work for a lot of people. And redistribute hours from slower months to those they’ll be flying blind.”

— Matthew Halliday

Gilbert’s LLP

Slingshot P

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Mobilaw A mobile law office that provides clients with a safe place to meet their lawyer during the COVID-19 pandemic

A

rturo Pugliese comes from a family of entrepreneurs. His father, who owned restaurants and manufacturing companies, taught him that customer service is essential to career success. Pugliese never forgot that lesson. From the moment he founded Audax Law, a commercial- and business-law firm, more than a dozen years ago, he has been driving out to meet clients where they live. It seemed commonsensical that, if someone was unable to drop by his Toronto office, due to illness or disability or work commitments, he would come to them instead.

“I’m a natural service provider,” says Pugliese.

“It’s been ingrained in me since childhood.”

In 2018, he made home visits an official part of his brand. He launched a new company, ­Mobilaw, to provide simple, personalized legal services — anything related to wills, powers-ofattorney and residential real estate — in a location of the client’s choosing: a living room, a ­coffee shop, even a hospital bedside. Mobilaw is a separate entity from Audax, but the firms share some resources. Two of the lawyers at Audax, including Pugliese, also work at Mobilaw, and both firms operate out of the same office at Bloor and Islington.

At first, business was slow. (In 2018 and 2019, Mobilaw met with about two clients per week.)

Then the pandemic hit and people stopped going out, even to meet with their lawyers. Though temporary policies permitted lawyers to finalize wills and real-estate transactions by video, Pugliese knew that his clients would be best

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served by in-person meetings. “As a lawyer, I want people to understand exactly what’s going on,” he says. “I want them to look me in the eye and ask as many questions as they’d like.”

Pugliese saw Mobilaw as the solution, but, first, he had to make a few upgrades. He bought a ­Mercedes-Benz Sprinter crew van and hired contractors to gut the back end and turn it into a ­pandemic-friendly mobile law office. Now he could meet clients without sacrificing safety.

Adrian Cipollone, a Toronto firefighter, recently hired Pugliese to help finalize the sale of a condominium. Once the Mobilaw van arrived in his driveway, Cipollone entered it via a side door and found himself in a fairly standard office with carpeted floors, plants and abstract paintings on the walls. Pugliese sat on the opposite side of a shared desk, and they passed documents back and forth through an opening in a plexiglass divider. (Masks and gloves were available.) Within half an hour, the transaction was complete.

“It was seamless and easy,” says Cipollone.

“And also kind of fun.” Best of all, Cipollone didn’t pay a premium for the service. The cost was the same as it would’ve been if he’d travelled to Pugliese’s office.

Because the van isn’t outfitted with computers or printers, Pugliese does most of the legal work in advance. When drafting a will, for instance, he’ll go through the initial consultation via phone, email or videoconference, then drive out to discuss the final document with the client. He’s had meetings in all kinds of places, including a parking spot outside a bank and a riverside cottage property. On the road, people sometimes spot his van, photograph the “Mobilaw” logo — stencilled in orange block letters along the side — and call to request his ­services.

At a time when many solicitor-client meetings have moved to Webex or Zoom, Pugliese has, ironically, found a new way to preserve the bespoke culture of the legal industry. “In this ­profession, face-to-face interactions are so important,” says Pugliese. “I guess you could call me ­traditional.”

— Simon Lewsen

Arturo Pugliese

PHOTO BY HELEN TANSEY

Arturo Pugliese

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Debrief life beyond the law

“ You have to think fast on your feet.”

Brooke MacKenzie on the litigation skills that came in handy as a contestant on Jeopardy! p.34

Lisa Jørgensen stands at the entrance of the Old City Hall courthouse

BEST PICTURE

On the front line In the era of COVID -19, what’s it like inside Old City Hall?

by Conan Tobias photography by Mark Sommerfeld

The Old City Hall courthouse was once a

bustling hotbed of human activity. Today, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to upend our world, the building is nearly empty, abandoned by the people who used to pack into the hallways. An eerie silence accentuates the ghost-town atmosphere.

Lisa Jørgensen, a partner at Ruby Shiller Enenajor DiGiuseppe Barristers whose practice focuses on criminal and regulatory defence work, has observed this uncanny scene. In July, a few days after real-world courthouses started to reopen, she arrived at Old City Hall to conduct a pre-trial

motion. Once inside, she followed arrows on the floor as she moved through the vacant space. The courtroom itself was decked out in plexiglass that surrounded the bench, the witness box and the counsel seating area. The whole time, she wore a mask, which she couldn’t take off without permission from the judge.

The experience was surreal. “You’re entering a place you’d been told for months was not safe enough to enter,” recalls ­Jørgensen. “You’re engaging in what feels like a normal activity. But there’s nothing normal about it.”

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Debrief

THE INSIDER

Pandemic parenthood The coronavirus lockdown wreaked havoc on family life, but it also bestowed an unexpected gift on the busiest parents in the legal profession

by Helen Racanelli illustration by Kelsey Heinrichs

Once the coronavirus pandemic triggered a sweeping

lockdown, lawyers across the city had to abandon the office and work entirely at home. That was, on its own, an onerous task. But lawyers with children had to ­contend with an additional challenge: the closure of schools. This forced parents, who were already adapting to a new work environment, to take on an expanded set of domestic responsibilities. They now doubled as playmates (since children could no longer hang out with friends) and provided constant tech support (since online learning was, at the best of times, a source of confusion). The demands of the moment turned ­lawyer households into a bit of a gong show.

Nathaniel Lipkus learned this lesson first-hand. This spring, the partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP was at home, working diligently on behalf of his clients.

His wife, a rheumatologist at Mount Sinai, had her own action-packed schedule. That included full days of appointments via web platforms at home and, over time, occasional in-person work at the hospital. (There were also periods when she was the attending rheumatologist on call, forcing her to be at the hospital ­full-time for a few weeks.) Meanwhile, their three children — ages two, six and eight — needed constant help throughout each weekday. For the older kids, one major complication was online school. If a child was struggling with, say, a faulty Zoom link, one parent would have to pause work to solve the problem.

Looking back on that period, Lipkus recalls his most mortifying moment. His eight-year-old son was carrying his iPad, which he used to log in to online school.

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“He came into the bathroom with his iPad for IT help during class while I was showering,” says Lipkus. For what he hopes was only a brief moment, Lipkus saw a bunch of small faces on the screen. And they could probably see him. Naked.

Around that same time, Anne Feehely, associate general counsel at BMO Financial Group, was also trying to parent in the age of COVID-19. Her daughters, ages 13 and 15, made the e-learning transition without much trouble. (Today’s TikTok–versed teens, after all, have the skills to work, create and socialize in the digital world.) Her 11-year-old son had a hard time at school, but Feehely and her husband, who works at National Bank, didn’t catch the problem right away.

There is a good explanation for this oversight: at the outset of the pandemic, Feehely’s mother had moved out of her long-term-care facility and into F ­ eehely’s home. “I was so preoccupied with my mom,” says ­Feehely. “About a month in, we realized that my son wasn’t really doing schoolwork at all. He is generally a very good student, so we were shocked. My husband and I sat down and talked to him about the importance of staying motivated. But he was very honest. He missed his friends and wanted to be back in school.”

Feehely was able to ease her son’s social isolation. To start, she let him play more video games. Among boys, she has learned, this is where most online socializing takes place. As soon as summer break arrived, she signed him up for a golf camp in Milton, Ont., which he attended with a friend. “That worked out perfectly,” she says. “It was a bit of a drive but so worth it.”

Debrief

This is not the only time that she clinched a pandemic-parenting win. In fact, behind the day-to-day chaos of COVID-19, Lipkus and Feehely enjoyed the same surprising bright side. Both lawyers spent more time with their children than at any other point in their working life.

The pandemic has decimated the economy, eliminated

thousands of jobs and cost many people their lives. The toll on humanity is astonishing. But the drastic changes to the workplace have, in some cases, been positive.

Before the pandemic, the busiest Bay Street lawyers worked long hours at the office. Today, these professionals are home all the time, which has, in many cases, enriched family life. “The pandemic has given busy parents the permission to slow down and spend time with their family,” says Toula Kourgiantakis, a social worker and family therapist who’s also an assistant ­professor of social work at the University of Toronto.

“Especially at the beginning of the pandemic, a lot of people were saying that they’re now having dinner with their kids every night. They were able to actually sit down and watch a movie with them.”

Parents can only enjoy these benefits, of course, if they have other forms of privilege. Both Feehely and Lipkus maintained their jobs throughout the lockdown, which they could productively do at home. And they’re aware that their socioeconomic advantages have kept the worst consequences of the pandemic at bay. Lipkus employs a nanny, who helps with all the children but does most of the hands-on caregiving with the

two-year-old. And Lipkus lives in an upscale midtown neighbourhood near a sprawling ravine park. “We also put in a play structure in the backyard,” he adds. ­Feehely, for her part, lives on Toronto’s leafy western edge. Her spacious home has four levels. “One for each generation,” she says, “so we’re spread out.” And she was fortunate to be assigned a support worker by the government to help with her mom, for one hour a day, throughout the week.

These advantages have allowed each lawyer-parent to enjoy the unexpected upside of the pandemic. ­Lipkus is able to see much more of his kids than he ever has before. He often takes small breaks during business hours to engage with his kids, an impossibility in the pre-COVID era. “If my two-year-old says she wants to meet to read her a story, I can stop and read her a story,” he says. “If I take 10 minutes here and there, it’s not a big chunk of the day.”

Feehely, too, has enjoyed the newfound family time.

Before the pandemic, her weeknight routine was to chaotically zip her kids around to volleyball and hockey. Once those activities were cancelled, Netflix nights became a new routine. (After putting it off, they eventually got around to watching the movie Contagion, which has become the horror flick of the pandemic.)

“We also got bikes for every member of the family and went out cycling together every weekend,” says Feehely. “We’d often stop in at Ontario Place and walk around there. All five of us. It became a nice family tradition. We wouldn’t have ever done that with our previous schedule.”

PRECEDENTMAGAZINE.COM 33

Debrief On television, it took Brooke MacKenSECRET LIFE

Game time

by Matthew Hague photography by Daniel Ehrenworth

Brooke MacKenzie MacKenzie Barristers

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zie 30 minutes to become a gameshow champion. During an episode of Jeopardy!, which aired in February, she maintained her composure and kept pace with the competition. In Final Jeopardy, she clinched her victory by correctly identifying Argentina as the Western-hemisphere country that references “branding cattle and lassoing steers” in its national poem. Alex Trebek, who passed away in November, sauntered over to shake her hand.

And just like that, it was over.

In reality, though, that triumph was a lifetime in the making. A long-standing trivia enthusiast, the litigator at ­MacKenzie Barristers has rarely missed an episode of Jeopardy!, playing alongside her roommates throughout undergrad and law school and, these days, at home with her husband.

Over the past decade, she has doggedly tried to appear on the hit show.

The first step for any would-be contestant is to take an online trivia test.

Those who score high enough qualify for a lottery, which determines the lucky few who move on to the next phase: an additional test and a simulated game in front of producers.

MacKenzie has won an invitation to two in-person auditions. After the second, she made the cut.

Once she learned the date of her appearance, MacKenzie had a month until the taping in Los Angeles. So she bought a plane ticket — yes, this was in the pre-COVID era — and started to prepare. Her husband, a computer programmer, accessed a database of historical Jeopardy! questions and built a rudimentary program that MacKenzie could use to study. She focused on her weakest subjects (such as science) and worried less about her strengths (which include sports, geography and pop culture). To practise the art of the buzzer, she held and pressed a spring-loaded toilet-paper holder. “Being a litigator is also great training,” she says. “You have to think fast on your feet.”

In total, she appeared on two episodes, winning the first and finishing runner-up in the second. Her combined pre-tax winnings reached US$19,300.

MacKenzie plans to save some of the cash and — once it’s safe to travel — use the rest to cover the cost of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, capping off one lifelong ambition by fulfilling another.

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