Lexpert Magazine

2 www.lexpert.ca Editorial fortuna favet fortibus ISSUE 22.06 > DECEMBER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Tim Wilbur SENIOR EDITOR Elizabeth Raymer EDITOR Zena Olijnyk PRODUCTION EDITOR Daniel Polowin PRODUCTION EDITOR Josh Lewis WRITERS Aidan Macnab, Lucy Saddleton, Bernise Carolino DESIGNER Ace Dequina PRESIDENT Tim Duce VP, MEDIA & CLIENT STRATEGY Dane Taylor SENIOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Steffanie Munroe BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Lynda Fenton NATIONAL ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Abhiram Prabhu Lexpert Special Edition Magazine is published six times a year. KEY MEDIA and the KEY MEDIA logo are trademarks of Key Media IP Limited, and used under licence by Key Media Canada (Law) Ltd. LEXPERT is a trademark of Key Media Canada (Law) Ltd. Key Media Canada (Law) Ltd 317 Adelaide Street West, Suite 910 Toronto, ON M5V 1P9 Tel: (416) 609-8000 Fax: (416) 609-5840 Website: www.lexpert.ca All rights reserved. Contents may not be reprinted without written permission. Lexpert® Magazine is printed in Canada. PUBLICATION MAIL REGISTRATION NO. 41261516. ISSN1488-6553 Copyright© Key Media Canada (Law) Ltd All rights reserved. GST/HST#: 79989 8465 RC-0001 EDITORIAL INQUIRIES tim.wilbur@keymedia.com SUBSCRIPTIONS/ADDRESS CHANGES Contact: Donnabel Reyes at (647) 374-4536 ext. 243 or email donnabel.reyes@keymedia.com. Annual subscription costs C$175. To change your subscription address, please send your new address along with a copy of your mailing label(s) to the Subscription Dept., at the address indicated above. For all other circulation inquiries, please email Donnabel Reyes. F or commercial litigation, the pandemic's initial story was about delays. Courts closed, and clients in crisis mode stopped making long-term decisions about their cases. While many of these delays are still with us — courts have rightly prior- itized criminal and family matters to the detriment of commercial disputes — the pandemic's effects are now a story of acceleration. "is is an inflection point now when the attitudes are beginning to change," says Hugh Meighen of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (p. 16). "Issues of strategic litigation, or dormant litigation, are now more palatable than they previously were, and that may ultimately result in more claims and proceedings." And it is not just companies that are accelerating their decision-making. Regulators have also ramped up. "I would have thought that the pandemic would have slowed down the regulators because everyone's working from home [and] a lot of institutions have struggled to keep up," says Christopher Richter at Torys LLP (p. 14). "But our regulators have been quite active, maintaining their activity levels and their enforcement level." Remote work has sped up technological adoption, which opens more companies up to privacy and data risk. "e reality is, when we live in a big data world, things will go wrong," says Paul-Erik Veel at Lenczner Slaght LLP (p. 20). "ere will be data breaches. ere will be circumstances where appropriate consent wasn't obtained." While social change is not directly attributable to the pandemic, it has no doubt accelerated recently as well. As the "#MeToo" movement matures, "and there is more of a focus on diverse workplaces, and racism in workplaces or institutions, I think we're going to see more class actions that make allegations about institutional abuse or harassment," says Ranjan Agarwal of Bennett Jones LLP (p. 24). And while some white-collar crime has decreased — think face-to-face boozy meetings with envelopes of cash — reliance on technolog y has opened new vulnerabilities. Traditionally, investing in a company meant going to a place to kick the tires, whereas due diligence is harder on Zoom calls. So, while companies had a chance to regroup in early 2020, that did not last long. Strategic litigation advice is again a critical component of business planning, and there is no time to wait. Tim Wilbur, Editor-in-Chief Risk has accelerated as courts are delayed

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