Lexpert magazine features articles and columns on developments in legal practice management, deals and lawsuits of interest in Canada, the law and business issues of interest to legal professionals and businesses that purchase legal services.
Issue link: https://digital.carswellmedia.com/i/1547047
www.canadianlawyermag.com 63 own by incorporating bits of what each of them does. Q: Strong in-court experience was mentioned by respondents as a hallmark of your firm. How do you make sure that experience gets passed down to more junior lawyers? A: It's really a function of being expected as part of the team to carry through the entire file, from the initial analysis and developing the case through to interim hearings and occasionally trial, incorporating more junior lawyers into those aspects. I was in a hearing yesterday with a more junior associate who's been helping me on the matter, and in many situations, we actu- ally offer the opportunity for students to show up and observe without billing any time to the file, because that's deliberate. It helps them learn and become excellent lawyers and fosters a cohesive culture. When those opportunities come up, we make an attempt to ensure that if you're working with a more senior lawyer on a file, you're involved at every stage, showing up at hearings and trials to contribute in a meaningful way. Relatively recently, the Alberta Court of King's Bench sent out a notice encouraging more junior lawyers to give submissions. We support that, so where it's appropriate, a junior lawyer helping on the file may take parts of the submissions, and as they get more comfortable, they take on more and more responsibility. HMC Lawyers LLP HMC Lawyers LLP drew one of the highest comment volumes of any firm surveyed this cycle. Respondents describe a firm offering big-firm calibre work without big-firm structure, along with long-tenured staff. "I have now stayed employed with HMC Lawyers for 30-plus years. Not only are they professional in their work and in their deal- ings with their clients – they also go out of their way to make their employees feel like family," says one survey respondent. Michael Hokanson, KC, managing partner at HMC Lawyers in Calgary, spoke with CL about what sustains that culture. Q: Peers described a family-like culture and long-tenured staff at HMC Lawyers. What do you think keeps people at the firm for decades? A: We do a lot of stuff together. Many of the lawyers go out for lunch once a week as a group, and we have a retreat coming up in the fall where all of the lawyers in the office and their families are going to Victoria for a few days. It's important to the firm that spouses and significant others are acknowledged, and that people can bring their kids, so our families spend time together. We have people at all sorts of different demographic levels, from old guys like me, younger families with toddlers running around, and also some of the younger people without families. There's a real sense of belonging and family for the whole group. We're friends outside of work, too. I think people see that lawyers in our office have been here a long time, and they understand what drives that. We're also very careful to hire lawyers we expect will fit into our culture and who genuinely want to be here. We want and expect our people to be excellent lawyers, but it's a much bigger deal that the person will fit within the group, and I think the reason for the longevity of our office is because we genuinely like one another. We also take a genuine interest in the advance- ment and goals of each person. For instance, we have 1:1 partner/associate mentorship meetings every month. Q: Peers described HMC as offering big- firm calibre work without big-firm struc- ture. What does that distinction mean to you in practice? A: We do think we provide a pretty high level of litigation services within our lanes. We have a growing family law department, an employ- ment law group, a construction law group, commercial litigation, and insurance, with a lot of cross-promotion between those groups. That means we find the right person to do the job rather than keeping work to ourselves, which lends itself to a lot more collaboration. I think that's part of why we get work where there's a national firm on the other side, because a number of our lawyers are regularly dealing with lawyers from the national firms on similar work. We also do a fair bit of conflict work for big firms because we're smaller and don't have the same massive volume of clients. So, we don't run into the same conflict problems that "Repeat clients remember how quickly somebody responded to them, and they remember how they are treated, which I think, in many cases, is probably as important as the end result" Michael Hokanson, KC, managing partner at HMC Lawyers LLP