LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
JUNE 2016 77
| COLUMNS |
MARKETING
Heather Suttie is a legal marketing and business
development consultant. She works with firms rang-
ing from global to solo, BigLaw to NewLaw. Reach
her at (416) 964-9607 or www.heathersuttie.ca.
BY HEATHER SUTTIE
LLP announced legal technology initiatives
with outside entities. Blakes has a partner-
ing relationship with MaRS LegalX, while
Osler has a tie-up with Toronto's Legal In-
novation Zone (LIZ), a co-working space
and incubator out of Ryerson University.
From a public-relations standpoint, Os-
ler's Innovation Month (February 2016)
was, in part, designed to raise awareness
about the transformational change sweep-
ing the legal industry. Mara Nickerson, Os-
ler's Chief Knowledge Officer says, "Our in-
volvement with LIZ is an extension of what
we're doing on the practice side of things."
LIZ's Executive Director, Chris Bentley, is
happy to have Osler on board. "is sends
a broader signal to the community that in-
novation is important, Osler is committed
to innovation, and LIZ is a place that can
support and achieve innovation."
As frenetic as all this partnering may
seem, alliances between innovators, incu-
bators, educators and law firms is nothing
new. Tech incubators, such as Communi-
tech in Ontario's Waterloo Region, has had
law firm involvement almost since the day
it started in 1997. Bereskin & Parr LLP,
Gowling WLG, Miller omson LLP,
PCK Perry + Currier Inc. and Buffalo, NY-
based Phillips Lytle LLP are on the current
roster. Dentons supports Alberta's Startup
Edmonton, while Gowling WLG and
Pushor Mitchell LLP are partnered with
British Columbia's Accelerate Okanagan,
and Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
sponsors Vancouver Enterprise Forum and
Vantec Angel Network.
In 2005, the late Heenan Blaikie LLP
opened a satellite office at MaRS, and six
months later, the former Ogilvy Renault
LLP hatched a MaRS office right next
door. Ogilvy Renault continued to op-
erate at MaRS sharing office space with
Cognition in 2010. Now as Norton Rose
Fulbight, this global goliath is the only law
firm tenant on MaRS's premises.
In these instances, the sponsor firms of-
fer legal services to innovative technology
clients at no or low cost. Alternatively, the
firms partnering with MaRS and LIZ are
seeking counsel to help them innovate.
However, as Nickerson quips, "Innovation
is a relative term."
TRANSFORMING
Innovation is to transformation what
metamorphosis is to a butterfly. When it
comes to law firm metamorphosis, US-
based Seyfarth Shaw LLP and Cooley LLP
are fully formed.
Almost 10 years ago, Seyfarth Shaw tai-
lored some of the most appropriate aspects
of Lean Six Sigma to devise a process of legal
service delivery known as SeyfarthLean.
Among the benefits are better communica-
tion, increased efficiency, transparent pric-
ing and reduced overall cost.
And then there's Cooley LLP, which
launched Cooley GO in June 2014 as a re-
source for entrepreneurs with businesses at
all stages of the growth cycle. It offers legal
and business content covering formation,
financing, team building, etc., and provides
tips, tools, guides and documents for free.
By providing free advice and tools, the un-
spoken message is that the firm is standing
by, ready to help if and when need be.
While winning deeper client trust
through innovation is an obvious short-
game goal, legal industry transformation is
the long game. In the meantime, as Nick-
erson observes, thinking about innovation
and doing something about is "a lot more
interesting than sitting at your desk mark-
ing up documents."
How legal innovation may yet beget industry transformation
THE BLURRING of lines between Big
Law and New Law is getting blurrier, and
it's about time
— even though the blur is
still years away from being a blend.
Lately, there has been a flurry of hook-
ups between traditional Big Law firms
and the innovative entities of New Law.
is may look good, but some questions
remain. Is all this teaming up a true desire
for change? A long-awaited accelerant? A
desire to be seen as progressive with cli-
ents? Or, red herring marketing schemes?
TEAMING UP
It wasn't long ago, 2013 in fact, that Mc-
Carthy Tétrault LLP teamed up with Cog-
nition LLP (now Caravel Law) on a major
litigation matter. Since then, Cognition
has sold the embedded corporate counsel
side of its business to US-based Axiom
Global Inc. Described as a provider of
tech-enabled legal services, Axiom has set
something of a global gold standard when
it comes to a non-law firm entity that, as of
January 2016, has a presence in Canada.
McCarthy has partnered with Toronto-
based MaRS LegalX, a legal incubator in
the MaRS Discovery District. As part of
the alliance, they co-created #LexTech16, a
one-day conference held in April to explore
the changing legal industry.
Earlier this year, Blake, Cassels & Gray-
don LLP and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt
The Evolutionary Long Game
PHOTO:
SHUTTERSTOCK
