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Substantive Legal Content

Resolving Disputes in Family-Owned Businesses – A Lawyer’s Approach for Achieving Happy Endings for Unhappy Families

Sign Saying Make Love Not War
Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

by Maureen T. McKay and Murray Gottheil

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Introduction

Resolving a dispute among shareholders of a family-owned corporation is entirely different from resolving a dispute among shareholders who are not related. Professional advisors who want to help resolve disputes in a family-owned business must understand not only that a family-owned business is different and how it is different, but more importantly, must adjust their approach to take those differences into account.

read more about why family business disputes are different “Resolving Disputes in Family-Owned Businesses – A Lawyer’s Approach for Achieving Happy Endings for Unhappy Families”
Categories
Fluff

Translations From Lawyer Talk Part Nine: Talking to the Newbies

Group of lawyers speaking to each other.
Photo by August de Richelieu from Pexels

Beginner lawyers need to understand Partner Talk (“PT”), which is the language that law firm partners use. 

Here to help the newbies are some translations from Partner Talk to Plain English (“PE”):

read more about talking to the newbies “Translations From Lawyer Talk Part Nine: Talking to the Newbies”
Categories
Fluff

Citiots

Fall colours on trees across the water with empty docks in the foreground.

Prior to retiring from the practice of law, I lived in big cities for my entire life. Upon retirement I moved to the country. Due to Covid and people learning that they can work from home, moving to the country is now something that many people are doing.

In any event, there are a lot of new things to learn when you move to the country. One of the first things that you must learn is that it is important to differentiate yourself from the Citiots.

To help you do that, I have compiled a list of ways to tell if you are a Citiot.

read more to find out if you are a citiot “Citiots”
Categories
Mentoring

What If?

Mentor teaching her student.
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk from Pexel

Many of us think that the legal profession is broken, because too many lawyers are stressed out and miserable. Law firms are throwing money at the problem. Apparently unsuccessfully. A few brave souls are attempting to start solo practices or small firms which operate on different, and more humane and sustainable principles. But apart from that, the profession seems to be lurching along as it always has and continuing to chew up, and sometimes spit out, those lawyers who are determined to have a life outside of practicing law.

read more about how to fix law firms “What If?”
Categories
Legal Tech

Okay, Boomer

Old manual typewriter with paper loaded.
Photo by Pixabay at Pexels

Many years ago I hired a young lawyer who was not really named Tom. Tom had a few years of experience at one of the large Toronto law firms. This was back in the days when I actually believed the hype that the lawyers in Big Law were smarter than the rest of us, and I was excited to bring this new talent onboard to our mid-sized suburban firm.

read more about the good and bad of the automation of legal practice “Okay, Boomer”
Categories
The Mentality and Attitudes of Lawyers

Knowing Your Audience

Speaker in front of audience.
Photo by ICSA from Pexels

My father used to tell a story about when he was a young man with a young family.  Unlike many people of his age at that time, he had an automobile since his job was travelling the countryside selling stuff. One day he was pulled over for speeding. He tried to talk himself out of a ticket which he could not afford, explaining that he struggled to support his wife and children on his pitifully small salary, the amount of which he disclosed to the officer. The wise old cop let him off the hook but took the opportunity to teach him a lesson. The police officer said: “Always remember who you are speaking to. I earn less than you do.”

read more about the Soft STuff “Knowing Your Audience”
Categories
Legal Fees

Docketing For Dummies

a record player with a cover for a vinyl record
Photo by KoolShooters from Pexels. This is as close as I could get to a photo for "recording time."

I never met a lawyer who loved to docket their time, but I have met a number of lawyers (myself included) who were very good at it.  I met many, many more lawyers who were not so good at it. 

Maybe someday we will be completely rid of the billable hour, but even if that comes to pass, it will still be important for lawyers to be able to analyze how they are spending their time, if only to understand how to set fixed fees.

So, there we are. We all hate docketing. We all need to be good at it.  Here it is. Fully explained. In small words. At last. 

read more about how to save your career by docketing properly “Docketing For Dummies”
Categories
The Mentality and Attitudes of Lawyers

On Being Perfect(ly) Insane

Tiles spelling out "Broken Crayons Still Colour"
Photo by Brett Jordan from Pexels

When I was just a wee lad, my father instilled in me the need to be perfect. If I scored 98% on an exam, his only comment was “What happened to the other two marks?”

read more about the curse of trying to be perfect “On Being Perfect(ly) Insane”
Categories
Law Firm Management

Whose Client is it Anyway?

Person sitting on a mountain cliff overlooking a city.
Photo by M Venter from Pexels

In law firms, most lawyers typically get paid for two things: (1) billings; and (2) bringing in clients. Of course, there are a few lawyers here and there who get paid just for being brilliant, but then again, too few to mention.

Today I want to focus on lawyers who get paid for bringing in clients. Time and again during my tenure in law firm management, I saw lawyers who were billing and earning a lot of money, but who did not have a sophisticated understanding of the financial implications of their relationships with their clients. Usually this came up when they were thinking about leaving one firm and joining another firm. They would tell the new firm how much they were billing and give their best guess as to how many of their clients would follow them. More often than not their best guess was wrong, and not by a little bit, but by a whole lot. Rarely was the mistake that more clients than expected followed them to their new home.

read more about being paid for having a client base “Whose Client is it Anyway?”
Categories
The Practice of Law

Speaking Goodly

A blackboard with the letters "ABC" on it, and books and chalk on a desk.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels

Many years ago, someone who I was related to was arrested on a relatively minor charge, but one which had potentially devastating consequences for his professional reputation and career development. Having access to money, he hired the late great criminal defense lawyer, Austin Cooper to defend him. That is how I found myself sitting through the only criminal trial that I have ever seen which was not on television or in a movie.

read more about whether Canadian Lawyers should have to be able to speak English or French well “Speaking Goodly”