Canada-based Law Times is out with an interview of yours truly in its current issue.
When the reporter and I met, some weeks ago here in Manhattan, I thought that through my persistent questions I had learned more about the Canadian legal marketplace than he had learned about me, but the piece is wonderfully written and, I am pleased to report, an extremely fair and professional overview and summary of my thoughts on topics such as:
- The reasons I created "Adam Smith, Esq." to begin with.
- The ongoing transformation of the structure of the legal industry.
- The ineluctable pressures for firms to move towards (but not to) a more corporate-like managerial model.
The reporter’s contribution is to provide perspective on the Canadian marketplace today, including these fascinating "comparables:"
"Yet our firms [in Canada] are as large as many of those in the AmLaw 100. Even assuming Canadian law firms bill 20 per cent less than their American counterparts, it’s likely a number of the biggest firms have revenues upwards of $400 million. Those figures would put them in the 300th position in terms of the largest companies trading on the TSX, just behind Tim Hortons and ahead of Torstar Corp., JDS Uniphase Corp., and most income trusts. Or it places them as the 184th largest private company, ahead of Citibank Canada, but behind Rockwell Automation.
"With operations like that, I agree with MacEwen that professional management is only a stone’s throw away. We’re already seeing it in the way law firms have built out their support structures like IT, marketing, and human resources. Better management practices are essential to manage such growing operations."
All in all, Canada is in many ways a microcosm of the US: The same span of multiple time-zones, the same multi-metropolitan area centers of activity and influence (as contrasted with, say, the UK, where London is the beginning, middle, and end of the story).
How our north-of-the-border comrades evolve will be fascinating to watch.
