Collins Barrow Lawyers Alert is also published in PDF format.
- Business Development and the Comfortable Chair
- Why Are You Growing?
- Social Media and New Business Opportunities
- Is it Really a Gift? The Ontario Court of Appeal's Decision In McNamee v. McNamee
- Tech Central: Privacy for Text Messaging
Business Development and the Comfortable Chair
You've worked long and hard to earn your comfortable chair. It is probably so well made that you can sit in it for the entire day. Clients probably like it. Maybe your staff does too.
But that chair is your enemy when it comes to the bottom line. It conspires to enfold you, thereby insulating you from both current and prospective clients. It has you thinking and planning and doing existing client work way too much – and generating business way too little.
Why Are You Growing?
Mergers are tactics that should support a law firm’s strategy. But some firms fall into the trap of using mergers as a substitute for strategy. Before you grow your firm, make sure you know what you hope to achieve.
What do you think of when you read the phrase “a large law firm”? What type of law firm comes to mind? How many lawyers does it have? In how many jurisdictions is it located? What is its annual turnover? How you answer these questions will vary according to your own market and how that market has shaped your expectations around size.
Social Media and New Business Opportunities
As the legal industry becomes increasingly competitive, legal service providers must expand outside their comfort zones and take a more aggressive – and smarter – approach to marketing. While traditional media relations, websites, advertisements and brochures have become standard components of a firm’s marketing plan, many legal professionals are slow to incorporate one of the most dynamic and cost-effective tools available to them – social media.
Social media encompasses a large array of sites, each with its own functionality, terms and audience. The great unifier for these sites is the social element. Each functions as its own independent community, often with various user-created subcommunities that overlap and intertwine to create a large-scale network.
Is it Really a Gift? The Ontario Court of Appeal's Decision In McNamee v. McNamee
In McNamee v. McNamee (2011 ONCA 533), the Ontario Court of Appeal considered whether common shares received pursuant to an estate freeze qualified as a gift and were thus exempt from a spouse’s net family property.
In 2003, Mr. McNamee, who was married, received common shares in a company pursuant to an estate freeze undertaken by his father. The estate freeze was implemented by the father to protect the assets of the company and to reduce income taxes on his death. The father transferred shares of the company to a holding company and then subscribed for common shares in the holding company. Those shares were then gifted equally to his two sons.
Tech Central: Privacy for Text Messaging
In late March, the Supreme Court of Canada released a decision that is proving to be a welcome reinforcement of the reasonable expectation of privacy for Canadians in their use of text messaging services.
In 2010, police in Owen Sound, Ontario, obtained a general warrant under the Criminal Code requiring telephone service provider Telus to turn over text messaging records of two of its subscribers who were under investigation. The warrant was granted at first instance, essentially treating text messages as subject to the general search and seizure rules under the Code. Telus appealed the matter all the way to the Supreme Court.
