Canadian Lawyer

16 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 w w w . c a n a d i a n l a w y e r m a g . c o m T wo decades ago, e-commerce law was all the rage. The dot-com bubble was fully engaged and law magazines touted the rise of e-commerce lawyers. Law firms scrambled to create e-commerce practice groups. Fast forward 20 years. You are hard-pressed to find stand-alone e-commerce practice groups. Rather, the expertise is now tucked under the technology or corporate commercial group. It shows that practice areas come and go, as they always have in the busi- ness of law, as astute lawyers work to serve clients and capitalize on oppor- tunity. Follow the Money is about looking at the business side of law and F O L L O W T H E M O N E Y PRACTICE GROUP PROGNOSTICATION By Jim Middlemiss In his inaugural Follow the Money column, Jim Middlemiss predicts what areas of practice will be most lucrative in the coming years examining emerging trends and issues. If legal soothsayers could see into the future, what would prognosticators see as the next hot practice areas? I believe we have a legal crystal ball when it comes to the legal future. It's in the form of pending legislation, court rulings, shifting demographics and spotting emerging trends. The rise of powered vehicles, for example, paved the way for personal injury lawyers in the early part of the 20th century. Currently, law firms are busy building marijuana practices — today's e-commerce — but the impetus for that stemmed from a Supreme Court ruling almost 20 years ago allowing medical marijuana. So, what are the stars telling us about the next opportunity? Here are my predictions for eight growing practice areas. Health law will likely be a growth area thanks to demographics, better tech- nology, new laws and finite govern- ment resources. Canada now has more people over 65 than under 15 and we are living longer. That means more knee and hip replacements, aging issues such as Alzheim- ers and a new law that permits physician- assisted suicide. More and more Canadians will butt heads with a health system that won't be able to deliver services in a timely fashion. There will likely be an increasing demand for health-care advocates to fight for their rights and a rise in private health services. An aging population is only one aspect to health. Canada's infertility rate is rising. As many as 16 per cent of couples cannot have babies, almost double the 1992 rate. Expect reproductive rights to play a bigger role as more couples, both straight and gay, seek to have children. Leaps in reproduction technology, chang- es to laws governing surrogacy to accommo- date gay male couples and the willingness of some provinces to fund treatments will spur further growth. In vitro fertilization is now a global US$14- billion market and growing at 10 per cent a year, according to Grand View Research. These developments will increase the need for lawyers with experience in surrogacy and fertility agreements and will also likely spawn more negligence claims against fertility doc- tors and clinics, as well as fights over embryos in divorces and untimely deaths. @jimmiddlemiss O P I N I O N MATTHEW BILLINGTON 1.

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