The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/1161314
www.lawtimesnews.com 29 INSIDER ACCOUNTING FIRM, TWO LAW FIRMS SIGN AFFILIATION Ontario-based independent legal firms Pearsall Marshall Halliwill & Seaton LLP and Ingenuity Counsel and accounting firm Baker Tilly Trillium LLP have launched their formal affiliation. Through the affiliation, Baker Tilly Trillium will provide corporate commercial, real estate, family, estates and U.S./ cross-border legal services. In addition to the financial services Baker Tilly Trillium provides, the legal services of the two law firms will be much more accessible to its clients, the firms say. "The legal services and accounting industries have long missed out on the opportunity to combine resources and client acquisition/management processes," said David Halliwill, managing partner of PMHS Law. Due to regulatory requirements, all legal services branches will remain separate entities from Baker Tilly Trillium, but the two consultancies will function (as allowed by industry regulation) as a joint group for the purposes of branding and marketing, resource management and provision of specialty client services."There is consistently an accounting component to the legal work we provide, and the opposite is true as well, which we were previously sending out-of-house," said Michael Kennedy, founder of Ingenuity Counsel. "Now, clients will neither have to explain the complexity of their joint legal/ accounting needs nor search on their own for the right experts to address them." LAMETTI SLAMS FORD'S LAO BUDGET In a letter addressed to Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey, Federal Justice Minister David Lametti said that the provincial government's "rejection of shared responsibility for legal aid is an 'excuse for spending cuts' that will leave many of the province's most vulnerable at greater risk," the Canadian Press reported. "It will perhaps come as no surprise that I strongly disagree with the path that Premier (Doug) Ford has chosen," Lametti wrote. AUVINEN CHAIRMAN OF MILLER THOMSON Miller Thomson LLP has elected E. Peter Auvinen as its chairman. He is a 30-year commercial litigation and insolvency practitioner, a two-term member of the firm's national executive committee and managing partner for the Greater Toronto Area. As the Nordic group leader, he provided strategic counsel to businesses in that region, as well as to their U.S.-based operations whose foreign investment strategies include expansion into Canada. He is also the Honorary Consul to the Government of Finland in the GTA. DA SILVA MAY BE REQUIRED TO STEP DOWN AS BENCHER Toronto lawyer Orlando Da Silva has said he will no longer serve on the board of the Law Society of Ontario after being appointed chief administrator of the Administrative Tribunal Support Service of Canada. Da Silva, who was elected as an LSO bencher in a competitive election in April, announced the change on social media. "I am disappointed to announce that as a result of my recent GIC appointment, I must resign as a Bencher of the LSO," Da Silva wrote. "It appears that it might be viewed as a conflict. My apologies to those who voted, supported, and encouraged me. I am deeply saddened." The statement of principles — a document that requires all Ontario lawyers to promote diversity and inclusion — will be debated this September, amid opposition from more than half of lawyers on the LSO's board. The law society said in an email to Law Times that Da Silva — a supporter of the statement of principles obligation — is expected to resign as a bencher after the September Convocation. LAILA PASZTI JOINS NORTON ROSE FULBRIGHT AS OF COUNSEL Laila Paszti has joined Norton Rose Fulbright LLP's Toronto office as of counsel. Before joining NRF in Canada, Paszti was part of a U.S,-based IP boutique law firm from 2012 to 2019. There, she advised on more than 25 major M&A transactions in Silicon Valley. "The Canadian tech sector has immense opportunities for innovators and investors," Paszti said in a LinkedIn post. "I am excited at the opportunity to work with my colleagues in the technology and innovations group at NRF in Toronto in delivering strategic legal advice in this sector." LEGAL CLINIC WORKERS JOIN ONTARIO PROFESSIONALS' UNION The employees of Willowdale Community Legal Services have unanimously voted to join the Society of United Professionals. By joining the union, they have allied with members from Legal Aid Ontario and the Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic in the campaign to stop legal aid cuts, the society said in a statement. "We're the people who deal with clients every day and are intimately involved in the running of the clinic. Unionization is a way for us to amplify our voice and ideas in clinic decision-making within the context of cuts," said Rola Hamdan, who has been a community legal worker at WCLS for more than 16 years. "We're looking forward to joining other members of the Society of United Professionals in advocating for a properly funded legal aid system."