Canadian Lawyer

www.canadianlawyermag.com 9 Brian Temins is the new managing partner of Minden Gross LLP How do you plan to balance your practice with your new managing partner role? Our firm has always had the managing partner maintain a practice of law. So that's something I'm going to continue to do and look forward to doing so. Thankfully, there's a team around me, and we've got a really good business law group. So, I think I'll be a little bit more selective on some of the files that I get involved in going forward. But I'm certainly looking to continue to practice and grow the prac- tice that I have built up over time. Tell me about your evolution at Minden Gross, how you got to the role of managing partner from where you began? I joined Minden as a senior associate, and I was fortunate at the time to have a little bit of a book of business of my own. Within a couple of years, I was admitted to the partnership, and shortly thereafter, I started to chair the business law group, which I did so for 10 or 11 years, up until this summer. Once it was decided at the partnership level that I was going to step in and succeed Ray [Slattery] on the managing partner side, I ceded overseeing the business law department to one of my partners, Ryan Gelbart. A couple of years after I became a partner, I was on the compensation committee for a couple of years. And then, five years ago, I was elected to the executive committee. So that is the history of what I've done since I joined the firm and how I progressed through to the management opportunities. Do you have any priorities or plans as you start this new role? Will you be returning to the office or sticking to virtual? So, we are virtual, although not exclusively; we do have some folks in the office. Minden announced, a couple of weeks ago — a little before, I think, some of the other firms announced — our vaccination policy, which everyone needs to be fully vaccinated to attend the office, which I thought was a really important first step. So, folks that are attending the office know that we're always taking precautions, and we're doing everything we can to ensure that we've got a healthy and safe environment. And letting everybody know that everybody that may be around them is vaccinated — I think [this] is a really significant step. So right now, we are at a stage where those who wish to come to the office, provided that they're vaccinated, are welcome to do so. We will be moving at some point to encourage some attendance, although it's optional, and there [will] be plenty of flexibility to work from home environment and hybrid roles. And we anticipate[that] at some point down the road, we would have some required attendance — but it's always going to be flexible and allow for work from home and hybrid. But at some point down the road, we think we [will] have people in [the office] at some required level, whatever that may be. It won't be full-time. Privacy commissioner urges Ontario to adopt own private sector privacy law Ontario should proceed with its own private sector privacy legislation regardless of whether Canada pursues law reform, per the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. The commissioner said the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act is showing its age. The statute's supposed replacement, Bill C-11, is also not moving forward, following the announcement of a September federal election. Vaccination passports could cause issues for unvaccinated parents over child custody Custody issues could arise in family courts with the release of vaccination passports, says Laura Paris, associate at Shulman & Partners LLP. Russell Alexander, the founder of RIA Collab- orative Family Lawyers, says that lawyers have seen disputes ranging from parents not following agreements and using the virus as rationale to conflicts over social distancing and family vacations, and in- person or remote learning for children. OBA President focuses on connections between members Karen Perron, new president of the Ontario Bar Association, seeks to improve the connectivity of members across the province through her new initiative, OBA Link, and to increase equality, diversity and inclusion meaningfully. Perron says she will be "building" on the work of former OBA President Charlene Theodore's 10- year pledge to execute "demonstrable, systematic and sustainable change" for equality, diversity and inclusion. Q&A Brian Temins Managing Partner MINDEN GROSS LLP Former role » Head of Business Law Group Practice » Starting a business » Shareholder disputes » Private equity and venture capital » M&A » Emerging growth markets » Business and commercial agreements Notable Clients » Lynx Equity Ltd » The Shotgun Fund » FirePower Equity » Area One Farms' family of funds

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