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www.canadianlawyermag.com 17 In the 2022 Readers' Choice awards, Canadian Lawyer once again recognizes outstanding products and services related to the legal sector. From July 11 to August 5, Canadian Lawyer's research team surveyed the magazine's readers and gathered thousands of votes from them. The ballot consisted of categories encompassing areas such as ADR mediation chambers, financial services and consultation, legal research, legal technology, litigation support and consulting, recruiting, staffing and outsourcing, and real estate. In total, 567 product and service providers were listed on the ballot. Voters could also write-in any businesses not listed. The team has named the top three vote-getters in each category and listed them in alphabetical order. Categories with more than three winners indicate a tie. Canadian Lawyer thanks the participants for sharing their thoughts, which are presented in this special report. If you do not see your favourite business recognized, please be sure to vote next year. METHODOLOGY he also sees at more progressive law firms. "We're still driving financial performance, but in my case at BLG, we're using tech- nology as a real driver for change." While BLG still goes through the exercise of "bringing vendors in as part of a procure- ment exercise and testing their products," especially for big-ticket platforms, there is also a legal tech team that looks for inno- vative products. "These are the people who are really looking at solutions to particular legal issues that lawyers and paralegals have to deal with," Morris adds. And the criteria are tough. "When dealing with vendor products, everything has to support the idea of cloud first, digital first, mobility first," he says. "One of the first things we ask before we even look at a product is, 'Is it cloud? Will it support our iPad and mobile platforms?' On top of that, vendor support must be top- notch, with easy access to those who can troubleshoot problems for lawyers who, well, just want to be lawyering." The needs of law firms, big and small Andrew Bowyer, the founder of ADB Insights, says there's a "bifurcation" between larger firms and regional or smaller firms regarding vendors and legal technology. "You see the larger firms investing heavily in their innovation functions, including finding specialists to work in-house in different practice areas," says Bowyer, whose Toronto-based consulting company focuses on innovation in the professional services sector. It also puts together web- based conferences such as the Canadian Legal Innovation Forum (CANLIF). The most prominent manifestation of this trend "is the growing head count of these types of specialists that you're seeing at larger law firms, along with even creating substantial 'legal ops' departments." At the smaller firms, Bowyer notes the presence of more service providers solving pain points in areas such as family law and estate law. This has led to a lot of innova- tion, he says. "There's some really inter- esting things going on with the small firms when it comes to being creative and smart in their use of vendors." However, findings of a CANLIF law firm innovation survey done over the summer of 2022 among decision-makers at 20 leading firms with more than 100 employees revealed some challenges. Bowyer explains how the pandemic propelled the use of technology-driven solutions (video confer- encing, e-signature, and document manage- ment systems) and accelerated the use of collaboration tools (virtual data rooms and collaboration platforms). More than 85 percent of the firms surveyed had at least "You see the larger firms investing heavily in their innovation functions, including finding specialists to work in-house in different practice areas" Andrew Bowyer, ADB Insights 8th annual Canadian Lawyer Readers' Choice awards 2,212 votes from readers 38 subcategories within 7 categories