Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m O C T O B E R 2 0 1 6 39 "The podcast has got us into a lot of rooms that I don't think we would have been able to get into otherwise," Dhir adds. "For myself, it's been great to real- ize that everyone goes through struggles at one time or another. The best part is learning how they overcame them, and then trying to apply those lessons to your own daily life." Even for senior lawyers, it's impossible to overestimate the networking value of running your own podcast. Peter Aprile, the principal at Toronto tax boutique Counter Tax Lawyers, recently realized a longstanding ambition when he and co-host Natalie Worsfold spoke with leg- endary entrepreneur Seth Godin for their new podcast Building NewLaw, focusing on lawyers and legal technologists who are finding new ways to drag the profession into the future. "We wanted to connect with like- minded people creating interesting legal practices and tools," Aprile says. "Peo- ple take it as a compliment when you tell them that you're interested in what they're doing and you'd like to talk to them about it." The Building NewLaw team doesn't do things by half, developing a mar- keting campaign to coincide with the launch of the podcast in the spring and kitting out the boardroom studio with some state-of-the-art equipment. Aprile has already developed an interactive spinoff idea, Ask BNL, where listeners are invited to record their questions and comments for the hosts' response. Fitting the project around a busy practice can be a challenge, though, and Aprile says he tries not to track just how many hours he has put into the podcast. "It's way more work than I expected it to be. My wife asked me recently if I had started another business without telling her. I honestly didn't mean to, but I'm sure she'll be a lot happier once all the podcast money starts rolling in," he jokes. "I'd be lying if I said there weren't some days when I ask myself if it's all too much work, but then someone will come up to you at a conference or Tweet to tell you they were listening to an episode and found the solution they were looking for. When you connect people in that way, it gives you the motivation and inspira- tion to get out there and make another episode." And the dedication pays off in the final product, which sounds as slick as any radio show. "We are not professional podcasters, but we try to bring the same level of quality to our production that we do to our legal work. Everything is vetted to make sure what we're putting out is of the highest possible quality," Aprile says. "One thing you have to nail above all is audio quality. Obviously, it's important that your content is valuable and inter- esting, but if it the sound quality is poor, nobody is going to hear it because they're going to switch off." Quality is key, too, for Kyle Ereaux, even though he describes his podcast Sui Generis as a "hobby on the side" of his legal practice at Halifax maritime law spe- cialists Metcalf and Company. "I just wanted to make something that would try to explain Canadian law in an interesting and relevant way that is tai- lored to non-lawyers," Ereaux says. Inspired by architecture show 99% Invisible, one of the most popular pod- casts in the world, Ereaux pays great attention to getting his own atmospheric musical score right, and his words in every show are tightly scripted. "I want it to be good enough that people will want to listen," he says. "I had no experience in this area before I started, so I think any lawyer who has an idea for a show could make their own podcast." Lawyers and faculty tackle a wide range of legal subject matter on this bilingual podcast The Law School Show Savvy law students go here for on-campus-interview advice from the people who conduct them and former students who survived the process. In Episode 67, podcast co-founders Rishi Dhir and Chris Deschenes also unload priceless insights as part of their post-articling debrief McGill Law Journal Podcast Sui Generis Heavy on production values, Kyle Ereaux's podcast offers something different from your typical conversational podcast. Try episode 3 to hear the fascinating story of a wartime shipping disaster that changed maritime law forever Welcome to the Food Court Glenford Jameson's food law podcast gives him the chance to "dig deep" with interesting people on subjects that don't get much attention elsewhere. Episode 3 with seed security expert Aabir Dey had so much good stuff in it, he had to split it into two segments. "It's hard to draw a direct line between the podcasts and new business, but when you have new clients coming in and saying they feel like they already know you, that's a great feeling." Suzana Popovic-Montag, Hull and Hull LLP

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