Canadian Lawyer InHouse

7 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE MARCH 2017 A roundup of legal department news and trends Simplex steps into Ontario I n-house boutique law fi rm Simplex Le- gal LLP is expanding its footprint east into the Ontario market, opening a new offi ce in Toronto. In January, co-founders Martine Boucher and Geoff Best announced the move, saying it is a response to the growing demand for the Calgary-based alternative fi rm's servic- es. Simplex also has an offi ce in Montreal. "We've been doing a lot of work for Ontario-based organizations under the na- tional mobility agreement. We have a strong expertise in fi nancial services and that's one area we get called about all the time, and we were getting more requests to send people to be onsite. That was really the trigger that it was time to cement the presence in On- tario," says Boucher. Simplex was founded in 2009 and has pri- marily been serving the Calgary and Mon- treal markets with 10 lawyers. Ashley McInnis, formerly business devel- opment manager with Gowling WLG in its Hamilton offi ce, is joining the fi rm as vice president of business development to aid in the Simplex expansion in Ontario. "A lot of companies will have their legal department in Ontario, B.C. or Alberta but don't have a department in Quebec. We can help them shepherd their way through that," she says. The short-term plan is to have 10 lawyers in the Simplex location in Ontario. "I think 50 lawyers in Canada is the sweet spot for us," Best says. "We're actively recruiting now. We're always diligent in matching the demand side and the supply side internally." Despite the downturn in the oil patch, Best says Simplex is "still busy in Alberta" and that the move east has more to do with expanding the business nationally. "Companies are actively looking at ways of de-bundling services and doing things with more fl exibility. The train didn't stop for us in Alberta, but having our foot in Com- mon Law Canada and Civil Law Canada has proven to be a real competitive highlight for us. Cross-border companies like that they can deal with us in every jurisdiction in Canada," he says. "It's a natural step for us," says Best. "It's obviously a critical mar- ket that we've been looking at for a long time and we've come to the stage where we have the critical mass and developed our systems enough to support us in a national way." Best says Simplex is seeing a spike in de- mand in a number of areas. "Covering an absence or parental leave will always be there, but we're seeing a growth area in smaller legal departments or single-person departments who see us as a safety valve," he says. "A one-person show can get overwhelmed very quickly, and when you think about things like compliance be- ing levied on companies it's only going one way. So we're a way for them to either focus on a transaction or event key to the company or throw us into different projects that might not get the attention at the time," he says. Boucher says as buyers of legal services, in-house lawyers are looking for different ways of doing things with greater value. "What we offer is in line with the move- ment that we see in a marketplace that is seeing a lot of the traditional work going from the law fi rms to in-house and we fi t at the junction of the traditional law fi rms and in-house," she says. Simplex also has plans to open an offi ce in British Columbia in June. IH house positions offering certain elements not offered in traditional law fi rm compen- sation schemes, such as pensions, benefi ts or other fi nancial incentives. "So long as you're not getting racial- ized lawyers as partners, you're similarly not really going to get racialized people in leadership roles and that also applies with women," says Chan. "Certainly, I think fi rms are making a concerted effort to try and increase representation in leadership and I think there have been attempts to get more women in senior roles. While women are still under-represented, there are still a larger pool of women to draw on for part- ners than there are racialized lawyers." Kate Broer, partner with Dentons Can- ada and a member of the CCDI's advisory committee, agrees with Chan that lawyers have a "broader range of options" other than the traditional path of private practice and many are moving into in-house roles or to other opportunities. The war on the billable hour may also be infl uencing who remains at the top of many law fi rms. Firms are generally taking on fewer students, and Broer says gone are the days of "guaranteed hire-backs." But times are changing and if fi rms are to retain certain talent and appeal to a new generation of clients that want to see great- er diversity of talent fi rms will have to bet- ter address the issue. She also points out that women are gain- ing voice at the top of some large fi rms. This year, Dentons Canada elected fi ve women to its board of 10 directors in Can- ada. That is an increase from two out of 10 in the previous year and in 2009 none of the members of the board were women. Although the CCDI tried to include Canada's 22 law schools in the survey to provide a comparison of students enrolled against the broader profession, the schools did not participate this year, although it was originally scheduled to be conducted this year. "My impression is there is a huge im- portance in getting that law school data," says Chan. "I know in speaking to deans at law schools they do see it as an issue and are working on it, but no law school has really been particularly open and transparent with respect to that other than programs they would already have in place." IH MARTINE BOUCHER

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