Canadian Lawyer InHouse

JULY 2017 8 INHOUSE News Roundup A roundup of legal department news and trends The third and current phase is the stage of disruption in which technology takes on more of the tasks historically done by intel- ligent human lawyers. "On top of AI, I think a lot of the hype just now is unhelpfully overstating the short-term impact but is underestimating the long-term impact of these technolo - gies," he said. When it comes to the next generation of lawyers, Susskind says the question he asks law schools is: "How often have you had a talk from a general counsel or in-house counsel from a legal department?" Too of - ten, the answer is "never." Despite what many are preaching about the increasing capability of machines to do legal work, Susskind doesn't foresee a decade of unemployment for lawyers but rather one of "redeployment." "We can increasingly see — whether it be undertaking due diligence, document re - view litigation, drafting of documents, con- tract life cycle management, rudimentary legal research — that there are technology tools that if not yet quite replacing, playing at least a very strong role in taking out some of the costs," he said. That means in law firms and in-house le - gal departments it will be important to have legal technologists — those trained in both fields of law and technology — to know how to deploy the tools efficiently and effectively. Progressive lawyers in the future will be doing legal process analysis, legal project management, legal knowledge engineering and legal systems design, he said. When it comes to innovative law firms, Susskind said the best tend to be the ones where the leadership team is driving innova - tion or two or three individuals are producing compelling evidence to embrace innovation. "The most successful law firms are the ones who just get on with it — they stop talking about it and actually start experimenting — very much in the R&D spirit of consumer electronics and pharmaceutical industry where these businesses don't know where their income is coming from in five years time so they engage in R&D. We're seeing a small number of firms doing that," he said. However, for many firms not yet touched by a significant loss of business, it can be a tough argument to push. "By and large, with prosperous firms, I al - ways say it's hard to convince a room full of millionaires that they have a business model wrong. These are often very successful in- dividuals with a few years to run to retire- ment," he said. But until there is constant, relentless demand from the market, there won't be widespread innovation from law firms. "You won't move beyond what is tokenism in law firms where innovation is fairly piecemeal. You won't get through innovation until there is constant, relentless, informed, dis - cerning demand from the market," he said. While Susskind thinks there will be some more law firm mergers/consolidation, he said they would be better served by setting up new vehicles for delivery of legal services. "New competitors to the marketplace will be a very significant driver," he said. "One old law firm merging with another old law firm becomes one bigger old law firm. It's not the change that I and others would want. Rather than going for greater mass, I think we're interested in new service de - livery models and new ways of working." IH McCarthy's opens NY office to serve U.S. clients looking to do business in Canada M cCarthy Tétrault LLP is opening a New York deals office to support U.S. law firms, private equity and clients with Canadian legal matters. The office will practise Canadian law exclusively and be led by newly appointed managing partner Mark Adkins, a private equity, mergers and acquisitions lawyer originally from Winnipeg and more recently a partner with Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP. He has been a cross-border deal lawyer in New York for 15 years. "I'm really excited about it; it's just such a great opportunity and fun to build something here, which is really appealing to me," Adkins told Legal Feeds. "The idea is to have boots on the ground to service our U.S. clients who are doing business in Canada or buying Cana - dian businesses. The idea of having me down here permanently is to be the anchor for that strategy." The firm's clients in New York include private equity funds and similar financial organizations but also the New York international law firms that hire McCarthy's as Canadian counsel. "We have deep relationships with many significant Canadian clients looking to expand outward. Having a permanent presence in New York will allow us to further foster those relationships with either the access to capital there or the law firms there as well. We're hop - ing it will be a net benefit for clients in Canada even though we won't be doing U.S. work," says McCarthy's chief executive officer and partner Dave Leonard. "Mark is a terrific partner and has deep roots in the New York legal community," Leonard says. He adds that, "for quite some time," there has been "significant" northbound flow of capital into Canada and McCarthy's wants to capture a greater share of that work. Over the first quarter of the year, Leonard said there has been increased business activity in Canada and some is increased activity from the U.S. But the move to establish an office in New York is not a "short-term play" to try and capture what might happen over the next 12 to 18 months with the Trump administration. "I think people are still in a wait-and-see mode to see exactly what the administration is going to do and what the impact of that will be," says Leonard. McCarthy's has leased 2,800 square feet of space in an office tower on 46th Street be - tween 5th and 6th Avenue of New York City. There will initially be three people in the office including Adkins, an administrative support person and an associate who will also be a Canadian-trained lawyer. There are plans to grow to four or five people, potentially including a competition or tax partner. IH

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