Canadian Lawyer

April 2018

The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers

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w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m A P R I L 2 0 1 8 3 re accounting firms a threat to lawyers and law firms? In Canada, at least, the answer is not yet clear. As our cover story explores (p. 30), the Big Four accounting firms are still operating at the margins of the legal field in Canada. They have moved aggressively into some areas — tax, insolvency and immigra- tion — but not yet into the "bread and butter" of what the big Cana- dian law firms do. But that is not the full story — especially as we looked abroad to jurisdictions in Europe, where the accounting firms are offering services in areas such as corporate-commercial, finance, real estate, intellectual property, employment law and M&A. In fact, the Big Four now boast almost 9,000 lawyers practising law in their ranks. For some lawyers, the threat is overstated. Peter Lukasiewicz, CEO of Gowl- ing WLG (Canada) LLP, told us that, at least at the moment, "we don't see them as competitors," noting that his firm has a "strong business relationship with them." Shawn McReynolds, managing partner at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, told us that the best training ground in North America for top legal talent remains law firms and the Big Four would have to persuade "people who are suc- cessful and at the top of their game" to jump ship. He doesn't see that happening any time soon. But the focus on bespoke work from the top talent in the legal field may be missing the point. While these lawyers are correct that "bet-the-company" work is not the area in which accounting firms are initially going to compete, the "run- the-company" work is, as Jordan Furlong has argued. And once you start to run the company, all bets are off. It is not just about personnel but about processes, products and systems. And that is where the accounting firms excel. I recently attended the ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago and the keynote address, delivered by Daniel Katz, a legal entrepreneur and professor at Illinois Tech - Chi- cago Kent College of Law, argued that accounting firms are one of the four main threats to the status quo for the delivery of legal services. For Katz, accounting firms excel at "productized knowledge," which allows these firms to scale much more quickly than law firms and cross-sell their services. In other words, when you are already delivering corporate-commercial, finance, real estate, intellectual property, employment law and M&A services in Europe, you can easily transition to another jurisdiction by tweaking your technology and systems. Hiring the tal- ent could then be done fairly quickly. For law firms, with much more limited scale and little R&D to speak of, this transition may happen faster than they anticipate. They may want to start think- ing like an accounting firm, before the accounting firm starts thinking like them. E D I T O R ' S D E S K @canlawmag tim.wilbur@tr.com Director/Group Publisher: Karen Lorimer karen.lorimer@tr.com Managing Editor: Tim Wilbur tim.wilbur@tr.com Acting Associate Editor: Aidan Macnab aidan.macnab@tr.com Copy Editor: Patricia Cancilla Art Director: Bill Hunter Production Co-ordinator: Catherine Giles catherine.giles@tr.com Contributors: Jim Middlemiss, Shannon Kari, Jean Sorensen, donalee Moulton, Mark Cardwell, Geoff Ellwand, Marg. Bruineman, Jennifer Brown, Elizabeth Raymer, Alex Robinson Canadian Lawyer is published 11 times a year by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reprinted without written permission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Canadian Lawyer disclaims any warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the contents of this publication and disclaims all liability in respect of the results of any action taken or not taken in reliance upon information in this publication. Sales and Business Development Sales Manager: Paul Burton E-mail: paul.burton@tr.com Tel: 416-649-9928 Business Development Consultant: Ivan Ivanovitch E-mail: ivan.ivanovitch@tr.com Tel: 416-887-4300 Business Development Consultant: Kimberlee Pascoe E-mail: kimberlee.pascoe@tr.com Tel: 416-996-1739 Account Executive: Steffanie Munroe E-mail: steffanie.munroe@tr.com Tel: 416-315-5879 Canadian Lawyer Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. One Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto, ON. M1T 3V4 Tel: (416) 298-5141 Fax: (416) 649-7870 E-mail: cl.editor@tr.com Web: canadianlawyermag.com Linkedin: linkedin.com/groups/4917423 Twitter: @canlawmag Facebook: facebook.com/CanLawMag Publications Mail Agreement #40766500 ISSN 0703-2129 © 2018 HST Registration #R121349799 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESS TO: CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy RD., Toronto, ON. M1T 3V4 RETOURNER TOUTE CORRESPONDANCE NE POUVANT ÊTRE LIVRÉE AU CANADA AU SERVICE DES PUBLICATIONS One Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto, ON. M1T 3V4 Circulation/Address Changes/ Subscriptions Keith Fulford Tel: (416) 649-9585 Fax: (416) 649-7870 E-mail: keith.fulford@tr.com Subscription rates: Canada1 year print and digital $102 plus HST, 1 year digital only $99. Outside Canada 1 year print & digital $99 USD, 1 year digital only $99. For all circulation inquiries and address changes send a copy of your mailing label or labels along with your request in writing to Canadian Lawyer, One Corporate Plaza, 2075 Kennedy Rd., Toronto, ON. M1T 3V4 Beware of the Big Four By Tim Wilbur A

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