Canadian Sub-Regional Members Stay in Touch – Quarterly

Born out of last year's Americas regional meeting in Vancouver, the Canadian sub-regional members made a decision to meet on a quarterly basis – by phone. And they have successfully met and developed a system that enables them to stay in regular contact, make effective use of the calls and derive the maximum benefit of their membership in LAW.

Stewart Wallace of Aylesworth LLP in Toronto organized the first call last year. According to Stewart, “We started these conference calls for continual contact, to not lose touch. By coincidence the Quebec member, Gagne, Letarte was in Toronto at the time, and they joined us in the call at our office. The calls let us know what firms are doing locally, not just in LAW.” The December call was organized by Paul Sharek of Emery Jamieson LLP in Edmonton, Alberta. The next call is scheduled in March in anticipation of the Americas regional meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina in April. The plan is to rotate responsibility for the calls among each Canadian member firm.

With large geographic distances to traverse and three-hour time differences for some of the offices, this new form of sub-regional networking enables all to participate without the expense and travel time necessary to meet with colleagues in a large country. The result has been that all offices have participated in all the calls, scheduled for one hour on Friday's at noon, which is 9 a.m. for the Vancouver members. An agenda is circulated prior to the calls.

In addition, to the usual LAW items, such as a review of the Luzern AGM for those who had not attended, discussions have included cross-marketing their clients, success stories and the state of their local economies. Of particular interest and greater help to them is the development of a Canadian sub-regional directory, containing detailed contact information and lawyer expertise that they print and keep on their desks for quick referral. They also established a protocol for making sure that all communications for contacting other firms includes copying the LAW contacts for the member firms in order to keep them informed of referral activity.

Paul Sharek of Emery Jamieson added, “It just illustrates that we are all colleagues, and it helps us get to know one another. It's a worthwhile exercise, and we have some laughs as well.”