WeirFoulds is delighted to announce that we have once again been recognized by our peers and colleagues as one of the top 10 Ontario regional law firms in Canadian Lawyer’s 2021 survey.
The law firms ranked this year have embraced the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and managed to survive, even thrive, in a legal world that has changed forever. Over the past year, we have rapidly deployed new technology at WeirFoulds, made work-at-home a reality for our staff, and found new ways to keep in touch with our clients. As part of their announcement, the Canadian Lawyer Magazine interviewed WeirFoulds Managing Partner Wayne Egan.
“They certainly didn’t teach us how to deal with this stuff in law school,” Wayne tells Canadian Lawyer Magazine. “Nobody was really ready for any of this, but we all learned to adapt pretty fast.”
When asked about the use of technology in legal proceedings, law firm leaders believe it will certainly cut down on much of the back-and-forth to court for brief appearances that Zoom, or other video means could handle.
“I’m especially talking about those short hearings that take about 10 minutes, but you have to travel to court, and then wait, and it takes up a lot of time,” says Wayne. “I can see using what we’ve learned about technology during COVID-19 to deal with many of the court backlogs that we’ve had for a long time.”
Wayne says that, although our firm noticed some drop-off in the municipal law practice and construction law, “it came roaring back” as the year went on. He says he noticed an uptick in estate and trust work as the pandemic “made more of [us] look inward, and we perhaps had more time to [look into] these things.”
Canadian Lawyer surveys senior lawyers and in-house counsel from across Canada, to assess Ontario’s full-service regional firms based on regional service coverage, client base, notable mandates, service excellence and expertise.
We thank our clients, colleagues and peers for once again recognizing us with this honour. Congratulations to all the other firms ranked in the survey this year.
Click here to read the full article in Canadian Lawyer Magazine, “Making it through a tough year: Top 10 Ontario Regional Firms for 2021”.
