CL Talk

CL Talk

CL Talk is the official podcast of Canadian Lawyer magazine. It will hear from leaders in the legal profession in Canada and beyond. Our editorial team interviews legal leaders about topical issues affecting lawyers from coast to coast.

Episodes

June 2, 2026 22 mins
Small and mid-size firms head into 2026 with one advantage their larger competitors can't easily match — the speed to adopt technology, keep what works, and drop what doesn't. In this episode, Tim Wilbur, managing editor of Canadian Lawyer, talks with Erin Cowling, CEO and founder of Flex Legal Network and a former Bay Street litigator, about what's actually changing for small firms and what just looks like noise. Cowling explains ...
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Matthew Peters, partner and national leader of transformation at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, joins Canadian Lawyer managing editor Tim Wilbur to talk about what AI adoption actually looks like inside one of Canada's largest law firms. Peters revisits predictions he made in a 2017 Canadian Lawyer cover story — and explains why his advice has changed. He walks through how the firm manages workflows across multiple AI platforms, the strate...
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Harvey Brownstone made history in March 1995 when he became the first openly gay judge in Canada. Twenty-six years later, he retired from the Ontario Court of Justice – and he's now free to say exactly what he thinks about the system he served. In this episode, Brownstone speaks with Canadian Lawyer managing editor Tim Wilbur about his new memoir, Without Prejudice: My Life as a Gay Judge (ECW Press, May 2026), tracing a life that ...
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In this episode of the Canadian Lawyer podcast, managing editor Tim Wilbur sits down with Paul Karvanis, former Stikeman Elliott and in-house counsel turned coach, speaker and author of The Successful Associate: From New Lawyer to Making Partner. Drawing on interviews with nearly 50 managing partners, talent leaders and senior lawyers, Karvanis lays out a “hierarchy” of associate success – from delivering quality work reliably, to ...
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Across Canada, deal activity is being reshaped by AI. Document review, drafting, and diligence are becoming faster and more standardized, but the stakes for clients have never been higher. In this environment, sophisticated buyers, investors, and founders are not paying for paperwork; they are paying for judgment. For corporate and securities practitioners, the real challenge is how to harness AI without losing sight of the human s...
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In this episode of Canadian Lawyer’s podcast, Frédéric Duguay, chief legal and information officer at the Canada Infrastructure Bank, speaks with managing editor Tim Wilbur about how the CIB’s expanding $45 billion capital envelope is reshaping its mandate and risk appetite. He explains why the bank is focusing on “enabling infrastructure” for housing, deepening Indigenous ownership through dedicated equity initiatives, and using c...
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In this episode of CL Talk, Canadian Lawyer managing editor Tim Wilbur sits down with Paul Saunders, chief strategy and innovation officer and partner at Stewart McKelvey, to examine how AI is reshaping junior lawyer training. Saunders explains why the automation of grunt work is eroding core skills, why firms must double down on hands-on mentoring and structured apprenticeships, and how law schools and employers should align on da...
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In this episode, Canadian Lawyer managing editor Tim Wilbur sits down with Professor Maura Grossman of the University of Waterloo and Osgoode Hall Law School to examine how artificial intelligence is reshaping the law of evidence. Grossman traces her path from early work using supervised machine learning to sift “millions and millions of emails” in e-discovery to today’s challenge of judges facing synthetic media that looks real bu...
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In this episode, Canadian Lawyer’s Tim Wilbur speaks with BC lawyer Rocky Kim, founder of Rocky Kim Law Corporation, about how he swapped a punishing Vancouver commute and traditional long-term leases for a Kelowna-based, flexible office model. Kim explains why he sees co-working space as infrastructure rather than a cost-saving hack, how mobile signing agents and short-term offices let his team meet clients where they are, and why...
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In this episode of CL Talk, Canadian Lawyer managing editor Tim Wilbur speaks with McMillan LLP CEO and managing partner Bruce Chapple and Legora CEO and co founder Max Junestrand about the firm’s decision to roll out Legora’s generative AI platform across the law firm. They unpack how the partnership came together, what “meeting lawyers where they are” looks like in practice, the early use cases in litigation, transactions and dra...
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Jason Ward, a former civil litigator who built a successful practice in Lindsay, Ontario, before leaving law due to alcoholism and THC dependency, joins managing editor Tim Wilbur to talk candidly about what happens when lawyers can no longer cope. Ward explains why stigma in the profession is often internalized rather than imposed, how billable-hour pressures and a “win–lose” culture fuel mental health crises, and why pausing prac...
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In this episode of CL Talk, Canadian Lawyer managing editor Tim Wilbur sits down with McCarthy Tétrault partner Pavan Jawanda to unpack a seismic shift in British Columbia’s gaming sector: First Nations moving from revenue-sharing arrangements to equity ownership and operational control of major casino assets. Jawanda, who has advised on the first seven First Nations casino M&A deals in BC, discusses how these transactions differ f...
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In this episode, managing editor Tim Wilbur sits down with Toronto criminal defence lawyer Joseph Neuberger, named one of Canadian Lawyer’s Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in 2025, for a candid conversation about his three decades on the front lines of sexual assault and domestic violence prosecutions. Neuberger discusses why he calls wrongful accusations a “hidden crisis,” how investigative tunnel vision and digital evidence pract...
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In this episode, managing editor Tim Wilbur speaks with Misha Benjamin, partner and co-lead of the technology and AI practice at BCF in Montreal, about why Canadian businesses are “tying themselves in knots” over AI risk while falling behind more aggressive competitors. Benjamin draws on his experience at Ubisoft, Element AI, McKinsey, and Sama to explain how one-size-fits-all AI governance, vague bans on “confidential information,...
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In this episode of CL Talk, managing editor Tim Wilbur speaks with Alexi co-founder and CEO Mark Doble about the risks law firms face as they rush to deploy AI. Doble explains why he believes traditional multi-tenant cloud tools have become “completely untenable” for serious legal work, argues that single-tenant private cloud environments are critical to protecting client data and law firm IP, and outlines how firms should divide o...
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In this episode, iGaming Ontario President and CEO Joseph Hillier discusses how Ontario has built a competitive online gambling market designed to draw players away from unregulated sites while maintaining strong safeguards in place. He traces his path from Bay Street to the Ministry of the Attorney General and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission, explaining how this mix of private practice, banking, and public service now shapes his...
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Toronto criminal defence lawyer Robert Kivlichan joins CL Talk to share how his addiction and severe panic attacks collided with a Law Society of Ontario spot audit and led to his suspension and a capacity investigation. He describes why he believes the LSO’s process can weaponize mental health disclosures, forcing lawyers to surrender sensitive medical information to non‑medical staff, even while they are in treatment. Kivlichan a...
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In this episode of CL Talk, recorded live at the Canadian Legal Summit, host Robert De Toni moderates a candid conversation with firm leaders Kurt Schlachter of Stringam, Jacqueline Dinsmore of Caravel Law and boutique founder Ashlee Froese on what it really takes to keep today’s lawyers. The panel delves into why younger lawyers are no longer motivated solely by partnership, how culture plans, “success plans,” and flexible budgets...
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Danielle Robitaille, Managing Partner of the Year at the 2025 Canadian Law Awards, sits down to discuss her path from litigator to firm leadership at Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP. She shares how her focus on mentorship, mental health support, and inclusive recruitment has shaped a thriving legal practice handling high-stakes litigation and white-collar investigations. From training partners on actionable feedback to pioneering d...
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In this episode, Tim Wilbur sits down with Canadian entrepreneur Jody Glidden, founder and CEO of Postilize, to discuss how artificial intelligence is changing client engagement in the legal sector. Glidden talks about the evolution from traditional CRM to proactive relationship management, the challenges law firms face with data, and how AI can help lawyers anticipate client needs and manage business development more efficiently. ...
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