TLA offers advice for lawyers thinking of starting their own firm

By Tony Poland, LegalMatters Staff • Time is running out for lawyers looking to strike out on their own to register for a Toronto Lawyers Association (TLA) online program filled with tips and experienced advice on starting a law firm.

What Law School Didn’t Teach You: Starting Your Own Law Firm, begins Sept. 29 with Part 2 on Oct. 13, offering insight from lawyers who have found success after opening their own offices, says TLA executive director/library director Joan Rataic-Lang.

“We have done this program before and received really good reviews,” she says. “We’re doing something a little bit different this time and replaying last year’s program just because it was such a good presentation.

‘It’s a different way of doing things’

“We are bringing back the five speakers for a live Q&A at the end of the recording. It’s a different way of doing things but we just thought the program was so informative that we wanted to encourage more people to view it,” Rataic-Lang tells LegalMattersCanada.ca. 

She says the Zoom program, running from 5:15 to 6:30 p.m. both days, will include panellists Areta Lloyd of Dickson Appell LLP; Jeffrey E. Feiner, Corman Feiner LLP; Roselyn T. Pecus, Roselyn T. Pecus Professional Corporation; and Leslie Vine of Vine & Associates. The program is moderated by Marcus B. Snowden, Snowden Law Professional Corporation.

Part 1 will examine:

• Essentials when starting out;
• Gaining financial literacy; 
• Pricing yourself; 
• Specialization: should you or shouldn’t you?; and 
• Choosing which experts/staff you need immediately. 

Part 2 of the program includes: 

• Building your practice;
• Long-term view – defining your goal(s) and being flexible;
• Building a network – and working it; 
• Recognizing when you’ve reached a benchmark and managing growth;
• Common pitfalls and how to avoid them; 
• Maintaining your administrative responsibilities with the Law Society and the CRA; 
• Communication with clients;
• Fear of failure/fear of success; and 
• Loneliness – how to avoid isolation. 

More people than ever starting their own firms

“We have been running this program for a number of years and each year we get different speakers and a different slant on it and it’s always popular,” says Rataic-Lang. “More people than ever are starting their own firms so this is a good program for them. 

“We have someone who’s had her own practice for about 30 years and someone who set out more recently, lawyers with different experience as sole practitioners. They bring their entire history with them,” she adds. “What makes this program so rich is their comments and answers to questions.”

Each program is eligible for 75 minutes of professionalism content. For registration, click here.

She says Preparing & Presenting Bail Hearings is also a session criminal lawyers should check out on Oct 5.

Highlights include: 

• the client and the special considerations that go into communicating with them prior to bail; 
• preparing sureties; 
• negotiating a consent release with the Crown; 
• running a bail hearing; and
• COVID-19 and how that has impacted the bail court as well as access to justice.

Rataic-Lang says speaker Sayeh Hassan is an experienced criminal defence lawyer and Charter litigator and author of the newly published book A Practitioner’s Guide to Preparing and Presenting Bail Hearings. Henna Parmar, staff lawyer with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, will be the moderator.

The Zoom program is free for members and friends (it doesn’t cost anything to become a friend) and runs from 1 to 2 p.m. For registration, click here.

Association will be offering number of interesting programs

Rataic-Lang says the Association will be offering a number of interesting programs this fall including its semi-annual Powerful Speaking Skills for Lawyers .

“We do it every spring and every fall, it is always very well-reviewed,” she says. “It’s a commitment to a series of three programs although people can just sign up for as many as they want.”

For a full list of upcoming educational programs and events, click here.

Rataic-Lang also put out a reminder that the Oct. 18 deadline for nominations for the TLA’s  Honsberger and Emerging Excellence awards is just around the corner. Nominees do not have to be Association members.

The Honsberger Award is presented to a mid-career Toronto lawyer or Toronto organization in recognition of a single unique accomplishment or ongoing contributions to the legal community and the community at large, exemplifying the TLA’s three pillars of knowledge, advocacy and community

The Emerging Excellence Award is given to a Toronto lawyer in practice for 10 years or less or a Toronto organization in existence for 10 years or less who/that exemplifies leadership or innovation in advancing the TLA’s three pillars of knowledge, advocacy and community.

The honours, along with the Award of Distinction, which is voted on by the TLA’s board of directors, will be presented at the Association’s annual gala on March 2, 2022.

More from the Toronto Lawyers Association:

TLA calls for reversal of funding cuts to ‘hugely important’ libraries