“The Illusion of Innovation at Canadian Law Firms” – Research Paper by Aly R Háji

Full paper: Law Firm Innovation

“The legal profession in Canada is undergoing a paradigmatic shift in the way it relates to the civil justice system, clients and itself. Significant changes in technology, client sophistication and a general resistance to change have brought the tenuous viability and effectiveness of the traditional law firm business model into sharp relief. Compounding these issues is the lack of access to justice for the middle class; this has been recently acknowledged as a crisis in the civil justice system by the Supreme Court of Canada in the landmark case Hryniak v Mauldin. It is thus becoming increasingly clear, from a legal perspective and the perspective of business strategy that the traditional, corporate law firm must change and innovate to remain viable and serve the needs of their clients and the public at large. This paper attempts to determine, using a data based approach, the extent to which law firms have embraced an ethic of innovation and to what extent they would be receptive to innovation within their traditional business model”.

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Written by Aly R Háji, Hon.Bsc.Phm, BCL-LLB-MBA (McGill, 2017)

Written as Part of Advanced Topics in Management I – Independent MBA Study

Supervised by Prof. Karl J Moore, McGill University Faculty of Management

Mentorship Support and Guidance Provided by Mike Ross, Juniper