McCarthy Tétrault’s power of collaboration

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This is what real innovation looks like: Five business lines wholly dedicated to streamlined services that solve client needs with agility and creativity

IT IS NO secret that the demands on legal teams, whether in-house or outside counsel, are rapidly shifting in a time of intense disruption of market dynamics. Volatility is a notable quality of legal trends and regulatory schemes. In this new normal, clients crave innovative solutions to their legal problems. But they are often disappointed – according to analysis from Sharplegal Canada (Acritas), as many as 85 percent of Canadian clients don’t expect to see innovation from their law firms. While clients hope to be dazzled by innovative service, innovation looks different to different people. Is innovation just another way of describing new technology, or can innovation include more prosaic, albeit essential, matters like fee arrangements, advice, and multidisciplinary approaches? For McCarthy Tétrault, Canada’s oldest national law firm – with offices in Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Calgary, Vancouver, New York, and London, UK – the answer to that question is “yes.” McCarthy Tétrault as a firm has intentionally shifted away from the traditional law firm model with more focused and nimble strategic decision-making while promoting collaboration both within and across practices, industries, and markets. Taking this agility and adaptability to the next level is at the core of McCarthy Tétrault’s MT>Divisions. They take resources that have a different cost structure and combine them with efficient processes that heavily leverage technology.

McCarthy Tétrault LLP provides a broad range of legal services, providing strategic and industry-focused advice and solutions for Canadian and international interests. The firm has substantial presence in Canada’s major commercial centres as well as in New York City and London. Built on an integrated approach to the practice of law and delivery of innovative client services, the firm brings its legal talent, industry insight, and practice experience to help clients achieve the results that are important to them.

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“What is unique about the MT>Divisions is the versatility of ways in which clients are supported as well as the breadth of our client base, which includes in-house counsel, public sector organizations, and other law firms”

Susan Wortzman, MT>3

“These divisions are a key differentiator for the firm in the market, as their agility and cost-effectiveness enable us to meet our clients’ needs in innovative and non-traditional ways,” says Matthew Peters, national innovation leader at McCarthy Tétrault. “Our divisions are typically early adopters of new technology – often testing new tools and using them to streamline our processes so our clients can realize the benefits of automation. Even when a client hasn’t asked us about the MT>Divisions, we often feature them in our proposal submissions, and clients remark on them as being unique amongst the competition.” “It has been exciting to see the evolution and success of the MT>Divisions in the firm and our clients’ reaction to them and the unique value they create,” says Susan Wortzman, partner and founder of MT>3. “What is unique about the MT>Divisions is the versatility of ways in which clients are supported as well

as the breadth of our client base, which includes in-house counsel, public sector organizations, and other law firms. Collaborating with other law firms across Canada and the US to share our expertise offers them access to technology which is unaffordable for many firms. In the background, the MT>Divisions allow other law firms to scale.”

Each MT>Division has thrown out the traditional playbook and started from the ground up asking the question, “How can we deliver high-quality services in the most efficient way possible?” This means hiring programmers, AI experts, project managers, business analysts, and other resources not typically staffed in a law firm. It means building an entirely different, secure infrastructure for the MT>Divisions that is cloud-based and nimble. It means pricing in a way that passes that value to clients. It means different office space utilization.

“Innovation comes when we disrupt ourselves. We would rather replace our own traditional services that are being commoditized before somebody else replaces those services. That is what our clients expect us to do if we really are going to live up to the commitment that ‘clients come first’”

Matthew Peters, McCarthy Tétrault

A combination of corporate immigration lawyers and legal professionals make up MT>iplus. They leverage technology to deliver expert immigration solutions in a timely and cost-efficient manner. MT>Align likewise tailors their solutions to meet client needs. Through customizable legal staffing solutions and a talent pipeline not available to other similar providers, it supports short-term or temporary legal needs, often to cover leaves; to carry out non-strategic, non-core work; to help with regulatory or process-improvement projects; or to help the firm directly where they need specialized, cost-effective expertise on a matter. MT>Ventures offers cost-effective and market-driven services for a select group of startups who are admitted into the program. In this case, the goal is to provide high-value services at “break-even” cost – a unique approach that is intended to support this area of the market.

“The MT>Ventures model has allowed us to structure creative fee arrangements while supporting the client through its growth. We have supported corporate, commercial, regulatory, and employment matters. One of our clients decided not to hire a full-time GC as MT>Ventures was able to provide support as a key part of the team,” Peters explains. “Innovation comes when we disrupt ourselves,” says Peters. “We would rather replace our own traditional services that are being commoditized before somebody else replaces those services. That is what our clients expect us to do if we really are going to live up to the commitment that ‘clients come first.’” Answering the needs of clients shouldn’t be revolutionary. But doing it, and in a way that demonstrates tangible value – that’s where innovation comes to life. “The biggest difference between firms identified as innovative and those that are not is the firms’ lawyers. Our strategy has been to work with the firms’ lawyers to grow organically where we saw gaps in client needs. Whether through acquisitions or evolution, each MT>Division represents McCarthy Tétrault’s commitment to innovation,” explains Peters.

There’s an MT>Division for that

There's an MT>Division for that

Published 25 SEP 2023

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What is innovation?

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“Innovation” is what helps clients tackle their most pressing issues in a more effective, creative, or efficient manner

Innovation as defined by the client

Ethical approach

Consultancy

Creative advice

Fee arrangements

Multi- disciplinary approach

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Collaboration + co-creation

Legal technologies

Innovation in legal: Sharplegal Canada (Acritas, 2021)

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MT>3 is a team with extensive data management experience and a broad knowledge of electronic evidence that leverages machine learning and provides expert advice and guidance in e-discovery, due diligence, managed document review, information governance, and digital forensics. If MT>3 is about translating data into insights and evidence, MT>Version is about translation, too. It offers accurate, high-quality, low-cost, and fast-turnaround legal translation services, leveraging machine translation tools and streamlined processes at highly competitive rates.

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