Features Region: Canada

For Roch Vaillancourt, the whole thing felt surreal, even a little insane: trading a beautiful corner suite overlooking Lake Ontario’s boundless blue-gray waters, for a shared office half the size smack in the middle of a dusty construction site. Then again, the alternative had too much potential to pass up. Here, on a nondescript farm […]

The Department of No. If you’ve ever worked for a corporate legal division, or so much as shared the same building, chances are you’ve heard the adage—that backhanded nod to the legal function’s joyless, fundamentally defensive posture. Truth be told, no is a word Alice Davidson is more than happy to use. So long as […]

It was a high-stakes program that Deborah Greenberg’s employer was embarking upon last year, just prior to bringing her aboard as chief legal officer and corporate secretary of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC). With the backing of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada’s self-sustained national housing agency was committing to a 10-year, $40 billion […]

Catherine Ross had most bases covered in 1995 when preparing to interview at the Montreal law firm of Phillips & Vineberg for her post-graduate, pre-bar training, having just earned her degree from the University of Ottawa. For as Ross explains, she and her mother had gone shopping and bought a spiffy navy suit that called […]

“Like all first generation lawyers, my idea of what it meant to be a lawyer was shaped by popular culture,” Tim Hutzul says. But the reality—although more nuanced and interesting—would make bad TV, he adds with a laugh. Hutzul marvels at where the law has taken him and the opportunities it has presented. “My friends […]

Jackie Bennett may be young for a general counsel, but she got her start in the engineering industry at the far younger age of 10, so she’s never been one to let her freshness hold her back. Bennett’s father was an engineer and, as a kid, she spent her summers at the engineering firm, doing […]

When Brian Burke was a senior at Providence College and captain of the hockey team during the 1976-1977 season, his coach, Lou Lamoriello, called the driven, hard-nosed young man into his office and told him he had to take the upcoming Law School Admission Test. Though an excellent student who would be a Rhodes Scholar […]

Safety and efficiency do not always agree on construction sites, which is one of the reasons attorneys at OHL North America (NA) sometimes put on hardhats and give them a visit. “This is a tough business and all too often, you have the cover-my-ass type of mentality, but you have to create an environment that […]

Founded in the United Kingdom in 1918, what is now UBM plc is a business-to-business event planning and media company that works to connect businesses with targeted audiences through live events, press releases and other channels of communication. As head of legal for UBM Americas Inc. UBM plc’s business in North and South America, Michael […]