Meritas® – 2023 Canadian Regional Meeting Recap

Last week marked the Meritas – 2023 Canadian Regional Meeting, bringing together lawyers from across the network’s Canadian firms. Hosted in Halifax, the meeting featured a series of workshops for both the Canadian Management Committee (CMC), as well as the Emerging Leaders Advisory Board (ELAB).

Boughton’s Luca Citton, and James Coady, K.C. attended the event on behalf of the firm and provided a quick recap on some highlights from the two-day event.

Generations of Lawyers
This year’s meeting focused on the CMC and ELAB groups from across Meritas’ Canadian firms, providing an opportunity for each group to meet among its cohorts, and then for discussions across the groups.

“This year’s Canadian Regional Meeting was really interesting,” says Luca Citton, president at Boughton, Meritas board member and chair of the CMC. “The sessions offered an opportunity for discussion and information sharing across generations of lawyers. Often times, management discussions can become a bit of an echo chamber, so this year’s approach offered input and perspective flowing both ways across these different generations of lawyers.”

Another key topic—across the generational divide—was the burgeoning AI industry.

Artificial Intelligence + Law
AI has been a hot topic across multiple industries over the last 12-months, with no slow down in sight. As such, it’s no surprise that it continues to be on lawyer’s minds as well.

“AI presents a potentially disruptive factor to traditional firm management, especially when it comes to how firm’s have historically trained and mentored young associates,” explains Citton. “In the past, a fresh associate would learn a great deal in their first few years from drafting and procedural, under the guidance of a senior lawyer. AI can now potentially do some of that ‘paper work’ faster, forcing firms to answer the question; ‘how do we shift our training and mentorship model?’.”

Whatever the impacts of AI, Citton is grateful for the opportunity to discuss topics like it with other firms across the country.

“Collaboration is one of the great things about Meritas,” says Citton. “The network not only allows us to support clients across jurisdictions, but it also allows us to have discussions—about pressing topic like AI—with a diverse set of peers. It gives us perspective, ideas and allows us to become thought-leaders in the legal space.”

To learn more about Meritas, click here.