How will AI affect you? Where can you make the most money? Are you burning out? Will the billable hour just die already? Plus other need-to-know info for legal practitioners.
See the full list: Canada’s Best Law Firms 2026
There’s no escaping artificial intelligence
But these three experts have vastly different views on what it means for lawyers.
I’m optimistic
Benjamin Alarie, professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and co-founder of Blue J (used by more than 3,000 firms across North America and the U.K.)
“The tools we’ve built at Blue J can take a research question that used to require 10 or 12 hours of work and generate a high-quality draft response in under 10 minutes. We focus on tax because it’s arguably the most complex area of law—tax professionals spend enormous amounts of time just figuring out what the law says before they even begin to apply it, and that’s where AI can help.
But what’s just as important is what happens next: Time saved gets reinvested. Lawyers can now dig deeper into alternate positions, explore different fact scenarios and spend more time advising clients—doing the high-value, judgment-based work they’re trained to do.
This also shifts the experience for junior professionals. In the past, new associates might get a complex assignment, nod along in the partner’s office, then sit down at their desks and panic. Now, they can start with a tool like Blue J, input the scenario, and get a plain-language overview of the key issues. Again, these tools aren’t replacing their work—they’re augmenting it and supporting their training.
AI doesn’t remove the need for judgment or experience; it enhances both. Steve Jobs once said the computer is a bicycle for the mind—I think generative AI is the next gear.”
It’s complicated
Amy Salyzyn, associate professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law
“AI could improve access to justice, free up lawyers to do more meaningful work, and make legal services more efficient and fair. But it could also be used recklessly, deepen existing inequalities, and put real pressure on systems that are already strained.
But we don’t have to just let this happen to us. When the pandemic hit, the courts adapted, lawyers adapted, and things that used to feel impossible—like remote hearings—suddenly became standard. There was a kind of forced innovation. This time, we need to be more deliberate.
From where I sit, teaching young lawyers, I think there’s a real opportunity. We’ve been offering a course on AI and the legal profession for a couple of years—one of the first of its kind in Canada. That kind of education is going to be essential. It’s also a chance for students to stand out. Firms are hiring people who know how to prompt effectively, how to evaluate AI-generated content and how to use these tools without over-relying on them. That kind of digital literacy is going to be valuable. But we also have to rethink how we train lawyers more broadly. If associates aren’t spending years doing document review or routine drafting, then we need to focus on what they do need: strategic thinking, communication and ethical judgment.”
I’m concerned
Jordan Furlong, legal sector analyst and forecaster
“I often say that AI can feel like having a very bright, eager associate—one who can produce information and perspective nearly instantaneously, but whose work always needs to be checked, because they have a highly tenuous grasp of the word ‘fact.’ It can also act as something like a partner down the hall. You can throw an idea at it, and it’ll come back with vulnerabilities, offer angles you hadn’t considered and help you strengthen your reasoning.
So while I do think this is a moment of opportunity, it’s also one of serious risk, especially for new lawyers. The profession has long relied on firms to act as finishing schools, allowing articling students and associates to absorb the craft of law over time. But if law firms see AI as a way to handle that entry-level work, we could be facing a crisis of new lawyer unemployment or underemployment. Law societies, legal educators and bar admission programs need to move quickly, because you can’t necessarily count on firms to do the early-stage professional development anymore.
There’s also a real opportunity here to level up. But it won’t happen automatically. If you’re a law student or a new call, you need to take greater command of your career earlier. Don’t assume the profession will carry you forward. Because the ground is shifting—it already has.”
— As told to Liza Agrba
DEI isn’t dead (or at least it shouldn’t be)
With the ethos in the U.S. decidedly anti–diversity, equity and inclusion, it seems the chill has crept north—no one’s talking about DEI these days, a major departure from the non-stop crowing of just a few years ago.
McCarthy’s, for instance, paused its celebrated program for hiring Black and Indigenous lawyers, even though the big firms still have a long way to go when it comes to representing Canadians.
- 15.8% Average percentage of racialized lawyers—partners, associates and counsel—at 33 of the largest firms in Ontario, according to Blink Equity
- Firm with the highest percentage of racialized lawyers across the board: Blaney McMurtry 26.7%
- Firm with the lowest: Lerners (London) 6.2%
- 1% Percentage of racialized partners at Toronto’s 16 largest firms as of 2020, according to The Globe and Mail
Billable hours are not the only way
Some smaller firms are moving toward flat-fee services—and AI might hasten the shift
Three years ago, Saskatchewan lawyers Troy Baril and Chad Eggerman left the comfort of a national firm to found Procido LLP, where the meter doesn’t start running the moment a client picks up the phone. Instead of billing in six-minute increments, they offer flat project fees, fixed monthly fees or an annual subscription that covers a package of legal needs, from contract reviews to policy updates. Hourly billing is still an option, but it’s the exception.
Procido’s model is rare in Canada, but it reflects growing interest in breaking from the legal profession’s most durable and divisive invention: the billable hour, which dates back a century. Instead of vague invoices for “services rendered,” clients began demanding transparency. Firms responded by itemizing tasks by the hour. It was easy to calculate, easy to understand and quickly became shorthand for value: Higher rates meant seniority; more hours meant productivity.
Convenience helped make it nearly indestructible. As Toronto lawyer Peter Carayiannis once put it, “The billable hour is a zombie. We just can’t kill it.” Why? It’s extraordinarily profitable for partners, with all the risk borne by the client, since costs are hard to budget, estimates unreliable and surprises common. The result is “meter anxiety”—hesitation to call for advice in case the clock starts ticking. “It’s a lawyer-centric proxy for value,” says Jordan Furlong. “We use time because nobody really knows how to price the value of legal work.”
Lawyers do pay a price, though. Billable targets at large firms often exceed 1,800 hours a year, fuelling stress, burnout and attrition. Meanwhile, non-billable work—mentoring, training, adopting new technology—can get sidelined.
At Procido, the shift to flat fees means both steadier income and steadier work flows, which in turn means lawyers can take vacation, mentor younger colleagues and collaborate without obsessing over quotas. “We want real work-life balance for our people,” Baril says, “not just the boardroom talking-point version.”
For clients, flat fees mean predictable costs—which can broaden access to justice, says Karen Skinner, a former lawyer turned business strategist: “A small business owner can budget $500 a month and know they can call for help.”
Though change is still happening at the margins, AI may bring the billable-hour issue to a head. Tasks that once took hours—drafting agreements, reviewing documents—now take minutes. Under an hourly model, that efficiency erodes revenue. Skinner calls AI the “cricket bat” that might finally kill the zombie. “If something that used to take 10 hours now takes two, you can’t just bill for the lost eight. You have to rethink how you price.”
But Furlong says that firms may cling even harder to the billable hour for the advisory and relationship-driven work that remains. “The billable hour survives because we don’t have a good way to quantify value,” he says. “Ironically, AI may make that problem worse.”
– L.A.
Home is where the heart(ache) is
WFH is killing your career
Michael Cochrane, Counsel, Brauti Thorning LLP (Toronto)
“This is a no-brainer. How can sitting in sweatpants at your home office computer compete with rubbing shoulders with colleagues at the office? An example: Spontaneous sit-down by two lawyers (one senior, one a few years out) in a lawyer’s office to discuss a file, junior lawyer drops in to listen and chip in ideas, conversation turns to discussion of particular judges’ styles, then to previous case experiences, then to schools and family backgrounds, then back to file, then to travel experiences and then back to file. A 15-minute meeting turns into an hour. Outcome: Junior lawyer—now a more known quantity—will be doing next attendance on the file.”
WFH will save your firm
Sarah Dale-Harris, Senior in-house counsel, working with Axiom Law, currently seconded to a large tech firm (Ottawa)
“As a hiring manager, I found that I was able to attract the best talent for my team because they could work remotely. I wanted to recruit two people I’d worked with before, and there was no way we were going to get them into the office because the office was too far away. For me, it was about having the flexibility to hire the right people for the job.
I work like a crazy person at the best of times, so working a really demanding job and then having to commute is physically difficult. And if you have children, or you have aging parents, the flexibility of working remotely shouldn’t be underestimated. I know that people are paid to do a job, but giving people the flexibility to also live their lives enables them to give more to their work, to be present.”
— As told to Gail Cohen
The cost of law school—listed as the single largest barrier to entry for young lawyers on our Best Law Firms survey—varies wildly across the country (and roughly triples for international students).
A three-year law degree at the University of Saskatchewan, for instance, will cost you around $55,000, while both the University of Victoria and University of Windsor are relative bargains at less than $37,000.
Factor in the cost of books, housing and living expenses, and it’s not unusual for young lawyers to graduate with a six-figure debt, making it less likely they’ll pursue careers in legal aid, public interest law or small-town practice—fields already struggling to attract talent.
In response, law schools have expanded bursaries and loan relief programs, and have had some discussions around tuition caps. But for now, the price of entry still shuts out those without family wealth, Bay Street aspirations or a very high tolerance for debt.
Don’t feel guilty for burning out
A staggering number of lawyers suffer from depression and other mental illnesses. It doesn’t have to be this way
If you’re starting out in law, you’ve probably inherited a story about what it means to be a “real” lawyer: Sleep is a luxury (especially in your early years), your armour should never crack, and worth is measured in hours billed. It’s a powerful story, but it comes at a staggering cost.
A national study released in 2022 found that nearly 60% of legal professionals in Canada reported psychological distress. More than one-quarter showed symptoms of moderate to severe depression. Over one-third reported anxiety. One in four had contemplated suicide. Burnout affected more than 50%. Meanwhile, fewer than half sought help, and only one-third of those who had suicidal thoughts reached out for support.
Although we’re talking about mental health more than ever before, the structure of practice has only grown harsher: Billable-hour targets continue to rise, and smartphones and email have made the work day infinite. “Downtime is essential to everyone. Even a factory needs to shut down for maintenance,” says former Ontario chief justice George Strathy, who’s written extensively on mental health in law and how fear of being seen as weak is still the biggest barrier to care.
In law, Strathy says, rest has become something to feel guilty about, and the culture of invulnerability has been especially punishing for junior lawyers. Too often, they’re managed by people with little training in leadership and treated like resources to be squeezed rather than colleagues to be developed.
There are signs of progress. The Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University, for instance, has embedded wellness into its training. Its Student Vitality Program helps prospective lawyers develop “the skill of well-being”—comprised of resilience, self-awareness and self-compassion—and offers one-on-one wellness mentoring sessions. Progressive firms, likewise, are talking about health and support as part of their recruitment pitch—both because it attracts students and because losing burned-out associates is bad for business.
Strathy says the courts, meanwhile, can do their part by recognizing that the lawyer in front of them is probably juggling 50 other files and a family, not just the case of the day.
Still, culture doesn’t shift overnight. For the next generation, the challenge is refusing to accept “unwellness” as the price of admission—and pushing the profession toward something less likely to yield alarming industry-wide statistics.
– L.A.
No, you’re not the only one to fail the bar exam
The Law Society of Ontario says that in 2023, 78% of candidates (including JDs, LLDs and internationally trained students) successfully passed the barrister exam on their first try. For the solicitor exam, the pass rate was 71%. Which means that 22% and 29%, respectively, failed. (Just be happy you’re not in California, where only 45% of first-timers passed in February 2024.)
Trade chaos is a boon for lawyers
In the face of ongoing tariff threats, there’s no precedent for what’s happening on the trade front, so law firms are creating a new playbook to help clients navigate the new Canada-U.S. relationship.
Adam Lepofsky, president of RainMaker Group, a legal recruitment firm in Toronto, says the smart big firms are making a push in all the areas that “make Canada, Canada”—think energy, infrastructure and natural resources. The economy being what it is, insolvency and restructuring are hot, too; same goes for commercial litigation. Trade lawyers, obviously, are also in high demand.
As Cassels Brock & Blackwell partner Orlando Silva puts it: “The advice you give in the morning might be moot or stale by the afternoon. And then perhaps relevant again in a month—but only for a half a day. That’s how it’s going.”