On February 21, 1997 Richard Auger and I were called to the Bar of Ontario, making us lawyers!  This photo is outside Osgoode Hall in downtown Toronto, which houses the Court of Appeal for Ontario, just after the ceremony where we joined our profession.  I’m still not sure where I’m pulling him.

Richard and I were lucky.  We had articled at Bay Street (ie BIG LAW) firms and have both been offered jobs as associate lawyers.  Working in BIG LAW had some major advantages.  There was no shortage of work or clients for junior lawyers.  We were very busy.  We were surrounded by excellent lawyers.  We received top notch training.  We were very fortunate.

It was not long until after our call to the Bar that Rich and I realized that we both shared a long term goal of owning our own practice.  We were married a few months later in April 1997.  We had a very brief honeymoon because Richard was starting a trial.  We took a road trip through small town Ontario, talking about our plans and dream of opening a law firm in a community a little more accessible than Toronto.

One thing missing in BIG LAW for young lawyers is a real understanding of the business side of law.  We would record our time into a computer system.  However, we would rarely know how much of our time was actually billed to the clients or how much revenue we generated or even how much we “cost” the firm in terms of overhead and other expenses apart from our salaries.

After about 4 years at our respective big law firms, Rich and I both moved to smaller practices in Toronto.  My new firm had just gone through an upheaval where 75% of the lawyers left.  Business issues were front and centre.  I started to get a better sense of the scariness of running a law firm!  These smart lawyers had been practising for twenty years and were still worrying and angsting over meeting their pay roll.