Steve and I are very excited to be joining forces and combining our litigation and corporate-commercial practices. Gearing Law now has two practices under one umbrella and our website has been constructed to guide you easily to the type of service which is suitable for your situation.
We will use this space to tell you about what’s new and notable at our firm.
For our first post, I want to tell you a bit more about why I believe Gearing Law fills a much needed niche in the provision of corporate-commercial legal services. General counsel, in-house legal departments and companies with no in-house legal function are looking for cost effective alternatives to the big firm, one stop shopping approach. I know this from experience and it was the primary consideration as I considered how best to serve my clients in the next phase of my career.
When I joined Delta Hotels and Resorts, there was no legal department or in-house function. Reliance was placed on external legal counsel, primarily by big Bay Street firms. One of my key objectives was to reduce the amount spent on outside lawyers and bring as much of the legal work in house as possible. As we began to roll out and implement our strategic plan, I became involved in many projects, transactions, agreements and management duties.
At times it was quite challenging. I needed to delegate a portion of the legal work in order to meet timelines and internal client demands. But, I did not have the budget to outsource the work that had to get done to a big law firm or to hire another full time lawyer. I was also frustrated with the lack of accountability in some of the billing practices I encountered including an unwillingness to provide a solid estimate and the delivery of accounts that far exceeded any estimate provided.
I used to joke that I wished I could clone myself. I needed an experienced corporate commercial lawyer who could work closely with me to handle day to day operational matters as needed, handle overflow work and provide transaction support at a reasonable cost. This would free me up to work on large projects, transactions and strategic matters.
Our vision is simple: Gearing Law will provide high quality, responsive, as needed litigation and General Legal Counsel Services without the expense and overhead associated with traditional, large law firms. We listen to our clients and work directly with them to provide legal advice they can trust. Steve and I share a common vision of providing high quality legal services at substantially less cost than traditional law firm lawyers with comparable experience.
Contact us about how we can help.