Toronto law firms can help answer your legal questions, facilitate your transaction (e.g. business, real estate, wills and estates, family, etc.) or even represent you in court.  To find a Toronto lawyer or law firm, go to Dynamic Lawyers and make a post.  It’s free and anonymous and Toronto lawyers and law firms will respond to you with information and quotes for you to compare.

Here are some of the different types of law that Toronto law firms can assist you in:

• Accidents and Injuries: Involved in an accident where you suffered personal injury?
• Business: Need corporate or commercial agreements? Need to have a lawyer help you do a transaction?
• Charities and Not-For-Profit: Need to establish a Not-For-Profit corporation or obtain charity status?
• Civil Litigation – Higher Court: Have a serious legal claim that needs to be litigated in the Superior Court, Divisional Court, etc.?
• Civil Litigation – Small Claims Court: Have a legal claim (e.g. breach of contract, negligence, etc.) for less than $10,000?
• Constitutional / Human Rights and Freedoms: Challenging a law or government action / inaction?
  Criminal: Charged with a criminal offence? Appealing a conviction?
• Employment and Labour: Need an employment agreement? Unjustly terminated? Need to know your rights?
• Family: Going through a separation or divorce? Fighting to get custody or access? Dealing with spousal and child support?
• Government: Need to lobby the government? Need to resolve a dispute with a government agency?
• Highway Traffic Tickets: Charged with speeding or DUI? Need to fight traffic tickets?
• Immigration: Need to immigrate to Canada? Fighting against deportation?
• Insurance: Having difficulties with your Insurance company?.
• Intellectual Property: Need to register a copyright or trademark? Need help with a patent?
• Landlord and Tenant: Need a resolve a dispute? Need to know your rights?.
• Notary Public / Commissioner: Need to notarize or commission your documents?
• Real Estate: Need someone to facilitate your residential or commercial purchase, sale, or lease?
• Tax: Need help structuring your tax affairs? Need help resolving tax disputes with the Canada Revenue Agency?
• Wills, Estates and Trusts: Need a will? Need to update your will? Find out why having an up-to-date will is a must.

Try to consult with a couple of Toronto law firms and Toronto attorneys until you’re comfortable with whom you’re speaking with.  Toronto law firms differ in size, location, expertise, and reputation.  Go to Dynamic Lawyers and save time and money finding the right Toronto law firms and Toronto attorneys who specialize in the legal area you require!

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Legal People?  Who are they and what are they capable of?

Well, here’s a short description of the more popular legal people that you’ve always wondered about but never really knew what it was all about:

Lawyer: A person who goes to school for a long time to get trained in analytical and legal reasoning. Lawyer services can be used for various legal issues – ranging from facilitating transactions (like buying or selling a home), representing parties in trial or administrative proceedings or providing answers to legal questions.  Lawyers are very good at reading, writing, researching, thinking, and speaking (both on their own behalf and on behalf of their clients).

Judge: A lawyer who acts in the capacity as a trier of fact/law and renders judgment in cases.  A judge is presumed to be impartial, neutral, and unbiased. They are supposed to conduct trials in a fair and efficient manner to all parties, and (in certain circumstances) weigh the evidence and assess the credibility of witnesses and their testimony.  If an accused is convicted in criminal court, a judge is also responsible for handing down a sentence i.e. prison term, monetary, etc.  In civil cases, a judge must determine what, if any, compensation, award, damages, declaration or other order is warranted in the circumstances.

Paralegal: Is not a lawyer.  In Ontario, they were only recently required to be licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada.  They are capable of representing parties in Small Claims Court matters (i.e. less than $10,000), minor criminal matters, adjudicative proceedings before Ontario or Federal boards and agencies, provincial highway traffic offences, and statutory accidents and benefits claims.  Paralegals are often found assisting lawyers with their files and typically work under their supervision.

Justice of the Peace (JP): Is an appointed official (sometimes elected, depending of the region) that deal with certain minor court-room matters, such as scheduling a date for trial, hearing and trying provincial offences, performing civil marriages, etc.  It is not necessary for a JP to have a formal education in law or to have been a lawyer (as is required to be a judge).

Notary Public: Is a public officer who performs non-litigious matters e.g. powers- of-attorney, administering oaths, verifying documents (passports), etc.  Notary Public’s do not necessary have to be lawyers, however lawyers qualify as notary republics so long as they fill in the application, pay the $150 (or whatever it costs) government fee, and get themselves an embosser (around $60 at Staples Business Depot).

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Before opening up my own practice, Carabash Law, I relied on Michael Porter’s 5 Forces Model (Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors) – which is used to assess the attractiveness of any given industry using five separate perspectives – to analyze the solo/small law firm industry in and around where I live.  Each of these 5 factors will be examined in turn.  This analysis also helped me to identify the key success factors for that industry (which I will discuss in the next blog).

1. Threats of New Entrants: Moderate
“The threat of entry into an industry depends on the barriers to entry that are present, coupled with the reaction from existing competitors that the entrant can expect. If barriers are high and/or the newcomer can expect sharp retaliation from entrenched competitors, the threat of entry is low” (source:  Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, p. 27). Factors affecting the threat of new entrants in the targeted law firm industry primarily include the fear of “hanging out one’s shingle” and “going it alone”, the lack of legal and business management skills, knowledge, and experience, necessary operating costs and capital expenditures on office equipment/layout and information technology systems (e.g. research, documentation, billing, etc.), and accessibility to new clients.

The threat of new entrants into the targeted law firm industry seems relatively low. To establish a law firm, lawyers need to be licensed member in good standing of the Law Society of Upper Canada (which required getting into and completing law school, passing the Bar Admissions tests, and articling for 10-months), which acts as a significant first barrier to entering the industry. Throughout their minimum 7 years of university studies, law students accumulate large student loans and debts, which may take years to repay. Furthermore, many articling students and lawyers do not have the sufficient legal research, writing, presentation, and inter-personal skills to effectively market their services to the public in a meaningful way.

Establishing and managing a business also involves risk, time, expenses, and patience – something many people may not be fortunate to have in their lives (e.g. they may have a mortgage, be married with kids, have car payments to make, etc.).

Indeed, establishing a new business – but perhaps even more so a legal business which involves regulatory oversight from the Law Society of Upper Canada – involves a lot of additional management considerations which lawyers may be unfamiliar with and scared of. Lawyers may not, for example, understand or properly execute organizational theory, supply chain management, information technology systems, human resources managing, advertising and promotion, accounting and finance – in other words, areas of business management which affect their clients’ and their own practice.

Start-up costs are relatively low. Such costs typically include rent, a computer with internet access, a telephone/fax and related services, business cards, and other stationary (e.g. letterhead, paper, pens, stapler, etc.).

A successful firm will also require a steady stream of clients – something which is not guaranteed. Accessibility to clients may depend on word of mouth advertising, a convenient location, being situated near target markets, etc. A new firm would also have to coerce clients of existing law firms to switch over – something they may be reluctant to do because of their affiliation and sense of loyalty to one particular lawyer/firm.

Another factor affecting the threat of new entrants is the accessibility that potential entrants would have to the necessary labour pool. This, however, is not likely to create a high barrier to entry because the availability of administrative staff seems to be in abundance.

Finally, given the fragmentation and diversity of the targeted legal industry, newcomers need not expect swift or sweeping retaliation from established competitors in the form of price wars and special promotions and programs.

2. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Moderately low
“Suppliers can exert bargaining power over participants in an industry by threatening to raise prices or reduce the quality of purchased goods and services. Powerful suppliers can thereby squeeze profitability out of an industry unable to recover cost increases in its own prices” (source: Porter, Michael E., “How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy” (Jul-Aug 1997), Harvard Business Review, p. 5). A supplier group is generally powerful if it is dominated by a few companies and is more concentrated than the industry it sells to.

The bargaining power of suppliers in the targeted law firm industry is moderately low. While some suppliers (e.g. of stationary) can be easily replaced with little transaction costs, other suppliers (e.g. application software, information management systems, research databases, etc.) can be difficult not to rely on. That being said, there are my alternative and sometimes free sources which can be used as a substitute to those suppliers. Moreover, suppliers of utilities (e.g. hydro, electricity, telephone, gas, internet, etc.), labour, and various services (e.g. cleaning, repair, vending, etc.) are generally either too small, widespread, or do not differentiate between this and other industries.

3. Bargaining Power of Buyers: Moderately low
“Buyers compete with the industry by forcing down prices, bargaining for higher quality or more services, and playing competitors against each other – all at the expense of industry profitability” (source: Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, p. 24) .

The bargaining power of buyers in the targeted law firm industry seems to be moderately low. Granted, lawyers do offer some services for which only they can deliver (e.g. representation before a court, public notary/commissioner for taking affidavits, etc.). Yet competitors such as other law firms, consulting companies, and paralegal firms can perform legal services but at a cheaper rate. Moreover, access to information through the internet may allow potential clients to engage in self-help (e.g. drafting a commercial agreement, registering a corporation, filing a divorce, etc.) or conduct their own legal research (e.g. www.canlii.org). These things being said, the firms in the targeted legal industry do not advertise their prices and individuals may not be able to distinguish one firm from another – ultimately hiring the first lawyer they find or are referred to. When it comes to promoting and protecting one’s legal rights and obligations, people may not be as open to shopping around because legal services may be seen as more than a commodity and more of a value-added service. Also, law firms impose relatively high switching costs (e.g. lawyers may demand payment for switching before handing the client’s file over to them) for clients who decide to take an active matter elsewhere before it is finally resolved.

Ultimately, buyers may not do as much shopping around for legal services as they might for retail products because of the lack of meaningful information available to them. Typically, clients hire a lawyer through word-of-mouth referrals, which means that they have little purchasing power.

4. Threat of Substitute Services: High
“Substitutes limit the potential returns of an industry by placing a ceiling on the prices firms in the industry can profitably charge. The more attractive the price-performance alternative offered by substitutes, the firmer the lid on industry profits” (source: Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors,p. 23).

The threat of substitute services is somewhat high: primary competitors can be found in thousands, while secondary competitors (such as consulting companies and paralegal firms) promote themselves for low-cost alternative legal services.

5. Intensity of Rivalry among Competitors: Low
“Rivalry among existing competitors takes the familiar form of jockeying for position – using tactics like price competition, advertising battles, product introductions, and increased customer service or warranties” (source: , p. 17).

The primary and secondary competitors generally have not distinguished themselves from one another and, as such, do not have an effective strategy. They do not seem, in their advertisements or other marketing communications materials, to understand or appreciate what the competition is doing to win clients over. And because they do not openly advertise their fees or offer warranties to compete, the intensity is relatively low. Given that most of the competitors can offer the same fitness classes and programs, they can only distinguish from one another based on price and non-price factors (e.g. quality of services, environment, brand image, etc.).

Michael Porter’s 5 Forces Model Conclusion
This 5 Forces analysis indicates that, overall, the attractiveness of the targeted law firm industry is considered moderately high. Despite the relatively low start up costs, low supplier and purchaser power, and low intensity among rivals, developing and managing a successful law firm has significantly high start-up costs which cannot be easily learned or accumulated.

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