Nominations are open for the 2024 Canadian Law Awards
Nominations are still open for the 2024 Canadian Law Awards, which celebrates and honours outstanding achievements in the Canadian legal profession.
Nominations will close on Feb. 2. The winners will be announced at the awards gala on May 9, 2024, at the Liberty Grand in Toronto.
Torys partner Karrin Powys-Lybbe has served on the Canadian Law Awards advisory board since 2019. She says the awards gala shines a light on significant accomplishments that are usually not given headline publicity, noting that 20 years ago, there were no awards such as these for legal work. Having participated in several nomination processes, Powys-Lybbe has been impressed with these lawyers' substantial impact on their clients and communities.
“These awards are an opportunity to celebrate very impactful… innovative, inspiring, outstanding work,” she says. “And to just pause for a moment to celebrate and honour people who've accomplished a lot.”
For Powys-Lybbe, a corporate lawyer who mainly advises public companies in corporate finance and M&A, teamwork is a primary theme of the awards because most of the awards are for teams. Even though lawyers are most often portrayed in media and literature as individuals, in reality, they are most impactful when working as part of a team, she says.
“Even for the individual awards, what we are looking at is the impact they have had on others… ‘Trailblazing’ implies that you are blazing a trail for someone. It isn't it isn't a solo effort.
“So, even in our individual awards, we're really focused on the impact on others… It is very much thinking about lawyers as part of a community and a team.”
Canadian Lawyer and Lexpert produce the Canadian Law Awards. Celebrating the most outstanding individuals, organizations, and achievements, there are just over 20 awards for deals, cases, in-house departments, law firms, lawyers, and initiatives.
Among them is the LEAP Legal Software Award for Best Use of Technology in a Law Firm.
"Through our partnership with Key Media, we're proud to play a role in recognizing the hard work, dedication and accomplishments of the individuals and firms who have made significant contributions to the legal profession in Canada," says Malcolm Muthulingum, CEO of LEAP Canada."
"The new LEAP Legal Software Award for Best Use of Technology in a Law Firm represents our commitment to investing in innovation and research so that our clients have the best possible experience," he says. "We wish all nominees the best of luck and look forward to celebrating with you at the Awards on May 9, 2024.”
Nominations must be submitted on the nomination page of the law awards website and should be concise and directly address specific category criteria. Once the submission deadline passes, the Canadian Law Awards team will research and draw on industry knowledge and information gained through Lexpert, Canadian Lawyer, and InHouse to identify the Excellence Awardees for each category.
The Canadian Law Awards team will announce the Excellence Awardees in March and April and will provide the independent panel of judges with the submissions of each Excellence Awardee. The judging panel will assess and score each submission according to the criteria for the applicable category, and the judges' scores are aggregated to produce a winner in each category. Winners will be announced and celebrated at the 2024 Canadian Law Awards.
