September 2025 (5-min read)

Recognition That Matters

Rethinking awards and how in-house leaders

are reshaping the profession

By Brett Colvin, CEO of Goodlawyer

A Season of Shifts

September is reset season: cool mornings, shorter days, and urgency in the air. It’s also the right time to ask who we really celebrate in law — and why.

Recognition matters. It shines a light on hard work and gives credit where it’s due. But too often the spotlight lingers outside, when the real story is inside.

Over the past decade, the center of gravity has shifted in-house. Budgets followed, teams scaled, and GCs stepped into the core of the business: running functions, closing global deals, shaping strategy.

That shift hasn’t made external counsel irrelevant. Far from it. As business grows more complex, the legal pie keeps expanding. But as billable rates climb, proportionally more work is staying in-house or moving to ALSPs. Add in the slow but steady adoption of legal tech, and companies have more ways than ever to get legal done (and less patience for business as usual).

The Cost of Misplaced Recognition

My inbox is full of emails telling me I’ve been “selected” for some award or list. Translation: wire £2,000 and they’ll slap my face in a magazine and ship me a plaque. And it’s not just the scams; even the prestigious awards miss the mark.

Take the Canadian General Counsel Awards. This year, 23 of 25 judges were Big Law partners. Smart people, but their vantage point favors what they know: big files, marquee firms, external spend. It tilts the spotlight outward, while the most important innovation and leadership is happening inside companies.

A GC once told me her proudest moment of the year was not closing a major deal. It was helping a junior lawyer find the confidence to present to the board for the first time. No magazine cover. No award nomination. Just mentorship that changes a career and strengthens a team.

The cost is not cosmetic, it’s cultural. And the danger is not that GCs go unrecognized; it’s that the lawyers proving legal can be better, faster, and closer to the business are not the ones held up as role models. When recognition points the wrong way, culture follows.

Leaders Who Inspire

That’s why we created the Future of Law Awards, alongside our Summit — recognition from the people who truly understand the role: other GCs. And yes, it will be a proper celebration.

On November 20 in Toronto, 75 of Canada’s leading in-house lawyers will gather to raise a glass to their peers at The Loft on King. The Loft has stood since 1844, more than 20 years before Confederation in 1867. Once home to the Conboy Carriage Co. and later the only shop outside Britain licensed to build Rolls-Royce auto bodies, it has always been a place of reinvention… the past inspiring the future.

Recognition matters. Because it shapes culture.

And the future of law will not be bought. 

It’ll be built.

Brett Colvin
CEO, Goodlawyer

Can't Spell Laith without AI

By Zak Biggs

Laith Sarhan has been on the frontlines of AI law — and now he’s helping define its future. He spoke with Zak Biggs about why ambiguity gets a bad rap and his favourite piece of tech. 

Zak Biggs: What experiences shaped your perspective on AI?

Laith Sarhan: Early on, I worked in healthtech, helping build AI tools for hospitals. I sat between engineers who needed data and execs who needed assurance. That’s where I learned that legal can’t just say no — we have to translate risk into action.

At TELUS, I saw what happens when AI scales enterprise-wide: millions of customers, legacy systems, and high expectations. That scale showed me the limits of traditional legal thinking. To be an AI lawyer, you need context, strategy, and a real grasp of how the tech works. 

ZB: What’s the most common mistake you see companies making when it comes to AI right now?

LS: Too many companies build first and try to sprinkle some privacy compliance on top later. But by then, it’s expensive, disruptive, and often forces you to rework core parts of your product. If privacy is baked in from day one, you can set yourself up to be a data-driven company, and that can be a competitive advantage. 

ZB: With regulation struggling to keep pace with AI, how should companies interpret legal ambiguity in this space?

LS: Ambiguity gets a bad rap. It allows for flexibility, which is good right now, because the regulations are less about enforcement and slapping violators on the wrists — they’re about shaping the behaviour of the builders as well as the customers.

When the rules are still forming, you get to help shape what “good” looks like. I like working in that grey area — helping clients spot the risks, yes, but also the opportunities. 

ZB: What’s it like to be a fractional lawyer at Cohere, Canada’s biggest AI business?

LS: Well, we still use Microsoft Word—so it’s not as glamorous as it sounds. But the difference is in the culture.

Cohere’s engineering and product teams are building at the edge of what’s possible, and that mindset extends to legal. We move fast, think creatively, and solve problems with the same energy as a product sprint. That gives legal room to lead, not just react.

ZB: As a self-described tech geek, what’s your favourite piece of tech that has nothing to do with law?

LS: The automation that triggers my robot vacuum to clean after my cats use the litter box. The most ridiculous — and the most satisfying — tech in my house.

Laith practices as fractional counsel on Goodlawyer, helping some of Canada’s fastest-growing AI companies navigate the collision of privacy, regulation, and business.

Connect with Laith on LinkedIn and join him at the Future of Law Summit on November 20.

LEGAL EVENTS

Canadian Legal Summit
(Toronto, Oct. 9)

Brett and Zak will be there, and Pauline Chan will be speaking! Let us know if you’ll be there.

ACC Annual Meeting

(Philadelphia, Oct. 19-22)

Counselwell Summit

(Toronto, Nov. 4)

Future of Law Summit

(Virtual, with in-person watch parties in Vancouver and Toronto, Nov. 20)

Future of Law Awards

(Toronto, Nov. 20)

Introducing the Future of Law Awards! A new way to celebrate in-house lawyers.

We created the Future of Law Awards to recognize the best work happening inside legal departments across Canada. No fluff. No pay-to-play. Just meaningful recognition from your peers.

Five awards, with one purpose – to spotlight in-house legal leaders making a difference.

• General Counsel of the Year

• Most Innovative Legal Team

• Emerging In-House Leader
  

• Community Builder of the Year

• Goodlawyer of the Year

👉 Nominate someone who’s quietly changing the game.

📅 Nominations close October 20.

🏅 Winners revealed November 20 at an in-person event in Toronto.

GOOD VIBES

Zak just added 16 more songs to Good Vibes, our playlist to lock in and vibe out. 

Listen on Spotify

BEFORE YOU GO

We’d love to hear from you.

What stood out in this issue? Are you planning to join any events this fall?

Have thoughts, ideas, or feedback? Just hit reply — we read every message.

Until next time,

— Brett & Zak

P.S. Know someone who’d get value from this? Forward it along — they can sign up here.