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The top legal tech, service providers, and products are vital in the ongoing transformation of Canada’s $18.5 billion legal services market, which has steadily grown over the past five years and shows no signs of slowing down.
With a compound annual growth rate of 0.7 percent – including a 1.1 percent revenue increase in 2024 alone – Canadian Lawyer's Readers’ Choice award winners have much to celebrate as optimism rebounds after a challenging few years.
The latest data from Thomson Reuters Institute’s inaugural 2024 State of the Canadian Law Firm Market report, produced in partnership with the Canadian Bar Association, highlights the crucial role of the top legal vendors in helping firms reimagine how they work to stay competitive and ahead of industry standards.
Of the 330 lawyers surveyed at law firms of all sizes nationwide, the study discovered that 29 percent planned to boost their legal-specific technology investment in 2024, 22 percent cited leveraging technology to improve firm operations as a goal, and a majority anticipate maintaining their current investment levels.
“While it may be tempting to think that most of this investment will be spent on advanced technology, in reality, many firms must make such investments simply to catch up to what has become industry standard,” the analysis suggests.
The leading legal tech, service providers, and products are responding to this need by delivering innovative, tailored solutions that help law firms keep pace with evolving demands.
For the 10th annual Readers’ Choice awards, Canadian Lawyer’s research team surveyed readers for their insights into the most trusted third-party partners who are enhancing the law sector’s capacity to serve clients better.
From July 1 to 26, readers cast over 1,550 votes on 586 products and service providers, encompassing cloud-based practice management and e-discovery software, medico-legal expert witnesses, litigation funding, time and billing solutions, commercial real estate tenant representation, and practice area-specific software. The top three vote-getters in each category were declared winners, with ties reflected in some categories.
2024 Readers’ Choice awards for medico-legal expert witness, and personal injury damage quantification expert witness
As well-known and trusted frontline experts to the personal injury bar for 25 years, the top legal service provider has helped legal teams better anticipate future care and damage costs for injured clients.
Working with personal injury lawyers on both the plaintiff and defence sides, CBA’s certified life care planners provide thorough clinical assessments of injured parties and recommend life care plans for a reasonable quality of life.
Their ability to combine clinical expertise with in-depth insight into legal nuances enables them to stand out as experts in the niche area of cost projections, allowing them to deliver comprehensive, defensible life care plans and expert testimony.
“Many firms have strong clinicians, but we train our experts to navigate the complexities of the legal system, ensuring that their reports and testimony hold up under scrutiny in court,” says Alyssa Bierbrier, an occupational therapist and certified life care planner.
“To sustain this competitive edge, we invest heavily in continuous education, training, and peer review,” she adds. “Our team regularly attends clinical and legal seminars, and we foster a collaborative environment where experts share insights across disciplines.”
Collaboration and continuous education
Collaboration and clear communication are at the heart of how CBA works with legal teams. By keeping an open dialogue, expert witnesses can present their clinical findings in a way that aligns with the legal strategy. This constant communication also enables them to quickly address any clarifications or make adjustments early on, helping prevent potential issues. Their expertise has been called upon in various cases, from catastrophic injuries in motor vehicle accidents and medical malpractice to class action lawsuits.
The organization excels by:
ensuring all consultants are certified life care planners, some of whom have been with the company since its inception
prioritizing a collaborative approach, enabling the team to have a thorough understanding of crafting a detailed life care plan
When bringing aboard new life care planners, CBA prioritizes individuals with advanced clinical expertise in their respective fields and advanced knowledge of the required legal standards.
“A successful expert witness must bridge both worlds, offering clinical insights that can withstand legal scrutiny,” says Bierbrier.
CBA’s experts have the necessary certifications and training, including practical experience in life care planning and rehabilitation. Additionally, the organization provides ongoing education on legal processes and the responsibilities of serving as an expert witness.
“This balance between understanding the law and maintaining clinical excellence allows us to consistently deliver high-quality, defensible reports that meet the highest standards in the field,” she adds.
Over the past year, CBA has experienced business growth. As a result, its primary focus was on maintaining the high standard of service and expertise its clients rely on.
“A key challenge was managing the increasing demand for our services while ensuring that every case received the same level of attention and detail,” Bierbrier notes. “We addressed this by expanding our team of life care planners, investing in professional development, and streamlining internal processes to deliver timely, high-quality reports that meet every case’s legal and clinical needs.”
2024 Readers’ Choice awards for legal tech: cloud-based practice management software and practice-area specific software, family law
Recognized as an all-in-one productivity solution, LEAP Canada has redefined how law firms operate by centralizing key functions, bringing together document assembly, matter-based legal accounting, and comprehensive practice management in a single, cohesive platform.
“Our goal has always been to simplify legal work and maximize efficiency,” says Malcolm Muthulingum, CEO of LEAP Canada. “Traditionally, firms need multiple systems: one for accounting, another for document management, yet another for research and so on. LEAP brings it all together, including document automation, matter-based accounting, and full integration with Microsoft Office 365 and Power BI reporting.”
The all-in-one system has earned Readers’ Choice recognition for its standout features, including:
comprehensive legal practice management across all major areas of law
matter-based legal accounting with seamless trust reconciliation
document creation and management tailored to Canadian law, with court forms maintained specifically for family law across all common areas of law
mobile access via LEAP apps for both Apple and Android
LEAP’s innovative Matter AI feature allows users to quickly search case-specific data, create legal documents, and generate summaries, enabling firms to handle a higher caseload with less administrative burden.
Additionally, its LawY AI tool enhances legal research by providing jurisdiction-specific case law and statutes verified by local legal experts at no additional cost.
“While AI is a hot topic, LEAP has delivered real solutions,” Muthulingum adds. “Our commitment to responsible AI, backed by verification from practicing lawyers, distinguishes LEAP in the Canadian market.”
This year, LEAP’s partner, DivorceMate, was also recognized in the family law category, reinforcing LEAP’s position as a leader in family law technology. Together, the two top legal tech companies have elevated legal practice management for family law, significantly impacting client satisfaction and efficiency.
2024 Readers’ Choice awards for six legal tech and legal research products, including Practical Law Canada, eDiscovery Point, and Case Notebook
Thomson Reuters has been on a transformation journey, intensifying efforts on tech and talent investments that have propelled its operations from a holding company to a content-driven AI and technology company.
Over its 150-year-plus history, the organization has been leading in technology innovations and AI implementation space for decades, since first launching Westlaw in 1975. Generative AI (Gen AI) is the latest tech to enhance its legal products and build upon the premium content, editorial expertise, and performance the legal industry has come to expect.
“Our products offer two things that our customers need the most: authoritative, up-to-date content, and powerful technology that will get them to the answers and the resources they need faster,” says head of Canada, Rinaldo Huriptyo. “This enables customers to deliver better results to their clients or organizations and gives them peace of mind that their legal work product is thorough, accurate, and complete.”
That approach is underpinned by trust, transparency, and security. Notably, a common thread across all its products is the trusted and authoritative content from hundreds of dedicated lawyer editors across the globe, who maintain and update Westlaw content and author its gold-standard Practical Law resources.
Today, Thomson Reuters combines a powerful and unique combination of data, human expertise, and cutting-edge technology, strengthened by:
industry-leading content assets, editorially enhanced to be usable by both humans and AI systems
decades of AI and machine learning expertise from its1,000-plus data scientists and AI and machine learning experts
a Gen AI development platform to design, build and deploy Gen AI products
human expertise in the legal domain from its editorial team
The recent launch of Westlaw Edge Canada with CoCounsel, featuring AI-assisted research, uses cutting-edge technology from the quickly changing area of Gen AI. With this tool, the Readers’ Choice stalwart showcases its ability to combine editorial excellence with technology to make customers more efficient and better able to serve their clients.
Practical Law recently launched Reference Knowledge Map, mainly driven by insights on customers’ needs, with more innovations planned for 2025.
One insight Thomson Reuters has heard from customers repeatedly is that its content is unmatched, a driving factor for why they choose the company as their legal solutions provider.
“Our customers remain at the heart of Westlaw and Practical Law features and enhancements,” Huriptyo reflects. “We partner regularly with customers to help us prioritize our product roadmaps, refine feature builds, and determine best approaches to launch enhancements.”
This customer-centric approach includes features such as Practical Law Canada’s ‘What are you Working on?, which enables users to contact the company directly as they seek resources on particular topics.
This feedback influences content priorities, such as its recent authorship of Generative AI in the Workplace policy standard document. With the transformational leaps forward with Gen AI, Thomson Reuters has amplified its expertise in ways that will change how its customers work.
Huriptyo adds,“Customer feedback is a key driver for us, and it will inform even more enhancements, features, and integrations that will roll out in 2025.”
As highlighted by other leading legal tech winners, Huriptyo notes that Canada’s legal sector is often understandably cautious when adopting new technologies.
“Legal professionals need to be confident they are providing the right guidance to their clients and protecting their confidential information,” he shares. “This is where customer collaboration is most important. We work with customers to understand their pain points and how technology can enable them to work smarter, deliver better client service, and get better answers.”
The award-winning team undertakes discussions with customers on tech trends and how they will change the legal research landscape. It also fosters collaboration, enabling users to shape the future of the tools and features it is building.
To ensure that customer needs and standards are met, it rigorously tests all enhancements while prioritizing security and privacy in using data throughout its product development, design, and deployment.
Annually, Canadian Lawyer recognizes outstanding products and services related to the legal sector. From July 1 to 26, Canadian Lawyer’s research team surveyed readers on 586 products and service providers encompassing areas such as ADR mediation chambers, financial services and consultation, legal research, legal technology, litigation support and consulting, recruiting, staffing and outsourcing, and real estate.
The top three vote-getters in each category are listed in alphabetical order. Categories with more than three winners indicate a tie.
