The award show is Nov. 23, at the Liberty Grand in Toronto
Working behind the scenes to guide businesses through their major turning points, lawyers are often the unsung heroes of the corporate world, says Nicole Verkindt, a tech entrepreneur and the keynote speaker at Lexpert’s upcoming Rising Stars Awards.
Rising Stars honours the leading lawyers under 40 from law firms, in-house departments, and other practice areas. These are the people, says Verkindt, who help business leaders steer through acquisitions, partnerships, talent retention and incentivization, and other pivotal decisions.
“They don't get the credit that they always deserve. It's usually the CEOs of the companies that do a big capital raise, that get acquired… they get a lot of the credit. Whereas the lawyers, corporate lawyers, in particular, are just so ingrained in everything that has to happen behind the scenes in order to be successful in some of those big endeavours.”
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“Recognizing the young lawyers that are up and coming is really critical because they're going to be the ones at the forefront of our economy,” she says. “They're definitely the future of business.”
Rising Stars begins at 6 pm on Nov. 23 with a cocktail reception. The award-winning business journalist and host Amanda Lang will kick off the awards at 7:30 pm. The show runs until around 10:30 pm and is followed by a post-party celebration.
Event sponsors include Dye & Durham, LEAP, Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP, and Lexpert.
“We at LEAP are thrilled to help recognize the diverse, young, and gifted talent in the legal profession, who are ready to make a positive difference in the industry,” says Malcolm Muthulingum, CEO of LEAP Canada. “If I could add my own key words to the Lexpert Rising Stars awards, they would be: Inspired, energized, and motivated. We see the nominees inspired by the positive impact they have on people; how they are energized by the exciting new technologies helping to shape our industry, and motivated to offer the best solutions to their clients.”
“At LEAP, we’re excited to be a part of the Lexpert Rising Stars Awards and are proud to be a part of their journey to success.”
Verkindt founded OMX, an online supply chain data analytics company, in 2012. The platform helps companies locally source and manage their ESG and other sustainability metrics. In addition to being an active angel investor for dozens of early-stage technology businesses, she is the CEO of Buggy.ca, an online grocery delivery service. Startup Canada named Verkindt “Canada’s Woman Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2017, she is a frequent media commentator on business and technology and appeared as a Dragon on CBC’s Next Gen Den, a version of the Dragon’s Den focused on early-stage technology. Like the Lexpert Rising Stars, Verkindt was named one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40.
Verkindt’s keynote will focus on the future of ESGs – innovation in sustainability. With OMX and including her work with two supply chain technology businesses, she has extensive experience innovating in the ESG space. She has been thinking about the topic for the last decade, she says – how to execute on sustainability, how to use data, how to use AI, and how to use technology to track information. A frequent speaker, she is also pleased to be back doing in-person events.
“I'm really excited about it,” she says. “Just in the last year, everything's coming back in person, in general. These in-person events are just so different than talking to a screen on a webinar, which we all did for a couple of years.”
“The topic, obviously, is something that I'm interested in, and I've been very close to for a while.”
Register now before it is sold out.