Torys LLP Podcasts

AI use is accelerating within the legal industry, offering efficiencies that enable firms to scale up their service while streamlining costs. In this podcast, Torys partner and tax lawyer Scott Semer speaks with Michaël Hassan, Managing Director, General Counsel & Secretary of Sagard Holdings LP about the opportunities presented by generative AI, and how those changes will impact casework, clients, and lawyers alike.

AI’s ability to automate is transforming traditional workflows and transactions, but in this fast-paced era, it can be difficult to predict the full extent of AI’s influence on complex tasks such as due diligence and dealmaking. In this podcast, our New York tax partner Scott Semer is joined by Nick Kato, founder of Leo Berwick and co-founder of Elbe, to explore the impact of AI on professional services, and what the future holds for the role of dealmakers, lawyers and others in the professional services sector.

Torys Business Brief is a long-form podcast that focusses on key issues and actionable knowledge for businesses to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis resilient and well-positioned for the future. Each 30-minute episode features in-depth interviews with Torys lawyers, moderated by Munk Debates convener Rudyard Griffiths. These CPD-accredited episodes are available listen at torys.com/businessbrief.

Open banking was already a hot issue before COVID-19—and now with social distancing and a remote workforce, it has become more important than ever. Torys LLP Partner Joel Ramsey and Senior Associate Ronak Shah discuss open banking and dive into some of the key risks and rewards through the lens of a report from the federal government released earlier this year. Joel and Ronak also set out why there is a sense of underlying urgency as Canada looks to grow an economy that fosters and is focused on innovation. 

In this episode of Torys in 10, private equity partners Mike Akkawi and Guy Berman discuss some of the findings from PE Pulse, Torys’ private equity sentiment survey, the first survey of its kind in the Canadian market. In the podcast, the pair focus on two main takeaways from the survey, which took the opinions and market sentiments of over 100 private equity and pension fund players in Canada. 

The first takeaway is the large deal sizes the PE market saw in 2019 and the reported expectations that these deal sizes will stay the same or increase moving forward. The second is fundraising and how pension fund survey respondents said their allocation of private equity will either stay the same or increase throughout the year—this is in spite of the fact that many respondents said it was going to be more difficult to raise capital. Tune in for Mike and Guy’s full analysis on the survey.  

You can get all of the findings and commentary in PE Pulse here: https://www.torys.com/insights/publications/2020/02/pe-pulse-2020.

Music: Stratosphere - www.adamvitovsky.com.

If you’re a founder of a company ready for the first round of financing, how can you make your company attractive to the right investor? Partner in Torys LLP’s Emerging Companies and Venture Capital practice Kristine Di Bacco and Senior Associate Marko Trivun sit down and discuss two of the things investors are most interested in when assessing whether to deploy capital in a startup: intellectual property and team. 

In this episode you’ll hear the pair unpack these two topics as Marko draws out insights from Kristine from her years of experience advising companies at various stages of their life cycle from conception to sale or IPO.

Music: Stratosphere - www.adamvitovsky.com.

In this episode, Torys LLP litigation lawyers Andrew Bernstein and Yael Bienenstock dig into the trending issue of cooperative federalism. With the Supreme Court preparing to hear two politically charged cases set to test the limits of cooperative federalism this winter - the references from Saskatchewan and Ontario testing the constitutionality of the federal carbon tax legislation – Andrew and Yael talk through how and why cooperative federalism is being argued in this context, how the idea has evolved over time and the challenges it presents from a legal perspective. 

Music: Stratosphere - www.adamvitovsky.com.

Torys LLP Privacy Counsel Molly Reynolds and Associate Ronak Shah sit down to discuss the Digital Charter initiative which outlines proposals to modernize Canada’s privacy laws, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. The pair talk about the Charter's principles that will guide future policy making, how much substance there is behind them and what businesses can expect over the next few years.

Music: Stratosphere - www.adamvitovsky.com. 

Torys LLP Senior Counsel Brigitte Goulard and Senior Associate Eli Monas sit down and discuss some pertinent international developments in the financial consumer protection space and unpack what Canada could learn from these developments. Brigitte and Eli touch on topics like market conduct issues, the OECD's voluntary principles around financial consumer protection, and how the new consumer protection provisions of Canada's Bank Act align with these principles. Listen in to get all the details from Brigitte and Eli. 

Music: Stratosphere - www.adamvitovsky.com.

In this episode, Torys LLP Partner Lisa Talbot and Senior Associate Rebecca Wise discuss all you need to know about anonymous whistleblower tip lines and the role they can play in your business. The pair delve into whether businesses need a tip line and how to make the best use of one.

Music: Stratosphere - www.adamvitovsky.com.