New Day, New Way

My 2022 year-ender is a collection of legal market strategy think pieces, commentaries, interviews and webinars emphasizing New Day, New Way.

One commentary features my repositioned and rebranded practice that was announced along with this new website on September 7. The other is a remembrance of my personal connection to Queen Elizabeth II, who died the following day.

The death of a Monarch who was a paragon of public service touched me immensely and The Queen’s Fish, the story of when our lives crossed, literally wrote itself in 40 minutes. After posting it here, submitting it to The Globe and Mail was an afterthought. That it appeared in The Globe a few days later was an honour.

As for my legal market strategy work, thoughts and analyses, thank you for your interest and following me. This has been another peculiar and challenging year for many of us. And while my opinion columns, blog posts, media quotes, and webinar participation have run somewhat parallel to the narrative arc of world events during 2022, they all lean toward the future as do I.

To that end, it should come as no surprise that I reinvented myself this year in order to meet the future more than halfway. This is why my mantra is “New Day, New Way” and the proof is below.

Columns and Posts

Media, Speaking and Chairing

With respect to media appearances, speaking, and chairing engagements, my sincere thanks to:

Gail Cohen for including my comments on circumstances when a rebrand is warranted in her Law.com article, Post-COVID Rebrand Reflects Regional Canadian Firm’s Commitment to Clients’ Growth, Internal Pride

Angela Cao who invited me to speak to the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Section of the Canadian Bar Association of British Columbia on Digital Legal Marketing. 

Canadian Bar Association for inviting me to be a panelist for Modern Approaches to Networking.

Andrew Bowyer for inviting me to speak or chair the following Canadian Legal Innovation Forum webinars with outlines and recordings available in the links below.

• Mastering Transformation: Transformation strategies within law firms and legal departments deliver effective results. 
• Collaboration is the New Innovation: How legal practitioners are enhancing collaboration processes to deliver results. 
• Innovation in Personal Injury Law Firms: Innovation around people, processes, technology and finance is impacting the Canadian legal sector and extending into the personal injury space. 
• Innovation in Family Law Firms: Examining the evolution and innovation strategies of family law firms.

New Day, New Way

The mantra of “New Day, New Way” enables homage to be paid to those for whom the global pandemic and other world events have caused heartache, while setting a new course to survive the present and thrive in the future.

My own reinvention is the result of two years of personal and professional self-evaluation, and a gritty examination of where the legal services market is heading and how I can add the most value.

The result is Suttie. It is a repositioning of my practice to Legal Market Strategy and Management Consulting, and the rebrand, Suttie. is bold with a period because I know who I am.

My focus is on legal market strategy to drive growth, and I am playing to my strengths by providing strategic direction on legal markets, marketing management, business development, and client retention to leaders of premiere law firms and legal services providers worldwide.

Advancing Our Legal Ecosystem

The global legal services ecosystem with its regulatory rethink sandboxes, evolving technology, and structural overhauls has never been more interesting and exciting than it is right now.

Since 2005 — and sporadically in years prior to then — many of us have been entering into a refreshed and thriving legal services industry with focused intention. Our determination continues to be underscored by creative legal market strategies, daring differentiation, entrepreneurial zeal, innovative thinking, data-driven doing, and people-first decisions.

If anything good can be said about the pandemic, it is acting as an accelerant to propel our legal services industry forward and enabling us to do law differently. We can and will evolve with blazing speed and sparkling brilliance provided we get out of our own way, and enable new thinking and ideas to take their rightful place.

On that optimistic yet fully realistic note, please accept my best wishes for a healthy, happy holiday season, and an inspiring new year full of new days and new ways.

Photo Credit: Henry is one of three polar bears who live at the Polar Bear Habitat in Cochrane, Ontario, Canada. Photo courtesy of and thanks to Austin McIntosh, Animal Care Team Intern. I am a proud supporter of the Polar Bear Habitat. Please join me. These polar bears will win your heart.