McMillan reorganises executive leadership group

McMillan reorganises executive leadership group

Tim Murphy, Executive partner will take up the dual role of CEO and managing partner

McMillan, Canada-based law firm, has revamped its leadership team and made a chief client officer appointment, as it expands its executive-level focus on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives (DEI).

Tim Murphy, who served as the firm's executive partner since 2016, has been named chief executive officer and managing partner, following his appointment as its executive partner 15 years ago.

In addition to Murphy, the firm's first chief client officer Stephen Wortley joins Chief Operating Officer John Clifford, Board of Partners Chair Paul Davis, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer Claire Duckworth, Risk and Finance Committee Chair Brett Stewart, Strategic Planning Committee Chair Tushara Weerasooriya and Strategic Planning Committee Chair Seth Stewart on the executive leadership team.

McMillan says the role of chief client officer was created specifically to provide clients with product-first services, with Wortley tasked with driving internal reforms, overseeing feedback programs and helping the firm focus its investment on client needs.

McMillan's Canada-based appointees are all located in Toronto with the exception of Wortley, who heads McMillan's Hong Kong office and co-chairs the firm's China practice. Known in particular for its work with US companies in Canada, the firm is currently based in five Canadian cities: Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver, as well as an outpost in Hong Kong.

According to Murphy, the pandemic, climate change and technology have all profoundly changed not just the way we live, but how we conduct business as well. In an increasingly complex business environment, clients demand "more from their law firms than just a legal brief."

Clients "justify a need for a partner who can help them solve challenges that face their business and industry and identify opportunities for growth", he concluded.

Murphy, who has focused on public-private partnerships and infrastructure law since starting a law practice in 2006 after serving as Paul Martin's chief of staff, was once the former prime minister's chief of staff. McMillan Vantage Policy Group, McMillan's affiliated public policy firm, is Murphy's second employer in addition to his executive leadership experience.

According to the firm's 'strategic plan,' DEI issues will be addressed through several strategies, using four metrics: awareness, representation, policies and action.

Our firm recently commissioned an independent, confidential survey of its attorneys around the challenges that women face in the legal field. The goal of the survey was to identify barriers and highlight solutions for women who want to succeed in the field.

"The implementation of such strategies across the entire firm is imperative to McMillan's growth and success," Weerasooriya said.

It is not only about time that business law firms reflect the communities in which they do business; it is absolutely critical to providing great service to our clients," she explained.

Another Canadian legal news reports that Toronto-based academic and veteran independent arbitrator Todd Weiler joined forces with London lawyer Simon Maynard in December 2021 in an effort to make dispute resolution more inclusive for people with disabilities by creating the ICC's disability task force, which the ICC claimed was the first of its kind by an arbitral institution.

Several hundred Canadian lawyers signed an open letter in October 2021, urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the incoming ministers of justice and attorney general to ensure Canadians' fundamental rights are protected by evaluating "all federal statutes and upcoming bills through a climate justice perspective, and …. ensure that vulnerable people are importantly secured."