(TORONTO) February 3, 2016 – Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (Blakes), one of Canada’s leading business law firms, has announced a sponsorship arrangement with LegalX, the legal technology cluster at MaRS Discovery District.
The sponsorship will provide Blakes with early access to emerging legal technologies of interest to the Firm and its clients. Blakes and LegalX will also be launching a Global Legal Innovation Challenge. Together, Blakes and LegalX will define a challenging issue facing the practice of law in large-firm settings, and will work with the international legal technology community to seek a practical solution. This sponsorship arrangement and the Global Legal Innovation Challenge demonstrate the Firm's commitment to delivering the highest possible level of innovation in client service.
“Blakes welcomes the opportunity to keep abreast of changes and developments in legal technology and to be at the forefront of how legal services will be delivered in the future,” said Brock Gibson, Chair of Blakes. “This sponsorship arrangement with LegalX is a logical next step for Blakes, given the Firm's engagement in innovative service delivery, as reflected in a number of other initiatives that we have implemented in order to provide enhanced efficiency and value to our clients.”
According to Aron Solomon, Head of LegalX at MaRS, "Blakes has long been recognized for its work in a wide variety of areas in which LegalX is active, including fintech and IT, making this partnership a natural fit. We look forward to getting started on this exciting initiative and working together to find innovative ways of improving the practice of law in large-firm settings."
Further announcements regarding the arrangement are expected over the next few months.
About MaRS Discovery District
MaRS Discovery District (@MaRSDD) in Toronto is the one of the world’s largest urban innovation hubs. MaRS supports promising young ventures tackling key societal challenges in the health, cleantech and ICT sectors. In the last three years, these ventures have raised C$1.3-billion in capital and earned C$640-million in revenue. In addition to helping start‑ups launch, grow and scale, the MaRS community is dedicated to cross-disciplinary collaboration, commercialization of discoveries and driving ideas to impact.
About Blakes
At Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (Blakes), we serve a diverse national and international client base, and our integrated office network provides clients with access to the Firm's full spectrum of capabilities in virtually every area of business law. Blakes has offices across Canada and in New York, London, Bahrain and Beijing, and an associated office in Al-Khobar. In 2015, Blakes was named Canada Law Firm of the Year in the Who's Who Legal Awards for the seventh consecutive year and one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc. for the fifth time. Thanks to our clients, we were once again the top-ranked Canadian firm in Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business and selected as one of the most innovative law firms in the BTI Brand Elite. In addition, and according to Bloomberg, Blakes has been the No. 1 Canadian law firm in both Canadian and global M&A deals by deal value and deal count for the past seven years (2008-2014).
More information on Blakes is available by visiting the Firm's website at www.blakes.com or by following us on Twitter @BlakesLaw.
