www.thesafetymag.com/ca 3
have the opportunity to help prevent
accidents and injuries by working with
clients to develop a strong workplace
health and safety culture. This award
signifies that our advice makes a
difference and we are grateful to our
clients and peers for their
recognition," said Lisa Bolton, lawyer,
Sherrard Kuzz LLP.
And it's not just individual lawyers
who are making a team. Our winners
were keen to spotlight the team efforts
made to face such difficult times.
"We are really proud of this award,
which recognizes our firm's expertise,
experience and client service in the area
of Occupational Health and Safety.
We have a number of skilled lawyers
who regularly practice in this area, and
are honoured that our performance and
achievements in the safety industry
have been identified by leaders within
the industry," said Zacks.
Current challenges
The OHS sector has faced a number of
challenges over the last year — with
lawyers in this arena also feeling the
effects of the pandemic.
"The pandemic has brought
unprecedented change for the legal
sector, particularly for health and
safety lawyers. In addition to
transitioning, in part, to providing
legal services remotely in a digital
environment, health and safety lawyers
have been a key resource for clients,
providing information and advice
about frequently changing provincial
and local health and safety
requirements to help businesses
continue to safely operate.
The pandemic has also brought
workplace mental health
considerations to the forefront,
particularly in the healthcare and other
essential service sectors where
employers struggle to maintain staffing
levels," said Bolton.
Indeed, as with many sectors, Canada's
legal minds have had to contend with
working remotely and delivering
assistance through virtual means.
Our winners also highlight that
ever-changing public health guidelines
have been tricky to navigate.
"One of the biggest challenges that
we have faced is the fact that the
legislation and public health guidance
have been constantly changing
To determine the best lawyers and law firms catering to the safety in-
dustry, Canadian Occupational Safety sourced feedback from safety
leaders over a period of 15 weeks. COS's research team began by con-
ducting a survey with a wide range of safety officers to determine what
companies value in the law firms they collaborate with.
The in-depth information gleaned from this survey enabled the
research team to assign weighted values to the services offered by law
firms to their safety clients. The research team also spoke to hundreds
of safety professionals across the country by phone, asking them to
rate the safety law firms and lawyers they had worked with over the
previous 12 months.
In addition, the team sought the opinions of safety lawyers
themselves to find out which law firms they would recommend aside
from their own. At the end of the research period, the law firms and
lawyers that received the highest rankings in terms of work quality,
specialist expertise and client service were declared 5-Star Award
winners in the field of safety law.
With this methodology, COS came up with 14 winning lawyers and
12 winning law firms.
METHODOLOGY
14
winning lawyers
12
winning law firms
64%
percentage of safety professionals who
said they would move to whichever
firm their lawyer moved to
"[COVID] has also resulted
in changes to how work is
performed in almost every
industry, resulting in the
requirement to analyze and
address new hazards and work
processes."
Nadine Zacks, Hicks Morley
