I have been blessed with the opportunity to have seen a good part of the world through travel, both personal and business.  And make no mistake; they are two very different things. Business travel is business, not travel, although there is a “but”.

When called to travel on business, especially as a young(ish) lawyer or professional,  I provide below a few thoughts to make the way trip rewarding on a number of levels.

Passport –  Always make sure you have a current passport with blank pages. You must be ready and prepared. And while stressful (at least for me) not to physically have my passport with me at all times, renew it  well in advance of its expiry and pay any expedited fee available to you to get it back as soon as possible.

Luggage – While a very personal preference, make sure it is of very very good quality. I go with a four wheel roller style. Airports are just too large for me to start carrying things over my shoulder or on my back. When picking a brief case or work backpack, the same rule applies – quality. As a first year lawyer, I was crossing Adelaide Street with Steve Coxford and my plastic Samsonite law school brief case literally exploded open and papers went everywhere. Steve gave me a look and muttered, “Time to buy a new briefcase”. It just so happened that that later that afternoon I received a cheque for interest from the down payment of our first house. I cashed it, walked down the street to Gold’s Luggage and bought a black leather briefcase. While I have had it repaired any number of times since, I continue to use it to this day!

COO – The Most important of all – Carry On Only! You do not want to be the person on a business trip holding everyone up waiting at the luggage carousel for a bag to arrive, or  worse, not arrive! There is an art to COO travel, and nothing is going  to be perfect,  but learn it and practice it, even if for more than two or three nights. And remember, there is a pretty good chance that there is laundry service in the hotel. But as my father always said (shouted), “Don’t think of touching the mini bar”.

And there is the “But” –  While always difficult, if it is possible  try to do or see something local, even if it is walking back  to the hotel  from a meeting or meal,  popping into a museum or gallery or going to a game. Do Something. And if you can spare a further day, which really is not always possible do it.  Even better, bring someone along  with you, whether it  be a colleague, a co-advisor or someone from the client. There is nothing like travelling and sharing an experience with someone in terms of relationship building. As only one of may possible examples, to this day when I see Lance Rishor now of Macquarie, I pull out the photo of the “Red Baron” that we once flew on together in Kazakhstan. While the transaction never happened, we will  always have experience to talk about.

 Go and enjoy your business travel, COO and create use the opportunity for your own relationship building.

I am repeating myself, or really Rod Barret, but it is worth repeating. Good work begets more good work. And this is true at whatever level or stage you are at. And you will only realize it of course with the benefit of hindsight.

This past month, we were able to complete a transaction for the Suriname based Naarendorp Family, in exchanging their direct interest in a significant mining project into cash and shares of Founders Metals, a TSX listed mining company. It was a pleasure to represent the Family and very meaningful to myself and the other members of the team. (And it was their “deal” – not our “deal”. We just helped.)

Nothing happens overnight and clients do not fall out of the sky, and if they do, that is certainly not a business plan. Representing the Naarendorp Family was a 30 year project in the making.

Here is the story. In 1995 when at Smith Lyons, and as part of ongoing relationship building, Don Charter and I hosted a small lunch for members of the CIBC mining group. By recollection, Don Lindsay and Gord Bogden attended. In January 1986, Gord reached out for our assistance on a financing for Golden Star Resources, a then Denver based TSX listed mining company. I flew to Denver with Gord and his colleague, Jim Meloche, weeks after the Boy had been born. That for sure I remember. It was there that I met for the first time the then Golden Star CEO, David Fennell. And while we were not Golden Star’s counsel, David and I hit it off quite well.

During the intervening years, I have had the pleasure of working on any number of other matters with Gord, Jim and David. We have worked together, travelled together and have enjoyed meals together on at least four continents that I can count on the top of my head.

Which brings me in this story to the Naarendorp family. A few years ago, the Family reached out to us at the suggestion of David Fennell for assistance on what I recall was a pretty small matter. We dealt with the matter, and they thanked us and that was that. We must have done something right as in March 2025, the Family again reached out, this time on Founders. Good work begets more good work and one thing leads to another. Am I repeating myself?

I have a page I keep and update from time to time, a timeline effectively, as to where files come from. As with the Naarendorp Family, the road most often leads back thirty or more years to a handful of people and relationships. That is one of the many beautiful things about this profession. You aggregate relationships – great relationships – along the way. Value them and don’t take them for granted. It is the inverse of the old sports saying – when it comes to clients, it is the name on the back of the jersey that counts more than the name on the front of the jersey. (And to be be clear, when it comes to the Firm you work at, it is all about the name on the Front of the jersey).

And here is an idea for you – think about what you are working on right now and where it came from. Sketch out your own personal timeline and keep it current. And then, more important, pick up the phone (not email) and connect or reconnect with the people in the past who have brought you to this point in your career. I assure you, you will be grateful that you did it.

Detail, anticipation and organization is more than just listening to Max insisting on taking napkins along with pizza to a hungry hoard at a bar (K-0007). It is in my mind the approach to the entire practice of law, wherever and however one practices law.

In the 1980s, there of course were no smartphones and a precursor, the palm pilot (of blessed memory) was not even yet invented.

My “go to” was a very small note binder with alpha dividers that I used as an address book together with the annual Canadian Bar Associaton pocket calendar. To this day, it remains the greatest thing the organization ever did for me.

Who I learned this all from was of course none other than (again) Stephen R. Coxford (K-0003).

Steve had taught me to keep track of people’s phone numbers alphabetically by company (not last name) and only in pencil. People move of course.

Within the “H” tab, I had developed over the years a pretty impressive list of direct dial numbers for hotels around the world. Hey, this was before the Google and a mobile phone. If someone was travelling to, say Hong Kong, there was a pretty good bet they were going to stay at the same hotel they had stayed at the last time. And if you needed to find them, you had to find them. And under “M” I had a notation fo the “Map Guy” who could create the maps needed showing mining properties in a prospectus.

On the last page of my beloved black book (which I still have – picture attached) I wrote notes to myself of things to always keep in mind. I have over the years pulled out the black book and shared my now barely legible notes (pencil of course) to any number of students and young lawyers. The notes include the following:
• Pay attention to the detail
• Read the boiler plate. It is often wrong
• Anticipate what will happen or what needs to happen next
• Have zero expectations of being congratulated but enjoy it when it happens
• Spell people’s names correctly. It is often the only thing in a document they may very well read
• When you have a point to make, make it.
• Shine

Use these or create your own and put them in your own black book or computer file, but keep going back to them. They will guide you through your entire career.

This is addressed primarily to male readers in “Big Law”, whatever that means. I really do not like the expression. And why male readers primarily? Well, they are the ones that need more help on this to be honest. I may get some flak for this, but hey, it is my blog. And with that said …

For a number of years, I was a volunteer coach of the Boy’s baseball team (K-0005 – Be a Mench). The Head Coach, who unlike me actually knew what he was doing, was Rob (Fish the Magish) Fishbaum. Coach Rob very often implored our young charges to “Practice like you play.” Think about that for a moment. I believe the same goes for just about everything in life. Practice like you play. Come prepared for every day as if it was Game 7 of the World Series. It is hard and it is tiring, but practice like you play physically and mentally. (And I should also note that I was once told by my own personal coach, Karen Hanna, never to use sports analogies.)

And the same goes for how you present yourself. I would never get on my road bike wearing jean shorts and a tank top. I suspect that neither would Tadej Pogacar. (Recover strong, Tadej.) I would never go to a mine site (nor would I be allowed in mind you) if I was not wearing proper safety gear including a long sleeve shirt and reflective vest. There is a proper uniform for every situation, and I will confess as my mother and sister will agree, I always liked a uniform, even as a kid. In my world, you play a better game, whatever that game is, when you start the game in a clean and pressed team uniform (Sorry again, Karen)

Big Law had, and in my world should again have a proper and professional team uniform, that being a suit and tie. We are very well paid professionals and that is how very well paid professional lawyers play. Yes, there are always exceptions to the rule, such as maybe a face-to-face Sunday morning meeting, should they ever happen again or a Friday before a long weekend. Even then, those are not rationalizations for flip flops and shorts.

On uniforms, I am reminded of a Sunday morning of over 30 years ago being in the Air Canada lounge at YYZ going somewhere. In walked Don Lindsay, the then Head of Mining at CIBC and thereafter the long standing CEO of Teck, wearing a suit and tie. I asked Don where he was going, to which he responded, “Australia”. Practice like you Play. You never know when will be called into the game. And to me, it is not the same to keep a suit and tie and shirt (and shoes – don’t forget the shoes) behind the door in your office “just in case”. Don’t practice “just in case”.

My father was a lawyer as well. He was a municipal lawyer and was the long standing City Solicitor in Windsor, Ontario, a civil servant with a great pension. While for a good four years before his retirement he referred to his wardrobe as being in “shut down mode”, he continued to put on a suit and tie every day before going off to work at City Hall. No “just in case” and I don’t buy the “times have changed”. The pendulum has swung way too far to the other side and now it is time to move it.

And one last anecdote on this which goes back to my first mentor, Steve Coxford. One night at Smith Lyons, I walked into the washroom and saw Steve changing into a tuxedo. I had myself attended a black tie wedding sometime recently before that evening and had rented a tuxedo, as one would do, so I thought. And so, for a middle class kid from Windsor, I asked Steve what was the obvious question as to where he rented his tuxedo. He turned and looked at me and smiled with a little sideway shake of his head and said, “Jay, every gentlemen owns his own tuxedo.” Lesson learned. A few years ago I regaled his two eldest sons with this story. They looked at each other and one said to the other, “That is so our Dad.”

And so, practice like you play for Game 7 and as Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother always said, “Suit Up”. You will feel better and you will play better. Trust me.

As I shared in K-0003 (729 am), the only reason I was hired as an articling student was that I wore down the co-heads of the Committee into submission.

The only reason I was asked back as an associate was a napkin. Here is the story.

The Smith Lyons students of 1986-87 had a brilliant idea to prepare a Statement of Claim naming as co-defendants all of the then partners in the Firm. The passage of time does not allow me to remember the causes of action, but said statement of claim was prepared and served by leaving a copy on the chair of each Partner, other than Bob Smith. We did not think he would appreciate it. Like good young trainees, we also though prepared and delivered with the Statement of Claim an Offer to Settle. The settlement was very simple – a summer’s night game of softball with bragging rights to the winner.

Our Offer was accepted and baseball game held. Again, the passage of time does not allow me to recall who won said game.

In the great tradition of Smith Lyons and no doubt other firms then and now, post game beers were to be shared at a local establishment and we gathered at the rather well known and pre/upgraded “Jolley Miller”.

I was dispatched along with fellow student Michael Koch to attend a pizza shop up the street to come back with the nourishment. We were the designated “pizza students” for the evening. Max (as he and I refer to one another to this this day) and I hopped in my car and off we went with clear instructions to return soonest. We had left the shop and were walking to the car with the pizza boxes and Max turned to me and said, “We forgot the napkins.” I was quite dismissive not wanting to take the time to return to the store, but Max insisted and we walked back to obtain napkins.

We returned to the Miller and handed out the pizza to the waiting hoard and a then senior partner (who was no doubt younger then than I am today) looked me in the eye and asked for a napkin. Of course he did.

I thank Max to this day.

The moral of the story is simple – anticipate and pay attention to the detail and the little things. That is a huge part of the job. And your job and future career may just depend on it.

A number of years ago, Brian Rose, a then senior Partner at Stikeman Elliott, and I hosted Maura Lendon, the COO of Greenlane Renewables (TSX), at our office for a conversation with a number of our associates. At the time, Maura was General Counsel of a TSX listed mining company, Primaro Mining Corp. and she spoke to the group of her expectations of her legal advisors. What follows are her words, not mine. They resonate today with me as much as they did when she spoke them. They are simple and clear and I am guessing (we will see) that there will be violent agreement amongst General Counsel as to their application.

Read them and heed them.


The Things I expect from Counsel – By Maura Lendon

1. Communication, communication, communication.
2. If my counsel realizes an issue is much more complex than we first thought, I expect to be briefed on it before counsel delves into complex and costly pursuits.
3. Though I know my business and my industry, I expect my counsel to be even more plugged into the latest in terms of deal nuances, terms and conditions, fine points, regulatory changes and use them to my strategic advantage in a negotiation.
4. I expect my counsel to have a general understanding of our business and what our concerns are and provide me with unsolicited thoughts that might advance our interests or mitigate our risks. I expect counsel to “get” our business and provide context-savvy advice.
5. I prefer files to be staffed tightly with the Firm. The smallest appropriate team is the best – and to work as a team, not a bunch of sole practitioners.
6. I expect counsel to focus on solutions to issues, not get caught up in their complexity or pursue issues that are interesting but do not add value. I appreciate elegant, effective solutions.
7. I want to be asked at the end of a file/transaction how the Firm did and I will give honest and proper feedback. I expect counsel to always consider how they can be more effective/provide better counsel efficiently.
8. Remember, you are an ambassador to my Company.
9. Refer to Expectation No. 1