BRUCE CHAPPLE STEERS MCMILLAN TO SUCCESS IN TUMULTUOUS TIMES
CHAPPLE DISCUSSES COLLABORATION, AI ADOPTION, AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE CANADIAN LEGAL INDUSTRY
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By Lucy Saddleton, Managing Editor, ADB Insights
Since joining McMillan LLP 30 years ago, Bruce Chapple has watched the firm evolve from a single-city firm, serving the Canadian market entirely from its Toronto base, to expanding its reach across the country, opening offices in Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver and Ottawa. Driven by client needs, together with a series of mergers, the expansion allowed the Canadian business law firm to broaden its expertise and offerings across the country — and internationally.
Bruce Chapple, CEO, McMillan
“One of the evolutions I've seen over the last 30 years is that the world is more complicated across geographies, be they provinces, countries, continents, and so there's a lot more interaction needed,” said Chapple, who stepped into the role of CEO and managing partner on July 1, 2024.
Deep Industry Knowledge
Chapple brings a deep knowledge of the firm and its strategy to his role; he previously held a wide range of management roles at McMillan. As chief firm partner, he promoted integration between the different firms that had merged over the years to ensure they were aligned and collaborating in their approach. This “one office” mantra continues to give McMillan a competitive advantage.
Another of Chapple’s previous roles was chief finance partner, which involved collaborating with the firm’s chief financial officer and delivering feedback from the partnership to the finance side of the business. He has also been a member of McMillan’s Professional Services Committee, which does associate reviews, and he chaired the Allocation Committee, which is responsible for partner compensation.
During a recent podcast interview with The Legal Innovation Forum, Chapple shared his views on the unique nature of doing business in Canada. Despite regional differences, Canadian businesses across the country tend to have a lot in common, he noted.
“We are generally people that want to be fair. We are generally people that are ambitious but perhaps more humble about that ambition. We are people that want to do things professionally and do it in a legally compliant way,” said Chapple.
“In this tumultuous time with the new US president, I think Canadians are doubling down, or perhaps rediscovering all the stuff that makes us more similar than different. I hope we can use that as a point of pride going forward,” he added.
THE PATH AHEAD
In 2024, McMillan grew by 10 percent through partner hires, and Chapple hopes to continue on this growth trajectory to further boost efficiency, increase specializations and technology adoption, and take on more clients.
The firm prides itself on being a people-focused business with an emphasis on training and developing people throughout their careers. This includes formal and informal training as well as mentoring programs, with a focus on bridging the gap between different generations in the workforce to ensure smooth communications within offices and across different provinces.
“We are more powerful if we can collaborate. We're more powerful if we can draw on each other's ideas, draw on each other's backgrounds. That doesn't mean spinning tires with five people sitting in a room. It means just drawing on the right people at the right time in order to give better advice,” said Chapple.
THE STEEP CURVE OF CHANGE
Chapple also spoke about the rise of AI, calling it “just a really steep part of the curve of change.” While he is very mindful of the potential risks, he chooses to see AI as a huge opportunity for the legal industry, noting the immense time-saving benefits and added value it provides. Chapple is confident that AI will not take away the human role in the legal profession. Rather, it will allow more time for building client relationships and it will present more data which lawyers can use to give better advice in a shorter period of time.
McMillan plays a vital role in helping organizations identify existential risks that are specific to each individual industry.
“GCs don't often call us and say, ‘what's the really big opportunity around the corner that we haven't thought of?’ They do ask us, ‘what's the risk around the corner we haven't thought of?’ and so it is fun to be able to talk to different businesses and get that perspective,” Chapple said.
In the current political climate, Chapple and his team are paying close attention to threats from US tariffs, for example, and monitoring changing regulations within different markets, to ensure they are giving the most up-to-date advice to their clients. Keeping an ear to the ground allows Chapple and the McMillan team to be fully prepared for changing market dynamics that may impact the organizations they serve.
When it comes to giving advice to clients, Chapple’s mindset has shifted over the decades away from simply aiming for a perfect legal analysis at all costs, to more of a risk analysis and consideration of different paths.
“We pride ourselves on our quality, but we also pride ourselves on being responsive to what clients need in a particular circumstance, and I think that's an evolution of the industry over time,” he said.
EMBRACING INNOVATION + SEIZING OPPORTUNITY
McMillan is known for rapidly introducing new business groups to serve the changing needs of the market. For example, the firm was one of the first movers in the cannabis space when it was legalized in Canada, growing a robust practice from the ground up in a short space of time. The firm also developed a construction law group with a dedicated team that is now one of the best known construction law groups at any firm across the country.
Beyond this, the firm boasts a trade law group, based in Ottawa, which is extremely active amid the current cross-border trade war challenges.
“A year ago we said, with this uncertainty in the US, this is one area where we know there's going to be action, and so let's make sure we have the resources in that group. Let's make sure they're supported, and let's promote them. It's played out exactly as we expected,” said Chapple.
The firm even has an innovation group which is primarily focused on opportunities around generative AI. The current goal, Chapple said, is to be a rapid follower of the latest technology. The group is testing and poised to launch new products, but mindful of avoiding risk for clients.
“A lot of our clients are very cautious about the use of generative AI. A lot of counsel guidelines actually prohibit it without consent, and the concern is, of course, privacy, confidentiality, and information getting out, so we're exceedingly careful to make sure we are complying with those guidelines and not divulging any information,” Chapple said.
Looking to the future, Chapple predicts that continual, rapid technology adoption will upend the legal ecosystem over the next two-to-five years, while clients will continue to have increasingly diverse needs and demands.
“We are responsive to what the clients want. If it's a big team, get it done quickly. We've got that capability. If it's a lean team, be cost effective. If you talk to us about lower cost but perhaps higher risk paths, we're happy to do that. Some clients want us to adopt AI very quickly. Others want to be very cautious… It’s about being ready for a wider variety of what clients want.”
INTERVIEW - BRUCE CHAPPLE - MANAGING PARTNER / CEO, MCMILLAN
