Originally founded in Australia by legal practitioners with decades of experience operating small firms, By Lawyers quickly expanded to a network of 40+ authors sharing a wealth of experience in their areas of specialty and jurisdictions. The philosophy behind this is that each publication is created and peer-reviewed by those with comprehensive experience managing matters in their specific areas. This results in publications focused on the practical application of the law, not academic theorems.

Recently expanding into Canada, By Lawyers has called on the experience of many local practitioners to carry on the philosophy that made By Lawyers so successful in Australia and the UK. By Lawyers’ network of Canadian authors are highly experienced practitioners at the cutting edge of developments in their areas, ensuring the guides and precedents are practical to small law firms.

In a nutshell, By Lawyers publications contain three elements:

• Matter plans – Laying out the start-to-finish process of a matter.
  • Guides practitioners through the practical execution of all common areas of law.
  • Organizes precedents, forms and resources in a chronological progression.
• Commentaries – Explaining in detail the practical application of the law and how to conduct each step of a matter.
  • Quickly search and find precise answers to any questions that may arise in the course of a matter.
  • Links directly to relevant legislation and case law provide a highly efficient starting point for further research.
• Precedents – Everything you will need to complete matters quickly and efficiently, from simple letters to the most complex agreements.
  • Live, up-to-date reviews and amendments as the law develops.
  • Used with LEAP, the precedents are automatically populated with client and matter details saving time filling out precedents. 

Current publications available in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta include:

Practice Management

• Practice management
  101 staff handbook

Business

• Sale of Business
• Purchase of Business

Business Structures

• Corporation
• Partnership
• Trusts
• Joint Venture
• Business Structures and the Comparative Table

Civil Litigation

• Civil Litigation – Acting for Plaintiff
• Civil Litigation – Acting for Defendant

Estate Administration

• Probate
• Intestacy / Letters of Administration

Family

• Divorce
• Domestic Contract / Family Law Agreement
• Property Division
• Children

Real Estate

• Sale of Real Estate
• Purchase of Real Estate
• Commercial Lease – Acting for Landlord
• Commercial Lease – Acting for Tenant
• Mortgage

Wills and Lifetime Planning

• Wills
• Powers of Attorney and Advance Directives

Increase Productivity

• By Lawyers matter plans organize precedents and commentaries into a logical start-to-finish progression that efficiently guides practitioners through the most complex of matters. This speeds up matters – no more time spent searching for the next precedent or research material – and allows principals to delegate more to juniors, confidently knowing a comprehensive matter plan guides them, they are using their time efficiently and won’t miss a trick.
• By Lawyers precedents accurately and automatically populate client and matter details at the click of a button, dramatically reducing the time spent filling in precedents.
• By Lawyers commentaries provide all your research needs at your fingertips within the matter itself, giving fast, precise and practical answers, including links to relevant legislation and case law.

Minimise Risk

• By Lawyers matter plans ensure best practice is followed every time by every member of the team. Stepping practitioners through a matter from start to finish ensures nothing is missed, all considerations are given due attention, and all team members have the resources to complete a matter meticulously.
• By Lawyers precedents and commentaries are up-to-date documents constantly being reviewed and amended with legislation, practice, and procedure changes. This alleviates the obligation to keep track of changes to legislation and update precedents and procedures, ensuring no detail is ever missed, and every team member is always up to date.
• Each By Lawyers matter plan, and commentary has an Alerts section at the top, highlighting any recent changes to legislation or practice in that area of law. If there are no recent changes, ‘Alerts – Nil’ is displayed.
• By Lawyers commentaries detail the practical application of the law and how to conduct each step of a matter with absolute clarity – ensuring all considerations are covered without having to recall every detail of every different type of matter. By Lawyers commentaries are your last line of defence – your goalkeeper – so you can be confident no detail will ever be missed.

All that’s left to do is ‘Enjoy Practice More’.

To access By Lawyers guides within LEAP, open a matter and click the Guides & Precedents button on the Details & Correspondence tab. Then select the Legal Guides tab, which gives access to all the By Lawyers publications, including matter plans, commentaries and reference materials. Selecting the Browse tab gives access only to the precedents. When the Legal Guides tab opens, the relevant matter plan for the matter type appears. Matter plans set out the usual workflow for matters and are the roadmaps to By Lawyers publications, with relevant materials as and when required, including:

• Commentary, providing practical information about the area of law; and
• Precedents, such as letters and documents, automated with the matter details from LEAP.

Publications for related areas of law can be easily selected from the Related Guides section. For example, if working in a Will matter, clicking the Related Guides side bar provides instant access to the matter plan for Powers of Attorney.

All other By Lawyers publications are easily accessed from within the same matter by selecting the Browse More Guides button.

To subscribe to By Lawyers, please contact LEAP.