Elevator Law

04/22/2021

Working late at the office the other week, this jam came on. And you know what? The logic is still AIRTIGHT. Simple, sophisticated, timeless 🙌 Also, 100% true, especially in a wills and estates context.

04/16/2021

A tenet of Elevator Law is start with getting the small things right, and the big things will follow.

This idea is shared by many: call it the Process, call it the “aggregation of marginal gains”, call it slow and steady. The big things rest on the foundation of the small things, so you’d better get them right.

So believe it or not, one of the first steps in creating Elevator Law was picking a colour palette. Not drafting precedents, not suit shopping, not flexing through my online bio. Identifying the palette of the land that we serve. Because the details matter.

Driving one day, I realized that I didn’t need to pick the palette. It was already picked. I just needed to stop and appreciate the landscape surrounding me. Harvested, golden crops cutting through pristine white snow against a blue black winter sky. These are the colours throughout so much of rural Alberta. These are the colours of Elevator Law. You can find them throughout our website.

Consistency, respect for the people and the places that make us, and above all, never forgetting that the details matter. These are some of our standards. So yeah, we started with identifying a colour palette. And some people might think that’s crazy. We think it tells the world who we are, what we’re about and that we’ll gather strength as we go.

We’d love to hear the inspiration or backstory of the colour palette for your business or side hustle! Cmon, how many chances do you get to flex your colour palette?

04/11/2021

Do we run faster towards something or from something? What carries our legs faster and more importantly, longer?

I realized this week that my daughter’s birthday is shared with the Boston marathon bombing 8 years ago. I remember the day well because I was getting set to run my first marathon in Calgary and the headlines were indelible.

I can’t explain it, but for me, the answer is run faster towards something. As a parent, there really is no mountain high enough. And I can only speak for myself, but I believe that is true for so many of us, parent or not. There is a quote from Boston Marathon survivor Patrick Downes that captures this so perfectly: “Two people took many days and weeks to plan out hate, but love responded in an instant.”

So on this anniversary, I am reminded that any day is both terrible and great, with chances to run from things, or run towards them. There are a lot of unknowns beyond my control, and I have no idea what things will look like this time next year. But love responds in an instant and each generation keeps the home fires burning. Let’s all keep running towards the people we love.

04/10/2021

This was a tough week in Alberta and across the country as new restrictions were announced.

It has been 14 years since I first read ‘s No Opportunity Wasted, but two quotes have stayed with me ever since and have guided many important decisions in tough times over the years.

To anyone out there feeling like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, I offer this:

From Epictus: what ought one to say then when each hardship comes? I was practicing for this, I was training for this.

And from Mr. Keoghan himself: imagination is your currency.

Nobody owns smart and necessity is the mother of all invention. Stay strong, stay creative and stay the course. This too shall pass.

04/07/2021

“We may be in the 21st century, but for many law firms, it’s 1911.”

So opens “The Lean Law Firm” by Larry Port and Dave Maxfield.

That line stuck with me, and I vowed to use the tools of 2021 in my practice, not 1921. So when it came to tracking notes and marking up documents, I wanted to rethink the classic legal pad and piles of papers that populate most lawyers offices. Enter the REMARKABLE 2 tablet.

If you still like to take notes by hand or need to put pen to paper to track ideas/changes, this thing is a beauty. It has fundamentally changed my practice, reduced my paper consumption, and shown me that I can practice like it’s 2021.

Which leads to another favourite quote, by Alvin Toffer: The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

04/05/2021

Happy Easter from Elevator Law!

04/01/2021

This story put a smile on my face when I came across it yesterday. This is rural Alberta to me, embracing our shared humanity, helping out a neighbour and extraordinary acts of kindness. I could not count the number of times my own neighbours have saved us with babysitting help, or the number of times I have experienced random and genuine acts of kindness from people that are good at heart and understand what it means to be part of a community. I am sure that this story will ring true and close to home for many.

When Dixie Marie Judilla became pregnant while a temporary foreign worker at an Alberta Dairy Queen, she thought she'd have to leave her child half a world away — until some unexpected help arrived.

03/29/2021

I remember the days of rotary phones and party lines. Of dial up internet (Pshhhkkkkkkrrrrkakingkakingkakingtshchchchchchchch cch*ding*ding*ding) and getting your first email address. I remember when you used to look things up in the yellowpages by your phone (wasn’t even called a landline) and check movie times in the newspaper.

I have a lot of nostalgia for those days. But it’s 2021 and clients want options. Like paying their account online, getting a sense of your pricing and starting the intake process with a lawyer without rounds of phone tag.

Elevatorlaw.ca is now live to serve that purpose. A bit about me, a bit about the firm, but it’s mostly about you. We invite you to check it out.

Carli Baum is the web designer unicorn you’ve been looking for. I gave her “I want like definitions and uh wheat and not too much noise, but the website needs to do A LOT” and she gave me this: