Phone interview with Cyndy Morin (Legal Legend)

1) How long have you been a lawyer?

Well, I have been practicing since 2006.

2) What is the best settlement you made?

In terms of dollars, our best settlement happened recently.

Negotiations that got $2 million back for our client that she lost while being represented by another firm that didn’t file a claim properly. We were barred from making another claim but we were able to successfully negotiate an outcome based on a case that was a game-changer to the negotiations. Although I’d love to take full credit for that, the credit goes to my junior associate Katie who found this case which allowed us to re-open negotiations and make stuff happen for this client. It also saved the hides of the lawyers at the other firm who otherwise would’ve ended up being sued.

3) Best advice you can give someone starting as a lawyer?

Be a problem solver first and a lawyer second.

A lot of things can get resolved if you look at the big picture. In family law, you can be the type of lawyer that has a narrow focus on only winning cases or the type of lawyer that keeps families out of court and helps them to restructure their family healthily, and only uses court as a last resort.

I tell my associates that the best family lawyers always stay up to date with their skills and the law (lifelong learners) but they also have to be genuinely compassionate. Clients trust us with their intimate details about their families and they deserve the best representation to help them through what can be one of the most challenging experiences of their lives.

4) Why did you become a Lawyer?

I was trying to get into grad school in psychology. I didn’t get in so I took a long shot and I applied to law school. I was hoping to get into any program to avoid having to pay back student loans - I was a single mom working at a minimum wage job!

When I was accepted I was quite surprised and thought the admissions department at the faculty of law had made a mistake!

After my first year of law school, however, I loved it and it turned out to be a better career fit for me. I always say my career found me by default.

5) What did you think of Marc Jeret and your experience with him?

I was impressed by how savvy he was with marketing strategies and what my associates discussed with me about him (he’d met with my associates to share info about effective vlogging).

We don’t get impressed so easily, but Marc caught our attention.

Marc has unique ideas and skills to offer - not everyone has those skills.

6) Can you share an experience in law that happened via digital media?

With COVID we’ve had to modify our practice to take place mostly online.

Being able to meet with clients, attend court, and mediate online via “web x” has been revolutionary in helping the legal profession to address previous access to Justice roadblocks.

Hopefully, after Covid, these online benefits will be here to stay and be available and more accessible to people with mobility issues, elderly people, people in remote areas or confined places such as hospitals etc.

Covid has forced the legal profession to embrace online platforms and this has been an excellent experience for the most part...we just need to watch those filters! Lol