CL Talk

About CL Talk

CL Talk is the official podcast of Canadian Lawyer magazine. It will hear from leaders in the legal profession in Canada and beyond. Our editorial team interviews legal leaders about topical issues affecting lawyers from coast to coast.

Publisher

Canadian Lawyer Magazine

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

15 Jun 2023

Latest episode

6 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

143 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   6 Oct 2026

   Inside Thomson Reuters' legal AI buy-or-build moment

   In this episode of CL Talk, host Tim Wilbur speaks with David Wong, chief product officer at Thomson Reuters, and Alexander Kardos-Nyheim, who co-leads the company's foundational machine learning research and came to Thomson Reuters through the 2024 acquisition of his legal AI startup, Safe Sign Technologies. Together, they unpack the strategic reasoning behind Thomson Reuters' decision to build Thomson – its first proprietary large language model – rather than continuing to rely entirely on third-party providers. The conversation covers what domain-specific training actually delivers for legal work, how Thomson Reuters defines fiduciary-grade AI and is tackling hallucinations, and the buy-versus-build question law firms across Canada are navigating. They also discuss Canada's place in Thomson Reuters' product rollout and what they would say to lawyers still skeptical of AI. Thomson Reuters is a supporting partner of the Canadian Legal Summit, taking place on October 14 in Toronto. Register here: https://events.canadianlawyermag.com/canadian-legal-summit?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=editorial_article&utm_campaign=CLS2026&utm_content=awareness&utm_term=asset01

2. 

   29 Sept 2026

   Legal AI proficiency: what Canadian lawyers keep getting wrong

   Most lawyers experimenting with AI are making one of two mistakes, according to Samuel Puchala, President and General Manager of LexisNexis Canada. One group briefly tries a tool, gets a disappointing result, and shelves it. The other dives in, gets impressive early results, and over-relies on the output. "There's a happy middle ground," he says, "but you have to keep your professional judgment." In this episode of CL Talk, Puchala offers a framework for thinking about AI that any lawyer can apply immediately. He compares working with AI to managing a young lawyer: the leverage is real, but the instructions matter and the output always needs review. That means knowing what the product is actually designed to do — using it outside those parameters is one of the most common sources of frustration — and being specific with prompts. Vague instructions, he says, produce the same result as sending an articling student out with ambiguous directions. On accuracy, Puchala draws a distinction that often gets lost. A verified citation is not the same as a correct analysis. Within a grounded legal AI platform, hallucinations are rare, he explains — but whether the cited authority actually fits the facts at hand is still a judgment call that belongs to the lawyer. The conversation also gets into agentic AI — what it means beyond the buzzword. "With agentic AI, you can give it more of an objective, and it can work through the multiple steps towards that objective rather than have you direct its every move," Puchala says. And in procurement, law firms that are still evaluating legal AI tools sequentially are already behind. "By the time you're looking at that second, third competitor, the first one's already moved several generations ahead." Puchala's path to LexisNexis ran through pharmacology, strategy consulting at Bain & Company, and 16 years as a partner at Satov Consultants — an unusual background for a legal tech executive, and one that shapes how he thinks about what lawyers actually need from software. Puchala will take part in a panel on getting reliable results from legal AI — covering prompts, workflows, and emerging agents — at the Canadian Legal Summit on October 14 at The Carlu in Toronto. Register now: https://events.canadianlawyermag.com/canadian-legal-summit?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=editorial_article&utm_campaign=CLS2026&utm_content=awareness&utm_term=asset01

3. 

   22 Sept 2026

   Law firm culture suffers when rock star bullies run the show

   Law firms spend a lot of time writing about their culture. Laura Williams has spent more than 30 years watching what they actually do – and the gap between the two is where most of the damage happens. Williams is the managing partner of Williams HR Law LLP and CEO of Williams HR Consulting Inc. She has advised organizations across industries on HR law, workplace investigations, and culture recovery for over three decades. In this episode, she sits down with Canadian Lawyer Managing Editor Tim Wilbur to discuss the specific pressures law firms face, why high-revenue partners who bully their teams so often go unchallenged, what inclusive leadership actually looks like on a busy file, and the one habit she says is quietly eroding culture at firms across the country. Williams will take part in the closing fireside chat on building competitive advantage through leadership and culture at the Canadian Legal Summit on October 14 at The Carlu in Toronto. Register now: https://events.canadianlawyermag.com/canadian-legal-summit?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=editorial_article&utm_campaign=CLS2026&utm_content=awareness&utm_term=asset01

Who has been a guest on CL Talk

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Clarke Barnes
• Andrea Alliston
• Mesha Donaldson
• Kurt Schlachter
• Tiana Van Dyk

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 41 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

81

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

Contact CL Talk

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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