01/ Plan
By-Law 7.1 protects your clients. A practice continuity plan protects everything else.
Ontario's By-Law 7.1 requires lawyers in private practice to have a client contingency plan. It's a mandatory obligation, but it's a narrow one. The By-Law is designed to protect your clients if you can't practise. It says nothing about protecting you and your practice.
A client contingency plan answers one question: what happens to your clients if you can't work tomorrow? A practice continuity plan answers the harder ones. What happens to your revenue? Your overhead? Your firm's viability? Your family's financial security?
I work through those questions with you and put the structure in place to protect everything you’ve built.
The Practice Continuity Plan.
We build a working document — not a compliance exercise, not a shelf document — that maps out what happens to your practice under every absence scenario, puts the infrastructure in place to make everything work, and identifies the financial gaps that need to be addressed to fund the plan.
For Ontario lawyers, this includes full By-Law 7.1 compliance — and goes well beyond it.
It works on three levels.
It establishes authority. The plan puts the legal frameworks in place that give another lawyer the right to act — signing cheques, managing trust accounts, corresponding with clients, stepping into your practice. Without the legal instruments, the designation is just a name on a document.
It centralizes access. Files, trust accounts, software credentials, banking protocols, key contacts — everything someone would need to actually run your practice is documented, organized, and stored in a bank-grade online vault. The people who need to act in a crisis shouldn't be hunting for passwords.
It maps activation. The plan provides clear decision logic across three time horizons — a short absence, an extended absence, and permanent incapacity or death. Your administrator, your family, and your staff know exactly what to do and when. No guesswork.
What's included
The Practice Continuity Plan maps every absence scenario and satisfies LSO By-Law 7.1 requirements as part of its scope.
Administrator designation framework — selection criteria, role documentation, and the authority instruments another lawyer needs to act
Full operational access documentation — files, trust accounts, software credentials, banking protocols, key contacts, and the practice intelligence someone else would need to actually run things
Scenario planning across three time horizons — short absence, extended absence, and permanent incapacity or death — with decision logic at each stage
Financial continuity analysis — what the practice needs to stay viable, and where the funding gaps are
Estate integration guidance — how the plan connects to your Will and Powers of Attorney, and why it matters
LSO filing and compliance guidance
Project management — we identify every gap the planning process surfaces, refer the legal work to your lawyer, and track everything through to completion
Secure vault storage — Your plan and all supporting documents stored in a secure digital SideDrawer vault — accessible to you and to the people who would need to act in an emergency. Your administrator, executor, spouse, or successor shouldn't be searching for documents in a crisis.
$3,999 plus HST
Annual Maintenance.
Your practice isn't static and your plan shouldn't be either. Each year we meet to review what's changed, update the plan to reflect it, check for regulatory updates, and make sure everything stays current and actionable.
*For clients with insurance placed through Preserver, annual maintenance is included.What's included annually:
Annual review meeting — a structured session to identify what's changed and what needs updating
Plan updates — revised documentation to reflect practice and personal changes to keep the plan current throughout the year, as required by LSO By-Law 7.1
Vault maintenance and updates
Regulatory review — any By-Law 7.1 or LSO requirement changes incorporated
Insurance policy review (where applicable) — coverage checked against current practice economics and personal obligations
$599 plus HST