Recently we have been working with Megan Ellis Q.C. to develop a website for her firm Megan Ellis & Company. Ms. Ellis started the firm in 2002 and has since been joined by Shannon Aldinger and most recently Paula Kalsi – who came on board as Associate Counsel on March 1st of this year. Ms. Ellis is well known as one of the first lawyers in Canada to devote a significant part of her practice to representing adult survivors of sexual abuse and assault. As a result, her work in this complex area of personal injury law has led to significant developments in the law and legislation as it pertains to victims of abuse and assault.
Over the last 20 years, Ms. Ellis has developed an extensive family law practice and is well respected both for her focus on helping clients achieve negotiated settlements and for providing vigorous, cost-effective representation in court whenever that form of resolution is necessary. During the course of her personal injury and family law career, Ms. Ellis has taken on a wide variety of appeal work including those unusual situations where there is either little case law to guide the courts or where the existing case law, legislation, and policy have formerly led to perverse or unfair results for her clients.
Ms. Aldinger has an active family law practice and, like Ms. Ellis, commits herself to developing creative and practical solutions for clients dealing with the complex and often emotional issues that arise in this area. Ms. Aldinger has negotiated settlements and provided representation in court in various aspects of family law. A very brief selection of her considerable experience includes the resolution of custody issues and child and spousal support issues, the division and reapportionment of property, and the well-crafted arrangement of family law agreements.
The newest member of Megan Ellis & Company, Ms. Kalsi, has considerable experience dealing with issues arising in personal injury law and, like her colleagues, has worked on cases that involve sexual abuse and assault. For the past eight years, Ms. Kalsi has devoted a considerable amount of her time to the Public Guardian and Trustee of British Columbia (PGT). This is an entity that acts to protect and advance the legal and financial interests of children and vulnerable adults in BC. In addition to her focus on cases of sexual abuse and assault, Ms. Kalsi has developed a practice in electronic and document disclosure issues in large-scale litigation and has a great deal of experience analyzing the complex documentation that emanates from cases of this type.
These three women are exemplary litigators with a unique and necessary set of skills. They wanted a website that was modern and sophisticated in design but straight forward and to the point in terms of content and navigation. We have done our best to develop a site that works on both these levels. Take a look: www.ellisandcompany.ca.
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Normally I’m not a fan of Mondays but today was not so bad in large part because we were able to launch a new website for Murray Rankin, Q.C. – oh and it was sunny for a whole thirty minutes (you Vancouverites will understand). We are very happy to have helped Murray establish his new brand and a web presence as he starts a new chapter of his practice.
I did not have the good fortune to have Murray as a professor while completing my LL.B at UVic but I know plenty of folks who did and he has garnered a reputation as an accomplished, caring and thoughtful teacher. His professional reputation is equally favourable as he has graced the halls of Arvay Finlay, Barristers and most recently Heenan Blaikie LLP. But rather than gush about Murray’s professional abilities, his contributions to the legal profession and policy development, his trips to the Supreme Court of Canada and extensive tribunal work, or his perpetual good humour, I think I will simply direct you to his new website so you can see for yourselves and close by saying it was both an honour and a pleasure.
Visit the site: www.murrayrankin.ca
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Richard Fowler and Lyndsay Smith are well respected criminal defence counsel with years of experience in complex criminal litigation. They have been involved in some of BC’s most high profile criminal cases of the last ten years and have worked together on cases in one way or another since 2005.
They share a passion for the law, high professional standards and empathy for their clients. Whether the charge is extremely serious or a client is facing a less serious offence, they treat each case with the same commitment to detail and results because they fully recognize that the consequences are always serious to the people involved and to their families.
Given their like-minded approach to the practice of law, Richard and Lyndsay decided to collaborate and have recently established their own boutique criminal defence law firm, Fowler and Smith, Barristers. They came to Skunkworks to help them develop a corporate identity for their firm and a website to establish their online presence.
Taking cues for their offices in The Marine Building and photographs from this iconic Vancouver landmark we gave them a clean and simple word mark coupled with a visually unique website based on a WordPress Content Management System. Both prolific trial lawyers, Lyndsay and Richard wanted a way to communicate the types of cases they are working on to prospective clients. As a result, we incorporated a Cases & News feature into the site that operates along the same lines as a blog and will allow them to talk about cases they think may be of interest to the public. We are very pleased with the resulting site www.fowlersmithlaw.com and we wish Lyndsay and Richard every success in their new firm venture.
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Kelly Harvey Russ has focused his law practice on family law matters for the past 17 years. He is a British Columbia family lawyer who saw early on that litigation is not the only, nor always the best, solution to resolving the breakdown of a marriage or common law relationship. As a result, he took the necessary steps to get certified as both a Family Law Mediator and a Child Protection Mediator.
He came to Skunkworks looking for assistance in expanding his law corporation’s online presence beyond his Twitter account.
Kelly was happy to continue to use his existing logo and colour palette so we simply incorporated them into a custom WordPress site design. Family law matters tend to be situations where emotions run high and Kelly wanted a site that was straightforward and easy to use. We kept the number of pages to a minimum and emphasized his philosophy which is to protect the dignity of his clients during the resolution process. To help ensure the presence of refreshed content on the site we incorporated his Twitter feed and included Google Analytics so that he can monitor the traffic to his site.
The design is calm and creates an approachable atmosphere. You can check out the results here: russfamilylaw.ca.
Congratulations Kelly. We hope you enjoy your new online real estate.
Tags: family lawyer, Twitter, wordpress
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Gregory Dillon Corporate ID
The future of legal practice is a topic of much discussion. The traditional law firm business model makes increasingly less sense for both clients and the lawyers involved. With this in mind, we are starting to see change from within the legal community. On this note, we have been very fortunate to work with Vancouver lawyer Gregory Dillon on his new corporate identity and website. Gregory, an experienced trial lawyer with over 12 years in private practice, combines the traditional values of a barrister with a business model that we think will become increasingly common in the years to come.
Gregory’s practice is client-centered, agile and targeted towards a wills litigation practice. Litigation is increasingly too complex to be successful as a generalist and clients understandably don’t want to subsidize their lawyer’s learning curve. Gregory’s practice relates exclusively to wills challenges. In other words, contesting or varying existing wills. With an aging population and a relatively recent Wills, Estates and Succession Act, many clients will be looking for this legal skill set.
Our corporate identity package incorporates a traditional quill; wills being one of the only remaining documents that need to be physically signed. The colour palette (blue and grey) is crisp and modern without being bland.
Dillon Law Website
Dillonlaw.ca is built on the WordPress CMS to easily incorporate changes. The website outlines his practice, contact information, and the different grounds for contesting wills in British Columbia. The site is designed to be clean, to-the point, and capable of supplying all the necessary information without burying a visitor in text. You can find the site here.
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