John Gillies is the Director of Practice Support at Cassels Brock. In this role, he collaborates with all firm members with a view to enhancing the culture of knowledge sharing through building appropriate organizational and technical structures to support the capture and dissemination of knowledge.
Following his call to the bar in 1977, John studied both European Union and French corporate and commercial law for two years at the Sorbonne. From 1979 to 1981, he worked as a foreign associate with a Paris law firm that specialized in corporate and commercial matters, with a particular emphasis on international financing.
Upon his return from Paris in 1981, John joined a large Toronto law firm as an associate, focusing on private company and banking transactions. In 1985, he left to join the Legal Division of CIBC. As Senior Counsel, he was responsible, among other things, for the bank’s lending work, the legal issues arising from the bank’s many branches, agriculture, franchising, and small business portfolios, and Aboriginal banking . He was also a member of the legal team spearheading the bank’s online banking services.
In 2000, John returned to the firm where he had previously been an associate as Director of Knowledge Management. For seven years, he was the senior member of the knowledge management team, and was actively involved in the launch and subsequent advancing of the firm’s knowledge management project.
The Checklist Manifesto, a compelling book by Dr. Atul Gawande, explores the crucial improvements that following the template of a basic checklist can make to one’s life and workplace.
In The Checklist Manifesto, Dr. Atul Gawande examines how the use of checklists can significantly improve workflows and outcomes in the work environment. He focuses primarily on the aviation and construction industries, and analyzes where and how checklists are used. He speaks as well about his experience in a WHO-sponsored initiative bringing checklists to surgical operating theatres around the world. There are, I believe, possible applications of his ideas within a law firm.
