Client Profile: Katie Kenny from Bishop & McKenzie LLP

Everything we do, we do for our clients. So we thought it was fitting to continue our Client Profile series and feature another incredible client of ours! We recently chatted with Katie Kenny from Bishop & McKenzie to learn more about her story in becoming a lawyer and her experience with our app.

1. What made you decide to become a lawyer?

Weirdly enough, a junior high teacher told me that I’d be a good lawyer based on my personality, and since then it was just stuck in my head. In university, I majored in business economics and law, where I learned more about the area and discovered I was truly interested in law. That’s when I realized that my junior high teacher was actually right—law was where I was meant to be.

2. What is the most rewarding part of practicing law?

Law is a really people-centered profession. I really like building relationships with my clients through helping them achieve their business goals and solving their legal problems. For me, it’s really as simple as that.

3. Where did you study law school?

I went to the University of Alberta, which is in my hometown and where I currently practice. I received a BComm undergrad, then continued with law school all at the same university.

4. What advice do you have for aspiring lawyers?

Practicing law is incredibly rewarding! This career offers the opportunity to work with smart and interesting people on complex and diverse problems. You will continually develop new skills and knowledge. Practicing law is also a lot of work and a big commitment. But if you’re willing to put in the time and effort, then you do reap the rewards by having an engaging and ever-changing career!

Additionally, I recommend learning about something else that interests you outside of law. Focus on that before law school, because it always helps having other backgrounds and experiences, as it assists with specializing when you start practicing. For me, having a background in business helped me in being a corporate commercial lawyer.

5. Now let’s talk about your firm. Can you give us a brief background of Bishop & McKenzie?

Bishop & McKenzie is a full-service, Alberta-based law firm. We have offices in Edmonton & Calgary, and have been around for over 100 years. We have a local focus in our community, and a global reach with our Interlaw partners. We pride ourselves on being ahead of the curve with adopting technology that improves our clients’ experience. We have great strength in doing corporate commercial work, including M & A, commercial lending and commercial real estate.

6. We’d love to hear what your favorite dealcloser feature is!

There are a few! Firstly, being able to automatically generate a closing book is a huge time saver. Additionally, having the ability to see the completion of signatures as the documents go around is very handy. Seeing the process wheel at 100% is a great feeling.

‍7. What is the most remarkable experience you’ve had using dealcloser?

Because we work with so many different clients with many different needs, there have been several occasions where documents needed to be signed urgently due to illness. In light of COVID-19, this situation has been amplified with there being so many restrictions on being personally present with clients. Unfortunately, we’ve had situations arise where documents needed to be signed from the hospital.

Though these situations are always tough, we feel lucky that we can use the dealcloser eSignature solution to close the deal on time. Without dealcloser, documents may not have been able to be signed, which would have resulted in delay, stress and expense for our clients. 

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A big thank you to Katie for taking the time to meet with us and share her experiences. We are so lucky to have clients like Katie!

If you’re looking to adopt a transaction management solution, you can view more client profiles and case studies right here on our website.