Lawyer-entrepreneur Colvin was on Canadian Lawyer’s 25 Most Influential Lawyers for 2025
When Brett Colvin walked into his first contracts class at the University of Alberta, he was not the typical starry-eyed law student. “Law wasn't a lifelong dream,” he admits. “I always had an entrepreneurial itch.” But at 22 – fresh out of his business undergrad and reeling from the sudden death of his father – Colvin took what felt like the safer path. Following his father’s advice and to keep his mother at ease, he enrolled in law school.
Ironically, it was during those early weeks of law school that the seed for his future company was planted. One morning, while grabbing coffee from the same café he frequented as a business student, the owner – an immigrant entrepreneur named Moe – asked Colvin what brought him back to campus. When Colvin replied, he had just started law school, Moe simply said, “Be a good lawyer.”
The phrase struck something profound in Colvin. The next day, he purchased several “good lawyer” domain names. “I didn’t know what it would become,” he says now, “but the idea stuck.”
It would take nearly a decade – and a moment of professional disillusionment – for that idea to crystallize. The idea was eventually brought to life, making the founder and CEO of Goodlawyer a recipient of Canadian Lawyer’s 25 Most Influential Lawyers for 2025 in the Business category.
One of the comments supporting Colvin’s nomination puts his contribution to the business of law simply: “He’s reimagining how law is practised and modernizing client service. The platform he has built is elevating the entire profession.”
Inside Big Law: duty, deadlines… and drudgery
Like many young lawyers, Colvin was swept into the well-oiled machinery of big law firm recruitment, settling into the banking and finance group and eventually focusing on complex national regulatory projects. On paper, it was the perfect career path. But the reality felt different.
“In my first ever law school class, the professor told us the ‘three Ds’ of being a lawyer: duty, deadlines, and drudgery,” Colvin recalls. “Duty and deadlines, I was fine with. But the drudgery? That threw me.” Hours upon hours of document review and the inertia of long-established processes left him wondering whether the profession’s traditional structures still served lawyers – or clients.
He wasn’t shy about suggesting improvements. Inside the firm, Colvin became known as the “Mr. Ideas Guy.” He laughs now, but at the time, the label stung. “It was not a compliment.”
The tipping point came the day a senior partner entered his office, closed the door, and said, "Brett, keep coming up with your ideas... just keep them to yourself."
For Colvin, that was the moment of clarity. “If I can’t change things from the inside,” he remembers thinking, “I’d have to leave and build something myself.”
Leaving the firm – and launching a ‘crazy idea’
What started as an experiment soon grew into something far bigger. That experiment became Goodlawyer, now recognized by The Globe and Mail as the fastest-growing legal company in Canada over the past three years.
“Today, we’re a full-service legal talent platform for in-house teams nationwide,” Colvin says. “We help GCs and Chief Legal Officers scale with flexible, embedded lawyers – fractional, full-time, or anything in between.”
The model is simple in concept, “but transformative in practice,” Colvin says. Goodlawyer connects in-house departments with highly vetted, experienced lawyers who can integrate quickly into fast-moving teams. These can range from a lawyer working one day per week to manage overflow, to a full-time parental-leave secondment, to a near-permanent or permanent addition. The common thread: agility.
“Our clients get someone who feels like a version of themselves,” Colvin explains. “Someone who understands their industry can operate without hand-holding and adds value on day one.”
This differs sharply from the type of traditional secondments Colvin experienced earlier in his career. “When you've only been in private practice, landing in-house comes with a huge learning curve in understanding how legal fits into the broader business. Our lawyers have already been in that seat. They know how legal fits into the business.”
Who needs fractional lawyers? more companies than you think
Goodlawyer works with organizations across the spectrum – from high-growth tech companies like Uber to legacy enterprises like Ferrero Rocher and Loblaw, and professional sports franchises. The Vancouver Whitecaps, for instance, rely on a Goodlawyer counsel on a regular part-time basis to support their partnerships and sponsorship functions. This critical revenue generator had often been close to the bottom of the legal team’s overflowing priority list.
“She used to work with the Vancouver Canucks,” Colvin says of the embedded lawyer. “She’s now the go-to for the entire partnerships team at the Whitecaps. They effectively have their own dedicated in-house counsel, without needing a full-time hire.”
At Uber, Goodlawyer placed a mid-career lawyer full-time with the sales team, allowing Canada’s GC and core legal group to stay focused on strategic work. “It’s a game-changer,” Colvin says. “Clients access top talent faster and more cost-effectively than recruitment or external counsel.”
Cost is a major driver. “Sending work out to other firms at $1,000 an hour isn’t sustainable,” he notes. “And hiring lawyers full-time comes with expectations around career pathing, development, and compensation. Fractional support gives teams breathing room without the long-term commitments.”
The lawyers behind the model
Goodlawyer’s network now includes hundreds of vetted lawyers across Canada, typically with five to twenty years of experience. They’re former GCs, senior and mid-career in-house counsel, and subject-matter experts seeking more autonomy, flexibility, and purpose in their work.
“One of my favourite examples is Toronto-based Goodlawyer, Pearl Chan,” Colvin says. Chan – named Goodlawyer of the Year at the company’s inaugural Future of Law Awards – joined the platform while balancing sophisticated legal work with the demands of motherhood. “Goodlawyer let her do both: stay embedded in meaningful work on her terms.”
Another standout is Vancouver-based Shari Hosaki, who previously served as in-house counsel at Indigo before becoming general counsel of Cadbury UK. “She could work anywhere,” Colvin says. “She chose Goodlawyer because she wanted balance, not another full-time GC role.”
This desire for deliberate, self-directed career design is a consistent theme among Goodlawyer talent. “They want to be in the driver’s seat,” Colvin explains. “And they’re highly strategic, business-savvy lawyers who can embed quickly.”
A system built around fit – not volume
Goodlawyer’s opt-in model means both clients and lawyers must mutually agree to work together. The company combines human vetting with AI tools to match lawyers to opportunities with precision.
“Our chief commercial officer, Chad Aboud, and our head of lawyer experience, Pauline Chan, talk to lawyers all day,” Colvin says. “By the time someone joins the network, we know where they’ll shine.”
The platform doesn’t charge lawyers to join and offers resources and community support – an essential differentiator in a space where many recruiters can take substantial cuts. “Our service fee is about half of what others charge,” Colvin says. “We run a scalable, efficient business, so we don’t have to squeeze lawyers.”
The bigger picture: AI, burnout, and the future of work
For Colvin, Goodlawyer is as much a cultural mission as it is a business model. “The relationship between lawyers and their work is often broken,” he says. “Burnout isn’t a badge of honour. It shouldn’t be part of the deal.”
At Goodlawyer’s recent Future of Law Summit – drawing more than 2,000 registrants globally – themes included legal operations, mental health, and the rise of more innovative tech. A standout session, “Resilience Is Not the Goal,” challenged the assumption that lawyers must simply endure stress rather than eliminate its causes.
Colvin is also optimistic about the use of artificial intelligence in the legal system, believing it will help remove much of the profession’s drudgery, much like Excel transformed accounting. “It will free lawyers to focus on what matters: judgment, relationships, and strategic thinking. That’s where the value is.”
He also sees AI accelerating a shift in corporate power dynamics. “right now, the chief financial officer is often higher in the organizational chart than the chief legal officer. But as lawyers move up the value chain, that could change.”
For law students and young lawyers, his message is clear: learn the tools, but reject outdated training models built on repetitive work. “I didn’t need 100,000 documents to learn doc review,” he says. “No one does.”
Toward a more human legal profession
Colvin’s ambition is nothing short of reshaping how legal work gets done – and how lawyers live their lives. “Our mission is simple,” he says. “To build the most desirable way to practise law.”
What began as a quiet piece of advice from a café owner – be a good lawyer – has now grown into a national platform reimagining the role of legal counsel in modern business.
And if Colvin has his way, the next generation of lawyers won’t have to choose between being successful and being human.
