00Calgary, Alberta
People, organizations, and the AI that’s changing how they work.
> builder of AI teams / lawyer / educator / operator
Now I’m working on how organizations adopt AI and bring their people with them, through AI Transition Group, a separate, non-legal business.
01Why me
Twenty-seven years of conflict is a good teacher.
I’ve practised law for 27 years, most of it as a litigator. Litigation is where things end up after they’ve already gone wrong: an agreement that broke down, a workplace that stopped working, an injury that changed someone’s life.
Seen from there, you learn how organizations break, and how people behave when they’re under pressure and facing change. Very little of it is about the rules. Most of it is about fear, trust, and whether anyone explained things plainly.
That’s the lens I bring to AI. The technology is new. The way people react to change isn’t.
Many of the disputes I’ve seen started as a change that nobody explained.
02Running the operation
Twenty years running the whole operation.
From 2002 to 2022 I ran my own professional corporation as Senior Lawyer and Director of Operations. That meant the practice and the business together: recruiting, mentoring and directing a team of administrators, lawyers and students, managing the workflow of up to 400 files, and handling the contracts and operations that keep a small organization running.
Before law, I worked in sales and as an operations manager at an internet technology company, responsible for a team of 39 technicians.
03People and organizations
Change is a human problem.
Every organization I’ve worked in or around has run on people: what they’re afraid of, who they trust, and how they handle conflict. Bringing AI into a workplace doesn’t change that. It tends to bring those questions to the surface.
Fear
People worry about their jobs, their skills and their standing. That worry deserves a straight answer, not a slogan.
Trust
Teams adopt tools they understand, introduced by people they trust. Both take time and plain explanation.
Conflict
Change creates friction. It’s easier to name it early than to manage it late.
My interest here is organizational behaviour, leadership and change: how roles shift, how teams learn, and how leaders explain what’s happening. I see it as a human question rather than a legal one, and nothing on this site is legal advice.
04Building with AI
I work with a team of AI assistants every day.
I don’t only read about AI. I run my own working team of AI assistants. Each one has a job, much like a small office: the inbox, the calendar, the books, research, and so on.
Building it has taught me a lot about delegation: writing clear instructions, checking the work, and deciding what should never be handed off. The assistants draft and organize. I review and decide.
- ./inboxEmailTriage and first drafts of replies
- ./calendarCalendarScheduling and weekly planning
- ./marketingMarketingDrafts for my music and business projects
- ./booksBookkeepingBookkeeping and spreadsheets
- ./researchResearchFinding and summarising sources
- ./docsDocument reviewReviewing documents
- ./marketMarketplaceHunting marketplace listings
- ./slidesPresentationsPreparing presentation material
- ./webWebsitesBuilding websites, including drafts of this one
Code, tools and systems
I write some code, I have an interest in VR, and I use everyday systems like Microsoft Office, Clio, Teams, Zoom, WebEx and QuickBooks.
- coding
- VR
- Microsoft Office
- Clio
- Teams
- Zoom
- WebEx
- QuickBooks
05Teaching and speaking
Explaining complicated things plainly.
Teaching has run alongside my practice for most of my career. The common thread is explaining complicated things plainly, and helping people get better at their work.
I’ve worked with CPLED, Alberta’s bar admission program, as a contractor in these roles:
- Assessor
- Workshop facilitator
- Mentoring program practice manager
- Consultant for the creation of test questions in Civil Law
- 2001–2008Instructor, SAIT and Red Deer CollegeLitigation Law I and II, Credit and Collections, Personal Injury, Business Law
- 2005–2020Principal to articling studentsSupervising and mentoring new lawyers through articling
I’m available to speak to students, new lawyers and professional groups on topics drawn from my own years in practice and teaching.
06AI Transition Group
AI Transition Group
I founded AI Transition Group, a separate business that helps organisations adopt AI. It doesn’t provide legal services, and my work through it isn’t done in my capacity as a lawyer. Its focus is AI adoption together with the workforce transition that comes with it.
off_the_clock
07Beyond the law
Off the clock, I make trance.
I produce trance dance music as Norman Gordon. It’s a different kind of system to build: patient, layered, and put together one piece at a time.
For speaking, teaching, or a conversation about AI and the people side of change. Please don’t send confidential details.