BarTalk April 2001
Volume 13, Number 2

In the February issue of BarTalk we were pleased to offer a gift certificate for lunch for two at Bacchus. The catch was that members had to send us a note listing their favorite place to lunch and describing the benefits of lunching. We received quite a few entries and Danielle Bretton’s name was eventually drawn for the certificate. Congratulation to Ms. Bretton, and thanks again to Bacchus, for their generosity in donating a certificate to their much-loved establishment. As for the entries – we can’t keep these great recommendations to ourselves. Bon appetit!

Favourite Place
Bacchus (Wedgewood)

Favourite Table
45 (back corner)

Benefits of Lunching
To lunch – with your opponent – can only help narrow the issues and thereby promote the (worthy) cause of settlement.

To lunch - with a colleague (not necessarily on the other side of a pending trial) – is to foster camaraderie, build trust.

To lunch – with a partner or another lawyer from your own firm – is to promote unity and closeness.

In all cases, you take the heat off the pressures of the office for a happy hour or so - if you’ve remembered to turn your cell off.

Jack Aaron, QC, Aaron MacGregor Gordon & Daykin (Vancouver)

Favourite Place
Victoria Chinese Restaurant, 1088 Melville for dim sum

Benefits of Lunching
Networking and stress break

Andrew Lew, Westport Innovations Inc (Vancouver)

Benefits of Lunching
Of course, it can only help your relations with your fellow lawyers to have lunch together once in a while. Here in the Rocky Mountains, we have developed a fine tradition over the past two decades.

Supreme Court Judges visit about twice a year and Provincial Court Judges about twice a month. The local bar, the visiting Crown Counsel and all visiting lawyers, meet with the visiting Judge for lunch at our favourite Chinese food restaurant.

Yes, there are many client eyebrows raised by this behavior but in more than twenty years of this tradition, I have never had a lawyer or Judge complain.

Glen Ewan, QC, Ewan & McKenzie (Golden)

Favourite Place
My favorite is the dim sum lunch at Imperial Chinese Seafood House on Burrard in the Marine Building. The food is excellent, the view is beautiful, and you can get in and out quickly.

Benefits of Lunching
A professional lunch is obviously helpful in maintaining or establishing a good working relationship with someone but in addition, frequently new exciting ideas are generated and a wider network is established.

Barbara K Buchanan, Daishowa-Marubeni International Ltd (Vancouver)

Favourite Place
My favorite place to eat lunch is the office. I will explain. I practice in a building that was once an apartment complex. There remains a complete kitchen that the lawyers (six in the building) will from time to time use to make and eat lunch. We occasionally get quite carried away with the menu.

Benefits of Lunching
The chief advantage of lunching in the office is the opportunity to meet with colleagues in an informal setting where there is no chance that our discussions will be overheard. Meeting with colleagues to discuss the practice of law, exchange ideas; report on cases, refer clients, etc., are, in my view the main professional benefits to lunching with other lawyers.

Roger P Thirkell, Derksen Thirkell Lawyers (Abbotsford)

Favourite Place
The little cafe at the bottom of 808 Nelson, called the Monte Cristo cafe. They have homemade soups, lots of vegetarian stuff and sandwiches made to order. The owner and his wife greet me with a smile as we bow and say “namaste” - (hello in Hindi).

Benefits of Lunching
Is that we have the strength to go on! So many times lawyers neglect to eat or grab something unhealthy, and we have to have a chance to get out of the office/court for a change of scenery, let our bodies refuel in a peaceful setting to go on to continue to fight the good fight.

Danielle Bretton, Stevens Kale (Vancouver)

Benefits of Lunching
Meeting over lunch is a great way to meet a client on a casual basis and really get to understand the client’s business, and needs. Meeting at a restaurant represents a neutral place where full dialogue and conversation can be achieved.

Gil Korn (Vancouver)

This article was published in the April 2001 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2005, all rights reserved.